The Philippines
Our work in The Philippines
Since 2022 Youth Impact has worked with partners in the Philippines to deliver targeted foundational education programming; both in-school through TaRL and remotely through mEducation, the local name for the ConnectEd program.
6,000 students
21 school division offices
550 teachers trained
Context
Students in the Philippines scored second-lowest out of 79 countries in the 2018 PISA mathematics assessment. The effect of the COVID-19 pandemic was particularly severe in the Philippines, where schools were closed for over two years, exacerbating the learning crisis. In addition to the pandemic, the Philippines is a context where disruption risk is common, with the country ranking first among 193 in the 2022 disaster risk global index. Students in the Philippines are at risk of disrupted education from events such as cyclones, typhoons, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, tsunamis, droughts and conflict. These events emphasize the need to prioritize access to quality education in emergency situations.
The interventions
mEducation is the local name for ConnectEd: a phone-based tutoring program that delivers targeted instruction and foundational maths and literacy lessons. Designed for low-connectivity settings, it boosts learning using a basic mobile phone, with no internet and no apps required.
Visit IPA's mEducation webpage
Teaching at the Right Level (TaRL) improves foundational numeracy and literacy outcomes in primary school children. Instead of grouping students by age or grade, TaRL uses fun techniques to teach them at the level they are currently at, ensuring every child gets the instruction they need to succeed.
Spotlight
Youth Impact and Innovations for Poverty Action (IPA) have built a strong collaboration in the Philippines. After Youth Impact developed and tested ConnectEd in Botswana, IPA Philippines led a successful local replication of the program in the Philippines as part of a 5-country randomized trial. The program was co-developed for the Filipino context, and the localized name "mEducation" was created. Today, both organizations implement and continue to optimize mEducation across different School Division Offices. Together with the Department of Education, Youth Impact and IPA are formalizing this fruitful collaboration through a tripartite Memorandum of Understanding.
Government partnership
Following the successful conclusion of a multi-country RCT led in the Philippines by IPA, the Philippines Department of Education (DepEd) sustained delivery of mEducation, expanding to nearly 240 schools and confirming impacts on reducing innumeracy. In 2024, DepEd piloted Teaching at the Right Level in eight schools, showing strong improvements in foundational numeracy. Building on these results, the Philippines government has expressed strong interest in partnering to deliver mEducation and TaRL nationwide, with over 15 schools division offices signing letters of intent, regional and division offices committing resources, and a memorandum of agreement with the national government underway.
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