Delivering Remote Learning Using a Low-Tech Solution: Evidence from a Randomized Controlled Trial in Bangladesh

The COVID-19 pandemic caused prolonged school closures worldwide, disproportionately affecting children in resource-poor settings. To address this, we implemented an educational intervention delivering audio lessons via mobile phones, employing interactive voice response (IVR) technology. Our randomized intervention involved 1,763 primary school children across 90 villages in Bangladesh during the 2021 COVID-19 school closures. The intervention improved literacy and numeracy test scores by 0.60 SD, particularly benefiting academically weaker students and those with less educated caregivers. Our results highlight the potential of this scalable and low-cost intervention to address learning deficits among marginalized students in similar contexts.