Chad is working to create its first digital educational platform for learning in crisis

In Chad, as in most other countries, the COVID-19 pandemic has led to school closures with significant consequences such as mass drop-out of pupils. To build a resilient education system, the authorities decided to develop condensed and digitized teaching and learning materials for learners and teachers for each level and cycle to cope with any crises that may arise. These programs are designed for children in particularly difficult situations: conflict zones, refugees and internally displaced persons, people with disabilities, etc., thus ensuring the fundamental right to education for all.

These condensed curricula enable them to receive primary education, facilitate their reintegration into the normal learning circuit, and help them catch up with the school curriculum. They are designed to be delivered both online and offline.

The first digital platform is designed to contain all the educational resources needed for distance learning: https://ecole.cnc.td/. This digital tool is available in Chad's two national languages - French and Arabic. The platform is in constant development and sees improvements daily.

UNESCO-IBE is contributing to the construction of the platform, which can be accessed both online and offline, to house primary school curricula specifically designed for distance learning, with a pedagogy adapted to this type of teaching. A techno-pedagogical guide to support teachers using these new exceptional online and distance learning programs will complete the UNESCO-IBE offer.

During the workshop held in N'Djamena on 26 and 27 October 2023 to review the platform for digitizing condensed programs for children living in particular situations, a team of national experts dedicated to digitizing programs was trained in the creation, management, and use of online digital resources, as well as in digital engineering and pedagogy. The team, which has received appropriate training, will accompany skilled engineers with the technical support of international experts and monitor the platforms and resources created.

"[With the digital platform] Chad is already very advanced in this field in Africa, and I hope that in the future, other countries will take Chad's experience as an example," said the Director General of the National Curricula Center, Dr. Ali Kore.

UNESCO-IBE has supported the Ministry of National Education and Civic Promotion (MENPC) in implementing the Project to Strengthen Education and Literacy in Chad (PREAT) since March 2021.

Find out also about UNECO-BIE's flagship hybrid education initiative "HELA" (Hybrid Education Learning & Assessment), which aims to guide countries to identify, develop, test, evaluate, demonstrate, and scale the most effective modes of education based on evidence of integrating and combining face-to-face and distance education.