Impact of Catch-up Clubs in Conflict-Affected Myanmar: A Community-Led Remedial Learning Model

Abstract

Myanmar faces a protracted learning crisis where the COVID-19 pandemic was compounded by a coup in February 2021, which furthered school closures. Save the Children created Catch-up Clubs (CuCs) to support children’s remedial learning in a matter of weeks and address barriers to children’s successful return to school in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. An innovative model that offers community-led, play-based literacy instruction to children grouped by ability, not age, CuCs assess children’s foundational literacy and Social and Emotional Learning (SEL), while addressing child protection and economic barriers to education. CuCs were piloted with over 3000 children in upper primary to lower secondary grades across 36 communities in the conflict-affected states of Rakhine and Kayin in Myanmar. This quasi-natural experimental impact evaluation investigated the cause-and-effect relationship between CuCs and children's literacy outcomes and SEL competencies. The study was contextually adapted to consider children affected by conflict, gender, socioeconomic status, and ethnicity. The results show that children who participated in CuCs had significantly higher literacy level and SEL competency than children who did not participate. Children participating in CuCs also showed greater self-confidence and educational aspirations to remain in education or continue their schooling to a higher level.