On October 6, 2026, the seminar “Self-Learning at the Right Level, COVID-19 School Closure, and Noncognitive Abilities: Impact Assessment of Kumon Method of Learning in Dhaka, Bangladesh,” co-organized by the Global Network Program, was held in a hybrid format. The seminar featured Professor Yasuyuki Sawada of the Graduate School of Economics, the University of Tokyo.

The seminar examined the effectiveness of “Self-Learning at the Right Level,” an individualized approach tailored to each child’s level of learning, in the context of the learning crisis in developing countries and the learning losses caused by prolonged school closures during the COVID-19 pandemic. Professor Sawada presented empirical findings from a randomized controlled trial (RCT) and a subsequent follow-up study.
The original study involved approximately 1,000 third- and fourth-grade students from 34 BRAC primary schools in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Seventeen schools were randomly assigned to the treatment group and the remaining 17 to the control group. From 2015 to 2016, students in the treatment schools participated in 30-minute Kumon sessions before their regular classes each day. The Kumon Method allows students to work through worksheets suited to their individual proficiency levels, progressing in small steps with the help of hints while relying minimally on teachers or digital technology.

The short-term analysis showed that individualized learning through the Kumon Method improved students’ cognitive abilities, as measured by mathematics test scores. It also produced catch-up effects among students whose cognitive and noncognitive abilities were initially low. Professor Sawada further explained that competition among students over the speed of completing worksheets could improve the quality of learning without negatively affecting peers of similar ability. The intervention also reduced the difference between students’ objectively measured performance and teachers’ assessments, suggesting that it helped teachers better understand their students’ abilities. The seminar also addressed the program’s long-term effects following the COVID-19 pandemic. Schools in Bangladesh remained closed for approximately 18 months, from March 2020 to September 2021. In 2022, around six years after the original intervention, the research team conducted a follow-up survey to examine students’ schooling status and their cognitive and noncognitive abilities. The findings indicated that the short-term effects on cognitive abilities had diminished over time, whereas the effects on noncognitive abilities, including self-esteem and self-perception, remained observable. These results suggest that individualized self-learning can serve as a supplementary educational approach for addressing the learning crisis and learning losses while strengthening students’ resilience in the face of major disruptions.

A total of 60 students and faculty members participated in the seminar, including 40 in person and 20 online. During the question-and-answer session, participants raised questions about the reasons for selecting Dhaka as the study site, the differing effects of the Kumon Method on cognitive and noncognitive abilities, and the factors that may have contributed to the persistence of its effects on noncognitive abilities. These questions led to an active exchange of views. The seminar provided participants with a valuable opportunity to learn about the effects of individualized learning on children’s cognitive and noncognitive abilities through evidence from an RCT and a long-term follow-up study. It also deepened their understanding of the potential role of educational interventions in addressing the learning crisis and the effects of prolonged school closures.