Supporting Learning and Well-Being Throughout and Beyond the COVID-19 Pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic tested the resilience1 of education systems globally to respond to a significant and far-reaching shock turned long-term stressor. It became increasingly difficult for education systems in both the Global North and South to maintain student learning and well-being outcomes terms throughout extended disruptions to learning continuity. In many cases, the weaknesses of systems were revealed regarding their lack of preparedness for such a wide-scale emergency. Both the return to learning process and a system’s capacities to address learning and well-being loss remain challenged in many contexts, and global concern remains about the long-term impacts of the pandemic in terms of educational access, equity, and inclusion.

Since the start of the pandemic, USAID’s investments have sought to build more resilient, equitable education systems with the capacity to better manage future shocks and prevent development backsliding. This has been done by supporting action in six priority areas:

1. Partnering with Ministries to safely and responsibly re-open schools.
2. Utilizing distance learning platforms.
3. Providing psychosocial support and access to protection services.
4. Building emergency preparedness and response capacity.
5. Institutionalizing remedial and accelerated education.
6. Engaging youth and higher education as leaders.

As part of this, the Center for Education, alongside other actors, has produced a range of tools and guidance to support action across these areas. It has also prioritized generating knowledge and evidence of what has both supported the safe return to learning and strengthened education sector resilience, building on a white paper, which USAID commissioned in 2019 to outline how resilience- focused programming should function and operate within education systems.

This good practice brief highlights common features of effective COVID-19 educational responses that supported the immediate needs of learners, households, school, communities, and institutions affected by the pandemic. Beyond this, it reveals some key lessons to be learned in terms of preparedness, response, and recovery efforts to educational disruption, including how this evidence provides greater insight into how education systems resilience is both demonstrated, but also can be enhanced during and beyond a crisis. Specifically, it captures key learnings from the extensive work carried out in 2022 to the research questions below:

1. To what degree and how have globally produced resources, tools, and guidance to support COVID-19 responses2 shaped the actions of USAID Missions and partners, and what does this suggest about the utility, relevance, and appropriateness of these materials?
2. Within USAID’s six priority areas for COVID-19 response, what are examples of promising practices to mitigate learning loss and/or sustain learning outcomes?
3. What have been some of the common enablers and barriers to mitigating learning loss and maintaining learning outcomes?
4. How are lessons learned through these responses informing and/or being embedded within longer-term education programming in the context?

The specific methodology employed to explore each of these questions is described in Annex B.

USAID Center for Education staff should use this brief to consider the forms of guidance, support, and knowledge exchange required moving forward, and for USAID Missions and Bureaus to better understand how to design, support, and monitor interventions that support preparedness, response, and recovery efforts to current and future shocks and stressors on education systems. For USAID’s implementing partners, this brief provides useful considerations for how to (re)program activities and actions in a way that put the needs of learners at the fore, while rethinking “business as usual” approaches in a more sustainable fashion. Ultimately, while the pandemic has and will continue to have ongoing impacts on learners, communities, and educational institutions, it also provides an opportunity to learn, adapt, and transform actions moving forward.