Prior to the pandemic, one in six children globally were not in a formal school setting, with overrepresentation from girls and young people experiencing poverty, living in rural areas, conflict zones, or with disabilities. The pandemic has exacerbated existing inequities, as two-thirds of the young learning population—1.3 billion people—do not have reliable access to the internet in their homes, hindering their participation in distance learning. Faced with the increasing economic uncertainty within their families, millions of young people are being pushed into child labor instead of returning to school. Put together, these factors mean that far too few young people between the ages of 5 and 18 are afforded the space, time, or resources to build foundational and durable skills. Nor do they have the ability to explore their academic, extracurricular, and creative passions, or meaningfully engage with their peers and communities. 

Technology-enabled innovations for teaching, learning, and assessment can help learners catch up on what they’ve been missing while building on individual strengths and gains. Student and teacher experiences vary widely in this pandemic schooling era, but across all demographics, the psycho-social wellbeing of young people has been severely impacted and educators are overwhelmed and overtaxed. In addition to mental health services, robust social-emotional learning will be key for learner re-engagement and helping students navigate their shifting academic, social, and familial landscapes.

The MIT Solve community is looking for eight technology-enabled solutions that help re-engage and meet the holistic needs of underserved learners between the ages of 5 and 18 so that they may thrive and succeed. To that end, Solve seeks solutions that:

• Enable and improve personalized learning and individualized instruction for learners who have experienced disruptions in schooling and missed foundational milestones.

• Facilitate meaningful social-emotional learning among underserved young people.

• Support timely and manageable assessments to help under-resourced communities better plan, monitor, and evaluate learning.

• Lift administrative burdens on educators and support professional development as they implement new approaches and navigate continued disruptions.

Special Call: Black & Brown Innovators in the US
Systemic racism and ongoing racial bias have severely limited access to good education for communities of color, resulting in marked disparities in learning outcomes. As part of Solve’s ongoing work on US racial equity, we will select 1-2 solutions from the US working to address these disparities for our Black & Brown Innovators Program.

Photo credit: The Ultimate Learning Accelerator (TULA)