The Challenge
The world has made impressive gains in education since 2000, enrolling an additional 50 million children in primary school between 2000 and 2010. However, far too many children are still left behind and not learning.
57 million children continue to be denied the right to primary education, and many of them will probably never enter a classroom. Being a girl, having an uneducated mother, living in a poor rural community, or having a disability significantly reduces the chance of getting an education. Furthermore, 250 million children are unable to read, write, or do basic mathematics, 130 million of whom are in school. Whether for reasons of economic growth or social justice, there is an overwhelming need for significant improvement in educational outcomes worldwide.
Simply expanding the current system of education will not reach the most marginalized children or get more children learning. Yet, there is ample evidence of teachers, schools and occasionally whole systems “beating the odds” by producing educational outcomes well beyond reasonable expectations, often due to innovations in education.
To change the status quo and achieve positive education outcomes for children in all education systems and programs, we must identify and scale what works.
The Opportunity
UNICEF and Results for Development Institute (R4D) are teaming up to facilitate the scale-up of innovations in global education by identifying promising models and supporting their improvement and diffusion. The partnership will collect and share evidence on the effectiveness of selected innovations in an effort to help the global education community better identify interventions that work.
As one of the world’s most prominent advocates for equitable, quality education for all, UNICEF has consistently sought solutions to global education challenges. Focusing on priorities such as early childhood development, gender equality in education, and quality learning in both primary and secondary schooling, UNICEF has invested in education programs across the globe, assisting governments and communities in better preparing their children for the future.
Similarly, R4D’s Center for Education Innovations (CEI) has sought to identify innovative models that improve access to quality education for the most marginalized. Funded by DFID, CEI supports the improvement, scale-up, and adaptation of models—not by funding them directly but by identifying and analyzing promising innovations and connecting them with each other, funders, researchers, and the public sector.
Our Work
From 2014 to 2016, UNICEF and R4D designed and tested a strategy to better understand what types of innovative programs and interventions have the greatest potential for impact. Both partners collaborated on devising selection criteria and a rapid assessment methodology to evaluate innovations.
The lessons learned and results of this collaboration were disseminated through a report, Journeys to Scale.
