Peer-reviewed article
Teachers’ well-being, home learning environment and children learning outcomes in emergencies: a case of Afghanistan
Conrad Murendo, Zahra Azemi, Than Zaw Oo, Silvia Mila Arlini, Men Chanbona et al. ·
Summary
Written by AI, not yet AICS's view · claude-haiku-4-5-20251001This study examined how teachers' well-being and home learning environments affect children's learning in Afghanistan during humanitarian crises. Researchers surveyed over 1,400 children, 1,400 parents, and 315 teachers across seven provinces. The findings show that teachers' professional development, access to teaching materials, and safe home environments significantly improve children's literacy, numeracy, and social-emotional skills.
Key points
- Children taught by teachers with professional development support were 3.19 times more likely to achieve higher literacy and 4.0 times more likely to achieve higher numeracy
- Children with access to adequate teaching and learning materials were 1.60 times more likely to achieve higher literacy and 1.83 times more likely to achieve higher numeracy
- Children experiencing violent home learning environments had lower odds of achieving higher literacy, numeracy, and social-emotional learning competencies
- Children whose parents actively helped with learning were 1.85 times more likely to have higher literacy and 1.94 times more likely to have higher numeracy
- Teachers with voice and ability to be consulted by school management had students with higher social-emotional learning competencies
Limitations
The study was a cross-sectional endline survey without a baseline or control group, so it cannot establish causality or determine if observed associations reflect the direction of influence. The document does not provide details on effect sizes for all outcomes or discuss potential confounding variables.
Abstract
Teachers’ well-being and a conducive home learning environment play a pivotal role in improving children learning outcomes, but little is known about this in a humanitarian setting. This article assesses the role of teachers’ well-being and home learning environment on children learning outcomes in Afghanistan. A cross section endline survey was conducted among 1407 primary school children, 1407 parents and 315 teachers in seven provinces of Afghanistan. Population-based two stage-cluster sampling was used. Children taught by teacher’s who received professional development support were 3.19 and 4.0 times more likely to attain higher literacy and numeracy levels. Children taught by teachers with adequate teaching and learning materials were 1.60 and 1.83 times more likely to achieve higher literacy and numeracy levels. Children from teachers with ability to voice up and be consulted by school management attained higher social-emotional learning competencies. Children experiencing violent home learning environment had lower odds of achieving higher literacy, numeracy, and social-emotional learning competencies. Children with parents that helped them with learning were 1.85 and 1.94 times more likely to have higher literacy and numeracy levels. There is scope for public sector and development partners to promote a package of interventions aimed at promoting teacher’s professional development, provision of teaching and learning materials, teacher recognition and voice to improve children’s literacy, numeracy, social and emotional learning skills. Parents need to ensure a safe and conducive home learning environment. Parent should be actively involved in children’s learning activities to nurture strong parental-child bond and parental-school partnership.
Findings the Hub has extracted
Each claim below is labelled by its type of design and links back to this report.
- Intervention
- Package of interventions including teacher professional development, provision of teaching and learning materials, teacher recognition and voice in school management, and parental involvement in children's learning
- Population
- 1,407 primary school children, 1,407 parents, and 315 teachers across seven provinces in Afghanistan
Key finding
Children taught by teachers with professional development were 3.19 times more likely to attain higher literacy levels and 4.0 times more likely to attain higher numeracy levels