A power cut, an overloaded network, a school closed by floods, a strike or an epidemic: sooner or later, classes stop. The real question is how learning continues on that day. The lessons of COVID-19 are clear: a good continuity plan does not rely on a single technology, but on several combined channels and on keeping the human connection alive.
What COVID-19 taught us
During the 2020 school closures, UNICEF estimated that at least a third of the world’s schoolchildren, 463 million children, could not be reached by remote learning, whether through the internet, television or radio. In West and Central Africa, the share was at least 48%, or 54 million pupils. Three-quarters of the children without access lived in rural areas.
In 2021, the World Bank took stock of this period. Its conclusion: remote learning only works when three elements come together, namely effective teaching, suitable technology and engaged learners. Having the technology is necessary but not sufficient. Many countries chose solutions that did not match what their teachers and students could actually use, which widened inequalities. The World Bank now advocates hybrid learning, combining in-person and remote teaching.
Start from realities on the ground
A continuity plan must be designed for real conditions, not ideal ones. According to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals Report 2025, more than half of primary schools in sub-Saharan Africa lack electricity and over two-thirds have no digital tools, based on 2023 data. For families, mobile internet access is growing but remains partial: we covered the figures in our article Selling Online Courses in French-Speaking Africa in 2026.
The consequence is simple: plan for several service levels. Well-connected students follow lessons and live classes online. Others receive the essentials through sturdier channels such as radio, text messages, phone calls or printed materials, then catch up on the rest when they get a signal again or return to school.
Radio, SMS and phone calls: simple channels with a track record
Educational radio
Sierra Leone developed its educational radio programme during the 2014-2016 Ebola epidemic and relaunched it in 2020. According to the World Bank, 43 radio teachers delivered 44 hours of lessons a week. Each one-hour session combined 30 minutes of teaching with 30 minutes of interaction by phone on a toll-free line. Content was also shared online, on paper and on television. Reported limits: scarce airtime, households without a radio, and difficulty measuring impact.
Text messages and phone calls
In Botswana, a randomised study published in 2022 in Nature Human Behaviour compared two approaches during school closures. Weekly text messages with maths problems, on their own, had no significant effect. Adding a weekly 15 to 20-minute phone call cut the share of pupils unable to do any numerical operation by 31%, at a cost of about 19 dollars per child. The message is clear: human contact makes the difference, not just the channel.
Building a resilient hybrid model
These experiences point to a few principles. Prepare short content, broken into self-contained sequences that can travel through several channels. Keep a fixed rhythm, with appointments everyone knows. Maintain regular contact with every student, even briefly. Watch closely for those who drop out. Finally, organise peer support, which is invaluable when teachers cannot be reached: we cover it in our article Peer Help at School: Making a Q&A Platform Work.
Checklist: your learning continuity plan
- Map what families actually have: basic phone or smartphone, radio, internet access, electricity.
- Define several service levels, from the most to the least connected.
- Prepare a bank of short lessons and quizzes for each level in advance.
- Plan lightweight versions: printable sheets, instructions by text message, radio scripts.
- Set a schedule of appointments: live classes, calls, broadcasts.
- Assign each teacher a group of students to contact every week.
- Track participation and quickly follow up with those who fall behind.
- Test the plan once a year, like a fire drill.
How SciAut Academy helps
SciAut Academy is the training platform of the SciAut Suite. It does not replace radio or the phone, but it provides the digital backbone of a hybrid model:
- Course studio: courses, lessons, quizzes and a question bank prepared in advance in a simple editor, usable in class and remotely.
- Cohorts: each learner group is tracked, which helps spot those who are dropping out.
- Live classes: scheduled sessions that provide a regular appointment when the connection allows.
- Badges and certificates: progress stays visible and recognised, even in disrupted periods.
- An academy in your colours: a learning space clearly identified as your institution’s.
For peer support, SciAut Q2A completes the set-up with a question-and-answer space and an alert as soon as someone replies.
In short
Learning continuity is prepared before the crisis: short content, several channels, regular human contact and follow-up for every student. Discover SciAut Academy or request a demo.
Sources
- COVID-19: At least a third of the world’s schoolchildren unable to access remote learning during school closures, UNICEF, 2020.
- Remote Learning During the Pandemic: Lessons from Today, Principles for Tomorrow, World Bank, 2021.
- The Sustainable Development Goals Report 2025: Goal 4, United Nations, 2025.
- School hits the airwaves: Sierra Leone turns to education radio as a response to COVID-19, World Bank, 2021.
- Experimental evidence on learning using low-tech when school is out, N. Angrist, P. Bergman and M. Matsheng, Nature Human Behaviour, 2022.
