Online Tutoring Reduces by Half the Learning Loss Due to School Closures: Evidence from a Randomized Experiment in Kenya

We evaluate the effects of an online tutoring program that started in 2016 and continued during the pandemic despite the schools being closed for 9 months in Kenya. We find no effect when the schools are open, but a large effect when the schools are closed (0.4 SD increase in grade in the treatment group versus control group). Since we have data from before the pandemic, we are able to quantify the learning loss due to covid: 0.8 SD. We conclude that online tutoring compensates half of the learning loss.