Learning at the Last Mile: Evidence from a Randomized Controlled Trial of Computer-Assisted Instruction in Remote Schools of the Philippines

Although Asian economies have increased access to education, students’ learning often trails grade level expectations. In the Philippines, learning worsened through prolonged classroom closure during the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic. Together with the Department of Education, we conducted a 42-school randomized controlled trial of computer-assisted instruction in remote areas of the country. The tested intervention consisted of digitized learning modules deployed on tablets that connected to school local Wi-Fi networks for junior high school students. The tablets were the main source of instruction for 2.5 months before schools reopened, after which they served as a supplement to, rather than a replacement for, in-person instruction. We find that the intervention increased student learning in mathematics, but not in English. For mathematics, we estimate intent-to-treat effects of 0.34 standard deviations of the distribution of test scores and average treatment-on-the-treated effects of 0.46 standard deviations for schools that ever used the digitized materials. Students with higher levels of “grit” at baseline benefit more from the intervention, as do those who have higher baseline test scores. The mathematics treatment-on-the-treated effect for schools that continued usage for a second year is 1.6 standard deviations, suggesting that those schools drove the observed impacts.