How the COVID-19 shutdown revealed the effectiveness of a northern Nigerian educational media program

ABSTRACT A team of researchers were investigating the impact of a Nigerian adaptation of Akili and Me when the COVID−19 pandemic struck. Schools shut down, interrupting the study’s quasi-experimental intervention design. Post-school reopening, researchers recontacted 363 children (mean age = 5.1, SD = 1.1 years) who had provided data at baseline and had completed the intervention. The analyses revealed that during the shutdown, participating children watched Akili and Me, beyond the exposure experienced through the study intervention. Across viewing groups and including the control group, researchers found the children knew the program’s characters using a program receptivity score. The researchers found no differences associated with study’s initial group assignments. Those children who could name more Akili and Me characters performed significantly better on the outcomes of literacy, numeracy, shape, socio-emotional development, controlling for sex, age, baseline score, and group assignment. This study offers promising evidence that locally-produced educational media interventions can impact early learning skills, especially during a crisis when children rely on educational media for home learning. IMPACT SUMMARY Prior State of Knowledge Previous research conducted in low- and middle-income countries offers evidence that when exposed to educational and entertaining media, young children show significant albeit small improvements in their knowledge and skills related to literacy, numeracy, socio-emotional development, and health and hygiene. Novel Contributions Our original plan was to examine learning from media through a school-based study. In Nigeria, the government shutdown schools because of COVID−19; we used this interruption as an opportunity to capture children’s exposure to and impact of home-based viewing of educational media. Practical Implications Educational programs offering culturally-relevant content can affect preschool children’s learning of content and skills. If school interruptions happen because of manmade or natural disasters, governments can disseminate quality educational programming to enhance children’s learning while at home.