Building out-of-school Syrian refugee children’s foundational literacy and psychosocial wellbeing through gaming apps
The Grand Challenge
A generation deprived of education opportunities and at risk of psychosocial trauma
Years of conflict in Syria has uprooted millions of people, hampering children’s access to education. More than 3.5 million refugee children were unable to attend a single day of school in 2016, and those who did attend often faced learning difficulties due to long-term stress as well as the use of educational materials in languages they don’t use or understand. A lack of basic literacy and numeracy skills among young people significantly decreases their educational progress and economic opportunities.
The Big Idea
Arabic literacy apps that address education lapses and psychosocial stress
The EduApp4Syria competition sought the development of smartphone apps that could build foundational literacy skills in Arabic and improve psychosocial well-being for Syrian refugee children who are out of or struggling in school. The prize—funded by the Norwegian government and coordinated by the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (Norad) in cooperation with the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), All Children Reading: A Grand Challenge for Development, mobile operator Orange, and the Inter-Agency Network for Education in Emergencies (INEE)—funded two gaming apps now available for free download on Google Play and the App Store.
Prize Partners
The ACR GCD Founding Partners thank the following organizations for their collaboration on this competition.
Antura and the Letters app builds foundational literacy skills in Arabic and improves psychosocial well-being for Syrian children who are out of school or struggling in school.
Improving parent-school and parent-child relationships through the development of relevant reading materials for students and teaching aids for parents and educators
Improving first and second language reading skills of ethnic minority primary school children by supplying teachers and students with early grade, bilingual educational materials
Increasing the availability of culturally-responsive and context-relevant multilingual education materials in mother tongue languages for primary schools in Bandarban District, Bangladesh
Creating and distributing children-authored books in Creole to address the shortage of Creole reading materials and to foster a love of reading in children
Increasing the reading achievement levels of young learners through implementation of research-based, context-relevant literacy curricula and materials
Creating high-quality, mother-tongue materials through LubutoLiteracy, a low-cost digital platform that used local teachers to build lessons in seven languages
Using easy, computer-based instruction for literacy learning in primary schools, Bridges to the Future - South Africa, to help students hear, identify and manipulate phonemes
Utilizing a phonic and syllabic approach to reading in their mother tongue, Enlightening the Hearts Literacy Campaign accelerates students’ ability to develop a second language
Using the School Basic e-Learning Libraries (BeLLs), Ghana Reads introduces educational content for students and teachers to address the lack of high quality reading materials
Improving reading skills of children with special needs using by providing teaching and learning materials and assessment tools to teachers and resources and training for families
Conducting ‘Learn to Read, Read to Learn’ workshops to assist teachers in using innovative and digital learning materials and to help children improve their oral reading fluency
Influencing the Armenian education system by developing and testing a set of informal literacy assessments to better inform future literacy instruction
Using an early grade reading instruction curriculum (EGRIC), in print and electronic format, to provide teachers with high quality reading instruction materials and resources in English and Kiswahili
Developing reading benchmarks for new reading curriculum and a rapid reading response system (including the first literacy app in Khmer), to address reading difficulties for children in Cambodia
Learning becomes an adventure with Antura, the fun-loving dog. Catch English letters hidden around the world, while solving puzzles and earning gifts. Available on Android, iOS and Windows.
The Grand Challenge is concluding 12 years of funding and testing innovative EdTech solutions and approaches to increase reading outcomes for marginalized children in low-resource contexts
The app, funded through the EduApp4Syria Prize, was nominated for and received awards celebrating innovation and achievements in the development process