Tablet-Based Learning for Refugee Children

Of the world’s 43.3 million refugee children today, just 50% have access to formal education. This staggering gap is the result of a complex web of barriers including a scarcity of physical school facilities, a shortage of qualified teachers, pervasive language barriers, legal restrictions on refugees' rights to public education systems, and significant interruptions in students' educational journeys. Those that are in school face practical challenges of overcrowding and under-resourcing, with the vast majority of refugee children not attaining basic foundational learning skills.

Foundational learning – literacy, numeracy and socio-emotional skills – provides the building blocks for all other learning and is crucial in enabling children to reach their full potential and contribute to inclusive, equitable and prosperous societies. Our program provides a rigorously tested and massively scalable solution that provides refugee learners with the foundational learning skills they need to thrive. 

Imagine Worldwide partners with local refugee-led organizations (RLOs) to implement tablet learning programs in refugee-run, non-formal schools. Through in-school and after-school tablet programs, we aim to (1) increase the quality of existing camp-based education and (2) offer learning opportunities to out-of-school refugee children. 

By leveraging tablet-based learning we offer high-quality, inclusive educational content that can adapt to the unique contexts, learning needs, and languages of refugee children. Factors contributing to the refugee education crisis that our solution directly addresses include:

• Shortage of Qualified Teachers and Learning Resources: Our educational content is high-quality, evidence-based, and proven to work even in overcrowded classrooms. 

• Lack of Accessible Education Facilities: Our tablet program is offline and off-grid, eliminating the need for traditional school settings, grid power, or internet connectivity.

Educational Disruptions and Language Barriers: Our adaptive and multilingual software offers personalized content that can overcome the barriers of language and curriculum, enabling children to catch up and keep up with their education.

We believe child-directed, tech-enabled learning can deliver foundational literacy and numeracy skills to millions of refugee children — increasing their educational opportunities and improving their health, wealth, and social outcomes. 

In our edtech solution: 

• Learners use tablets that work in any setting, do not require internet connectivity, and are charged via solar power. 

• Software partners provide research-based pedagogy and a full literacy/numeracy curriculum that is adaptive and appropriate for the local context. 

• Children drive their own learning at their own pace in their preferred language while local partners train adults to play facilitative roles. 

• Local refugee-led implementation partners co-design and co-finance the program, ensuring community ownership and long-term sustainability. 

Imagine currently works in seven countries serving hundreds of thousands of children in public schools across Sub-Saharan Africa. During the 2023 Global Refugee Forum, Imagine pledged to expand programs for refugee learners, piloting an implementation model that provides a scalable and sustainable way to work in refugee settings. This model was developed through a series of workshops and feedback sessions with refugee advisors from across Africa and the Middle East and with representatives from our existing refugee partners in Malawi’s Dzaleka Refugee Camp, where together we currently serve over 2,000 refugee children per day. 

In our implementation model, Imagine partners with RLOs that run non-formal schools in refugee settings, leveraging their existing infrastructure to support the tablet program. To ensure the scalability and sustainability of our programs, we adopt a co-financing model where Imagine and partner RLOs share financial responsibilities. Through private philanthropy, Imagine provides catalytic startup capital for tablet and solar infrastructure. In turn, RLO partners provide learning space and facilitators, and through existing income-generating activities, coverage of small long-term program maintenance costs. 

The impact and outcomes of Imagine Worldwide's programs are backed by robust evidence. Our solution stands out for its rigorous testing and consistently demonstrated significant learning gains across 9+ Randomized Controlled Trials (RCTs). In addition to learning gains, our programs have shown tangible improvements in attendance, confidence, behavior, and attitudes towards learning, with both girls and boys benefiting equally. 

Imagine's tablet-based learning programs represent a scalable and sustainable solution to address the education challenges faced by the world’s most marginalized learners. By combining innovative technology with community-driven approaches, we aim to empower refugee learners with the knowledge and skills they need to thrive in a rapidly changing world. The MIT Solve Challenge will allow us to provide tablet-based learning to thousands more refugee children per year by supporting us in refining our implementation model, growing our networks, redefining our business model, and supporting one-time investment in the model’s technology needs. 

Our solution specifically serves refugee children, a group that represents some of the most educationally marginalized populations worldwide. According to UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, there are over 43 million refugee children of school age globally, with a significant portion residing in Africa. These children face extraordinary challenges. On average, a refugee's displacement lasts more than 20 years, encompassing their entire childhood and critical formative years. During their time in displacement, only about 50% of refugee children have access to primary education compared to a global average of more than 90%. 

The expansion of our solution is inspired by years of successful partnerships with RLOs in Malawi’s Dzaleka Refugee Camp, where over 15,000 school-aged children do not currently have access to formal education. In partnership with refugee-led Holistic Focus for the Marginalized (HFM) and Salama Africa, over 2,000 refugee children in Dzaleka currently access tablet learning on a daily basis. Imagine has conducted RCTs in two refugee settings (Malawi and Tanzania) both demonstrating significant learning gains for refugee children enrolled in the tablet program. Since our initiation of work in refugee camps in 2018, we have found our programs well-suited to address the unique learning needs and contextual challenges of refugee children. 

Research has shown that basic literacy and numeracy improve children’s health, wealth, and social outcomes — benefits that extend to future generations. Education for refugee children is not just about literacy and numeracy; it offers stability, hope, and the opportunity to rebuild a sense of community and identity. Educated children are better equipped to face challenges, advocate for themselves and their communities, and build a brighter future. 

Our solution aims to impact the lives of refugee children and their communities by: 

• Improving Literacy and Numeracy: Directly addressing the educational deficit by providing foundational learning skills.

• Fostering Emotional and Social Well-being: Through structured learning activities that promote problem-solving, self-direction, and resilience.

• Enhancing Future Opportunities: By equipping them with the skills prerequisite for any type of further learning and educational success. 

• Empowering Communities: By training local partners and investing in local infrastructure, we help strengthen the entire community, making it more self-reliant, resilient, and prepared for future innovation. 

Imagine Worldwide's approach to solving the education crisis among refugee children is deeply rooted in collaboration and partnership with those who are most familiar with the challenges and opportunities of their communities: Refugee-Led Organizations (RLOs). Our work in refugee settings is led by a dedicated Director of Refugee Programs, who has worked in collaboration with RLOs in refugee settings across Sub-Saharan Africa for almost a decade. 

We believe in proximate leadership and diversity. Over 60% of our staff is African, 70% are people of color, and our board is majority African with deep expertise in innovation and edtech and an unwavering commitment to improving education in Africa. 

Over a series of interactive workshops and feedback sessions, the model to expand our work in refugee settings was co-designed by our existing RLO partners and a network of refugee advisors from across Africa and the Middle East. In addition to a dedicated co-design phase for each new partnership, we also include regular and in-depth engagement among various local stakeholders including teachers, parent associations, and community education authorities, who all play collaborative roles to meet the program's expectations. Our current RLO partners will play a critical role in the expansion of our model, serving as mentors to new partners and helping to coordinate the first Community of Practice for edtech work in refugee settings.

Our tablet-based learning technology has undergone rigorous testing (9+ RCTs) and in partnership with governments and implementation partners, has been deployed in hundreds of schools throughout Africa reaching over 300,000 children now and over 1mm children by 2025. These experiences have provided a multitude of lessons learned and opportunities to iterate and improve. 

In refugee settings, we have served almost 10,000 children across sites in Tanzania, Malawi and Bangladesh. We have done our most extensive learning from our sites in Malawi’s Dzaleka Refugee Camp, where we partner with two RLOs currently serving over 2,000 learners on a daily basis. These pilots in Dzaleka Camp have served as a crucial testing ground, allowing us to gather evidence of impact and refine the sustainability and scalability of our approach. The success of our partnerships with RLOs in Dzaleka, combined with the broader accomplishments of our technology outside the refugee context, position us in the "Growth" stage. We are now equipped with a proven, scalable model that holds the promise of transforming educational access and quality for refugee children across multiple communities and countries.

We are applying to Solve because we recognize that the issue of refugee education is solvable, if the right actors come together to collaborate. We believe that by leveraging the collective expertise and thought partnerships offered by Solve, we can refine and enhance our model to maximize its effectiveness in addressing this challenge. We also believe that we have lessons learned from our work in partnership with RLOs that could benefit other Solvers in their transitions to more effectively partner with and empower local actors. 

Part of our mission is to establish a community of practice among RLOs in edtech. Through Solve, we hope to learn from existing communities of practice and adapt their structures to fit the unique context of RLOs and refugee settings. We are  particularly eager to tap into Solve's network of refugee advisors and experts through the MIT REaCT program, as well as engage with refugee coders who have participated in the MIT Code Bootcamps. 

Financially, we are eager to utilize Solve for increasing our fundraising networks and for business model development to eventually move away from donor reliance. We see Solve as a crucial platform for catalyzing innovation, forging partnerships, and advancing our mission to ensure quality education for all refugee children.

Our solution stands out for its innovative approach to education in refugee settings, backed by robust data and designed for the most challenging environments. 

Evidence-backed: Globally, only 7% of edtech tools have demonstrated impact, yet our program's effectiveness is supported by rigorous testing, including 9+ randomized controlled trials (RCTs) all showing consistent evidence of significant learning gains. 

Offline and offgrid: Our technology is uniquely engineered to overcome infrastructural barriers that often exclude the most marginalized children. Unlike many edtech solutions that depend on internet connectivity and stable power sources, our program operates entirely offline and off-grid. 

Affordability: Our upfront infrastructure cost and ongoing operational and equipment replacement costs are less than $8/child/year and declinig, significantly lower than similar foundational learning programs (edtech or traditional learning) in the region. A Founders Pledge analysis found that our model is among the most cost-effective across all global development interventions.

Local partnerships: Our implementation model, co-designed and co-financed with refugee-led organizations (RLOs), represents a significant innovation in fostering scalable, sustainable, community-driven solutions. Only a fraction of humanitarian aid goes directly to local responders, yet evidence from the Global Refugee-led Network suggests that initiatives led by refugees themselves are significantly more effective, sustainable, and empowering. While protracted refugee situations can last decades, refugee education is largely financed from emergency funds, leaving little room for long-term planning. By Imagine covering the startup costs for the solar and tablet technology and the RLO partners covering the ongoing recurring costs of implementation support and maintenance costs, we ensure long-term sustainability and community ownership. 

Scalability: The massive scalability of our program is a pivotal aspect of its innovation. It works in any environment, is affordable, and can be sustained by RLOs. It is designed to overcome the systemic barriers that have historically prevented widespread adoption of education technology in the developing world. This adaptability ensures that it is not just a temporary intervention but a sustainable model capable of transforming educational landscapes across the globe, making quality education accessible to the most remote and underserved communities.

Imagine Worldwide  aims to enhance educational access and outcomes for refugee children through the deployment of tablet-based learning in collaboration with RLOs. Here are a few key components of our theory of change: 

Activities: We distribute tablets loaded with educational software to refugee children. We train RLO partners to implement and sustain the tablet program during the first year of implementation. Each learner spends 150-300 minutes on the software each week. 

Immediate Outputs: The provision of these tablets directly increases educational resource access for refugee children, catalyzing an immediate increase in availability of quality content and learning engagement. Multiple studies of our model have shown a spectrum of secondary benefits of our solution for students, including higher attendance, work effort, and confidence as learners. 

Longer-term Outcomes: Consistent tablet usage over time will result in significant improvements in literacy and numeracy, validated by 9+ randomized controlled trials (RCTs). These studies, spanning various countries, languages, and durations, reveal literacy effect sizes up to 0.37 and numeracy effect sizes up to 0.54 after 13 months. Notably, the tablet program propelled at least 50% more children to emergent or fluent reading status compared to control groups.  Basic reading and math skills are the building blocks for all other learning — they also improve a child’s long-term health, wealth, and every other part of their lives and  benefit future generations too. 

This theory of change illustrates a clear pathway from the deployment of technology to substantial educational gains. By providing durable, scalable solutions to learning barriers in refugee contexts, our approach not only advances individual learning outcomes but also supports systemic change in educational access and quality for some of the world's most underserved children.

Our impact goals revolve around four core areas: enhancing access to quality education, ensuring measurable learning gains, empowering communities through partnership, and fostering continuous improvement. Our indicators are aligned with relevant UN Sustainable Development Goals, particularly those related to quality education (SDG 4), reduced inequalities (SDG 10), and partnerships for the goals (SDG 17). 

Access to education: Our goal is to drastically increase high quality educational access for refugee children. We measure this through the number of refugee children enrolled in the tablet program each year, tracking both informally schooled and out-of-school children benefiting from the tablets. 

Learning gains: We aim for significant improvements in literacy and numeracy among tablet learners. Progress is tracked using the tablet software’s adaptive onetest which measures literacy and numeracy proficiency levels over time. 

Community empowerment: By partnering with RLOs, we seek to bolster community engagement and empowerment. Indicators include the number of RLO partners able to graduate to independent implementation of the program, the degree of community involvement in program implementation, and feedback from communities on the program's impact.

Continuous improvement: Our comprehensive learning system encompasses regular program monitoring as well as implementation research, targeted research, and annual measurement of learning gains, all of which inform iterative improvement of implementation practices and the software itself.  We aim to continually improve our program by adjusting technology and implementation methods with each cohort of new partnerships.

Our solution utilizes award-winning software on low-cost durable hardware powered by solar. 

Software: Our solution utilizes onebillion’s award-winning adaptive software onecouse. The software is designed to work entirely offline, addressing the connectivity challenges often faced in remote and under-resourced areas, including refugee camps. The curriculum embedded within the software covers critical early-grade reading and math skills, developed in collaboration with educational experts to align with local curricula where possible and to be culturally relevant. This technology is underpinned by a sophisticated adaptive learning algorithm, which personalizes the content for each learner based on their specific needs. The software is currently available in English, Swahili, Chichiewa, Portuguese and French - covering a vast array of languages spoken in refugee camps and host countries in Sub-Saharan Africa. 

Hardware: Our tablets are durable, low-cost, user-friendly and are equipped with screen protectors, bumpers, headsets, and charging cables. These hardware components have been rigorously iterated upon to enhance their durability, extend battery life, and reduce susceptibility to damage. They are designed to be repairable with simple tools and materials that can be found locally, minimizing downtime and extending the overall lifecycle of the equipment. 

Solar: The tablets in our solution are powered by small, easily transported solar units, enabling their use in remote environments without any access to grid electricity. This sustainable energy solution not only makes our educational technology accessible to the most marginalized communities but also introduces renewable energy into these areas, spurring broader community innovation and readiness for future development.

There are 20 total staff at Imagine. There are two full-time staff (Head of Business Development and Director of Refugee Programs) that work on the refugee program specifically.

8 years

We believe in proximate leadership and diversity. Over 60% of our staff is African, 70% are people of color, and our board is majority African with deep expertise in innovation and edtech and an unwavering commitment to improving education in Africa. Our strategy and programs are directed by our team in Africa who live closest to the communities we serve. We forge partnerships with refugee-led organizations (RLOs) and local communities for implementation, ensuring our work is continuously informed by local refugee advisors, expertise and perspectives. This approach not only enriches our team's diversity but also enhances our program's relevance and effectiveness, aligning closely with MIT Solve's dedication to diversity, equity, and inclusion.

Our business model revolves around partnerships with RLOs to co-finance sustainable education solutions for refugee communities, deviating from the conventional reliance on emergency funding, which often constrains long-term planning in refugee education. Through collaboration with RLOs, our initiatives are tailored for sustainability and enduring impact.

We utilize private philanthropy to cover the initial costs of technology infrastructure, including solar units and tablets, as well as the essential training needed to launch the tablet-based learning programs. These startup costs, averaging about $15 per learner, are notably low for this sector. Following this initial investment, our RLO partners assume responsibility for ongoing costs such as implementation support, including learning space, facilitators, and technology maintenance, estimated at $6 per student per year. This model facilitates the integration of our educational solutions into existing RLO programs, leveraging their infrastructure and education budgets to ensure sustainability without their additional fundraising or donor dependence. 

This business model offers significant value by making high-quality, evidence-based education accessible and scalable while fostering financial sustainability and ownership for RLO partners. It not only enhances their capacity to deliver impactful education but also ensures uninterrupted learning opportunities for decades, extending beyond the limitations of traditional emergency response approaches.

Part of our motivation for applying to MIT Solve is to seek assistance with our business model and garner expertise on achieving full sustainability. By exploring avenues to generate funds and revenue independently, we aim to alleviate reliance on donors for the initial technology infrastructure investment and unlock the ability to scale robustly and independently.

Our current approach to achieving our mission relies on catalytic funding from private philanthropy, specifically aimed at covering the one-time startup costs of technology and solar infrastructure. Recognizing the importance of financial sustainability for robust scale, we are actively exploring innovative revenue streams. 

A critical component of our strategy for financial independence involves leveraging the network and expertise available through platforms like Solve. Engaging with Solve's community of business leaders and innovators presents a unique opportunity to refine our business model and explore sustainable funding mechanisms. While our journey towards financial sustainability is ongoing, our initial success with private philanthropy—for instance, we have raised private philanthropic capital for scaling our program to 1,000 government schools in Malawi by 2025—has laid a strong foundation. Our participation in Solve is a strategic step towards accessing the insights and guidance necessary to transition to a self-sustaining model, ensuring the long-term viability of our mission to provide education to millions of world’s most marginalized learners.