As its response to pandemic-induced teaching and learning gaps in northern Nigeria, TEP Centre designed a low-tech remedial learning solution for foundational literacy and numeracy, Zo Mu Koya. Koya designed targeted SMS-delivered learning activities drawn from a customised syllabus and was delivered via basic feature phones and supplementary instructional workbooks.

The Koya curriculum was purposively adapted from TEP Centre’s LEARNigeria Remedial Programme (LRP). The LRP is a learning intervention which develops and delivers activities for differentiated learning in order to build foundational literacy and numeracy skills of young learners. The LRP curriculum is a schedule of carefully curated teaching activities where learners are actively engaged in participatory learning schemes, using local learning aids such as paper cut-outs, bottle tops, sticks, and other locally sourced learning materials. This curriculum was modified for Koya’s instructional SMS-based approach. An average of three SMSs – each featuring curated learning activities – was scheduled per learning skill, indicating the specific lesson objective for each week.

The programme recorded a 6 to 15% increase in learning outcomes. These positive learning outcomes corroborate the fact that the Koya methodology is credible. It also provides evidence that home-based learning, using low-tech solutions should be explored and scaled to provide educational support for improving learning outcomes.