mEducation Scale-up in the Philippines

The Philippine basic education system has been facing many challenges, particularly in the quality of education and poor learning outcomes. Recent large-scale assessments revealed that Filipino learners rank among the lowest in literacy and numeracy (PISA, 2018; SEA-PLM 2019). In addition, adverse climate outcomes have frequently led to school closures, putting children out of school and disrupting education (World Risk Report, 2023). IPA partnered with DepEd and Youth Impact to implement a phone-based education program, called mEducation, that delivers weekly SMS messages and phone calls to provide targeted instruction to learners in Grades 3 and 4. Results in the Philippines showed strong evidence of learning gains across all operations (0.45 standard deviations). With only three hours of targeted tutoring, the program produced 3.4 Learning Adjusted School Years per $100, making it one of the most cost-effective education interventions to be studied (Angrist, et al., 2020).
Researchers aim to continue supporting DepEd to test, adapt, and scale mEducation as a cost-effective supplemental learning intervention to improve numeracy that can be delivered after school and even during school interruptions.