Five Issues from FLEX 2026 Shaping Foundational Learning

Jul 31, 2026 | Luminos Fund | Government Partnership, In the News

By: Nunya Apetsi

What does it take to move foundational learning from commitment to action, and to do it at scale?

That question sits at the center of the foundational learning agenda across Africa and beyond. It came into sharp focus at the 2026 Foundational Learning Exchange (FLEX) in Lilongwe, Malawi, hosted by the Association for the Development of Education in Africa (ADEA) alongside the Government of Malawi. There, education leaders, government representatives, funders, researchers, and practitioners spoke openly about what is working, what still needs work, and what governments need from their partners.

Here are five issues shaping the field right now—and what FLEX 2026 revealed about the partnerships needed to move them forward.

1. Bilingual education is moving from the margins to the mainstream.

For millions of children growing up in multilingual communities, the language they know and speak at home may not be the language they encounter at school. That has real implications for how they learn to read, understand new concepts, and participate in the classroom.

The debate is no longer whether language matters. It is how education systems can respond effectively to this reality. How should children be supported as they move between languages? What approaches work best in different multilingual contexts? And, importantly, what evidence do governments need to make those decisions?

Luminos is exploring these questions through Bilingual Boost, a three-year initiative focused on strengthening the evidence and practice around bilingual education in multilingual contexts. Working alongside partners in Ghana, Mozambique, and South Africa, Luminos will test approaches and generate practical evidence to help governments and educators make informed, context-specific decisions about supporting children who learn across languages.

Strong foundational learning begins with what children already know, including the languages they speak. These languages cannot sit on the sidelines of how their education is designed.

2. Governments want co-creation.

“Let’s sit together.”

A representative from Rwanda’s Ministry of Education offered this invitation at FLEX 2026, and it captured a message governments are making with increasing urgency across the sector: sit with us. Listen to our national priorities. Co-generate evidence. Co-design solutions. Co-own data. Invest in the structures that we need to strengthen our education systems.

Another representative from the Global Partnership for Education (GPE) put the underlying question to partners directly: are we strengthening government systems, or bypassing them?

Government ownership cannot mean inviting ministry officials into a program after the important decisions have already been made. Genuine partnership requires listening early enough for government priorities to shape what is designed, how it is implemented, and what success looks like. This matters most when the goal is scale. An organization can run an excellent program, but reaching children across districts and regions requires strengthening the public systems already responsible for delivering their education.

In Ethiopia, our largest program, Luminos partners with government from the very beginning to co-design our accelerated learning program, share evidence, and scale a model that works. Through this close partnership, we have supported government to embed effective foundational learning strategies into the education system—expanding reach and impact as capacity grows.

We also share our approach widely. At FLEX 2026, Luminos distributed copies of the Luminos Method book to government and education partners, making the classroom practices, tools, and lessons from our work freely available for others to explore and adapt.

No single organization will solve the foundational learning crisis. The question is how the sector can share what works broadly and strengthen the systems that ultimately have to deliver for children.

As Professor Sam Awuku, Coordinator and Principal Advisor for the National Education Committee Report Implementation (NECRI) in Ghana shared at FLEX 2026, “Government ownership will do the trick.”

3. Scale must be affordable and sustainable.

The ambition across the sector has shifted. The goal is no longer simply to demonstrate that an approach can work in a few classrooms, but to determine how effective approaches can reach far more children. That ambition runs directly into the question of financing.

Governments and partners increasingly agree that education financing should be guided by national priorities and evidence, and that catalytic funding has a role to play in helping governments test, strengthen, and expand promising approaches. But discussions about financing can overlook a harder reality—one that Benjamin Piper, Director of the Global Education Program at the Gates Foundation, brought into focus at FLEX 2026.

He recalled a minister speaking about his government’s commitment to foundational learning. The following day, education funding to the country was cut. The minister responded that his country had been abandoned, but that the government would persist because its children were depending on it.

Governments are being asked to sustain and expand improvements in foundational learning at a time when education financing can be uncertain. That makes the durability, affordability, and design of investments just as important as the amount of funding provided.

If successful approaches are to grow beyond pilots, funding must do more than launch good work. It should help governments understand which elements drive learning, integrate them into existing systems, and plan for the costs of sustaining them. This requires strategic investment—but also a clear path toward approaches that governments can afford and lead over time.

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4. Better support can make teaching simpler.

Teachers matter, and teachers need to be equipped and trained. The instinct across the sector is often to support them by giving them more: more training, more resources, more guidance—without necessarily making the work itself simpler. All of that can be valuable. But at FLEX 2026, a representative from Zambia’s Ministry of Education described a different kind of support—simplifying classroom guidance so teachers receive clear instructional materials that incorporate play-based approaches, which helped teachers enjoy teaching more as a result.

Good support should make the work of teaching clearer and more manageable, not just add to what teachers are expected to know and do. The Luminos Method reflects this thinking: it combines clear, structured pedagogy; practical teaching and learning materials; training and ongoing coaching, and classroom assessment tools that are both simple to administer and interpret. This structure gives teachers a clear path through a lesson, and practical tools they can confidently use.

5. Children must be part of the conversation.

At FLEX 2026, one of the most powerful moments came when children took the stage—in the middle of sessions filled with conversations about financing, assessment, language, systems, and scale, delegates heard directly from the people at the heart of it all.

Their presence anchored each of the challenges and priorities discussed. Getting children through the school doors is not enough. The goal is for children to be in school and learning: reading with understanding, building strong numeracy skills, participating confidently, and gaining the foundations they need for everything that comes next.

That is the test every idea in foundational learning must pass. Bilingual approaches matter if they help children learn. Government ownership matters because governments carry the responsibility of educating generations of children. Better financing matters if it reaches classrooms and strengthens education systems. And investments in improving teaching matter because teachers turn all of those ambitions into learning every day.

What happens next depends on whether governments, funders, and partners keep listening to each other, keep sharing what they learn, and keep building the systems needed to reach every child with strong foundational learning skills.

From commitment to action

The global community is paying more attention to foundational learning than before. This is encouraging, but the real test is turning that attention into lasting change.

There is still much to uncover. But FLEX 2026 made one thing clear: governments, educators, researchers, funders, and partners are willing to sit together and do the work.

What happens next depends on whether that collaboration holds: whether governments, funders, and partners keep listening to each other, keep sharing what they learn, and keep building the systems needed to reach every child with strong foundational learning skills.

Oromia Signs MoU with Luminos Fund, Launching Structured Pedagogy in Government Schools

Jul 24, 2026 | Luminos Fund | Ethiopia, Government Partnership, In the News

Ethiopia is home to the Luminos Fund’s largest and longest-running program. Since 2018, the Ethiopian Ministry of Education and regional education bureaus have partnered with Luminos to expand accelerated learning as a government-led strategy for supporting out-of-school children, reaching 233,915 children in government schools implementing the Luminos Method.

More recently, at the request of the Sidama Regional Education Bureau (REB), Luminos partnered with the region to strengthen this model by introducing a structured pedagogy approach: detailed lesson plans in local languages, teacher training, and ongoing supervision and coaching. In government classrooms, the structured pedagogy approach combines evidence-based literacy and numeracy instruction with joyful, student-centered learning, covering Grades 1 and 2 of primary school in just 10 months. The results are remarkable: students in these classrooms read at four times the rate of their peers in conventional Grade 2 classrooms.

Co-created with government from the start, the structured pedagogy model is designed to be locally led. The Tigray regional government has since adapted the model to its context for implementation in government primary schools.

In Oromia—Ethiopia’s largest and most populous region—Luminos and the regional government are now working together to bring structured pedagogy to children both in and out of school. The partnership will strengthen literacy instruction for Grade 1 students in government schools while also supporting vulnerable and out-of-school students through an accelerated learning program focused on foundational literacy and numeracy. Across both areas of work, children will benefit from the same core approach: clear daily lesson plans, trained and supported teachers, locally adapted materials, and joyful, evidence-based instruction designed to help students build strong foundational skills.

That partnership reached a formal milestone this month, when the Oromia REB and Luminos signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU), launching a shared framework for government-led structured pedagogy programs across the region.

Dr. Tolla Barrisso, Head of the Oromia REB (at right), and Dr. Alemayehu Hailu Gebre, Luminos Senior Director of Programs (at left), sign the agreement formalizing the partnership to bring structured pedagogy into mainstream Grade 1 government classrooms while strengthening accelerated learning for children who are out of school. (Photo: Oromia Regional Education Bureau)

The Launch Workshop

The MoU signing kicked off a two-day launch workshop bringing together officials from the Ministry of Education, Oromia regional and district government representatives, Luminos, and community partners. On day two, participants jointly reviewed and validated the Teacher’s Guides or ‘Playbooks’.

Mr. Shemsedin, Oromia’s Director for Primary Education, traced how the partnership with Luminos evolved in his opening remarks. After seeing the results of the Luminos Method in other regions, the Oromia REB set out to extend structured pedagogy to more children across its education system.

The Teacher’s Guides are a product of this collaboration: developed jointly by Oromia government experts and Luminos’ team and customized to the region’s context.

Mr. Shemsedin was direct about what comes next: validating the materials is one milestone, not the finish line. Teacher training is the critical next step to ensure the structured pedagogy approach is implemented with fidelity in government classrooms.

The Journey Ahead

Government partnerships that outlast a single funding cycle are built deliberately from the beginning. Luminos’ approach in Ethiopia has been to co-create with government, so that government ownership is established from the outset.

Government partnerships that outlast a single funding cycle are built deliberately from the beginning.

From Sidama to Tigray and now Oromia, regional partners have adapted and led implementation of the structured pedagogy model, with Luminos providing technical support throughout. Dr. Bultossa Hirko, Deputy Head of the Oromia REB, spoke to that ownership directly in his remarks to Ministry officials and other guests at the workshop, addressing the learning crisis, the urgency of foundational learning, and the regional government’s commitment to making foundational learning a priority.

Luminos’ journey in Ethiopia is a powerful example of how collaboration, evidence, and strong government leadership can drive meaningful and sustainable change in education.

“Unlike many education programs that rely on external funding and are difficult to sustain, this approach is built to last. It is both innovative and impactful, designed from the start to grow within government systems.”

Dr. Alemayehu (Alex) Hailu Gebre, Luminos Senior Director of Programs, Ethiopia

How Organizational Learning Shapes the Luminos Program in Ethiopia

Jul 22, 2026 | Luminos Fund | Ethiopia, Government Partnership

By: Solomon Takele Chekol

This piece was written by senior education expert, Solomon Takele Chekol, building on his research for the University of Helsinki on Accelerated Learning Programmes (ALPs), including the Luminos model, in Sidama, Ethiopia.

Millions of children in sub-Saharan Africa are unable to go to school because of poverty, conflict, and deep systemic barriers. In Ethiopia, government-run Accelerated Learning Programmes (ALPs) serve as a vital lifeline, condensing years of missed primary education into an intensive curriculum that helps out-of-school children catch up to grade level and continue their education with peers.

How do organizations behind these complex education interventions improve and scale with government, while maintaining impact?

A critical part of the answer is building a culture of organizational learning and accountability—assessing what works, collecting feedback from stakeholders, and building practical improvements back into the model.

Solomon Takele Chekol, Senior Education Expert

My recent master’s thesis at the University of Helsinki examines one such organization, the Luminos Fund, along with two of its community partners, the Integrated Service on Health and Development Organization (ISHDO) and Ethiopian Evangelical Church Mekane Yesus (EECMY). The Luminos Fund’s partnership with the Sidama Regional Education Bureau in Ethiopia has driven measurable gains in children’s foundational literacy and numeracy skills: in a single school year, students receiving the Luminos accelerated learning model in government schools progress from not recognizing letters of the alphabet to reading short stories.

My evaluation used semi-structured interviews to examine how Luminos, community partners, and government stakeholders in Sidama capture, share, and apply lessons from the Accelerated Learning Programme using the Luminos Method—and how the feedback mechanisms between them shape the program’s ongoing adaptation and institutionalization. Taken together, these interviews surfaced patterns that go beyond program mechanics. Below, I highlight three key takeaways from my evaluation that stood out.

From Classroom Access to System-Level Policy

Luminos’ journey in Ethiopia is not just about expanding school access. What started as an initiative to bring children back to school has expanded into a national program to strengthen foundational learning in government schools.

Recognizing the need for long-term sustainability, Luminos draws on its extensive experience delivering impactful accelerated learning programs in Ethiopia to advocate for effective foundational learning strategies among key education leaders.

Through sustained feedback and collaboration, Luminos worked with the Ministry of Education to develop national ALP guidelines and directives—and most significantly, to establish a dedicated ALP unit within the Department of Adult and Non-Formal Education. To address the learning crisis at scale, Luminos is working alongside national, regional, and local education bureaus to implement their evidence-based approach in mainstream schools.

What started as an initiative to bring children back to school has expanded into a national program to strengthen foundational learning in government schools.

Together, these steps mark a shift from a localized project to an institutionalized national strategy. That shift did not happen by accident: it is the direct result of Luminos collecting evidence on what works, and treating this evidence as something to act on, not just report.

Questioning Assumptions to Improve Learning

Growth brings a harder question: how do you keep quality intact as a program or model expands?

A core part of the Luminos model is rigorously measuring students’ foundational literacy and numeracy outcomes. Luminos and its partners use this data not just to track progress, but to question established assumptions and continually iterate on the model to improve learning outcomes.

In the Sidama region, this reflection changed how Luminos approached teacher support. Standard training in the existing government model was not enough—teachers needed more explicit, structured support to deliver lessons consistently and sustain learning outcomes. That finding led directly to Luminos’ structured pedagogy model, which builds on the existing government implementation model by giving teachers detailed lesson plans that combine evidence-based literacy and numeracy instruction with joyful, student-centered learning, along with training and ongoing coaching and supervision.

An external evaluation found that students in government classrooms using Luminos’ structured pedagogy read four times as many correct words per minute than their peers in conventional schools. The gain came not from expanding faster, but from working closely with partners to keep questioning and adjusting the model even as it scaled.

A Shared Responsibility: Learning Together, at Every Level

At Luminos, organizational learning is a multi-level process. Community and government partners as well as staff play a central role in identifying what’s working, what’s challenging, and where the model needs to adapt.

At Luminos, organizational learning is a multi-level process. Community and government partners as well as staff play a central role in identifying what is working, what is challenging (such as teacher capacity gaps, logistics problems in remote rural areas, and material shortages), and where the model needs to adapt. Challenges are treated not as bottlenecks but as opportunities to learn.

Structured routines keep that learning moving. Quarterly reporting turns operational and financial data into a reflective tool that pinpoints program gaps, rather than simply satisfying donor checklists. Interactive review meetings bring partners together to analyze data jointly, so they can identify their own operational strengths and weaknesses. And input from the field has reshape priorities directly.

Government partners are embedded in this same cycle. In Sidama, feedback operates as a two-way street between Luminos and government partners, most visibly through joint monitoring visits. When teams from Luminos, local partners, and government experts visit classrooms together, they see the same realities at the same time—and when challenges arise, such as managing multi-age classrooms or lesson pacing, they can offer teachers direct, practical support right away. This shared visibility builds trust and keeps all stakeholders aligned.

Teachers shape the model too. The introduction of standardized lesson guides emerged directly from listening to teachers’ operational realities—the guides provide a highly structured pedagogy that allows educators to focus completely on ensuring children achieve core foundational competencies.

The Takeaway for Global Development

The success of complex education initiatives in resource-scarce environments depends on more than an exceptional initial design. Lasting impact requires supportive leadership, a culture that embraces continuous learning, and explicit structures to capture, share, and act on knowledge.

When an organization can successfully translate teachers’ classroom insight into regional practice, and move from regional practice to shaping national ministry policy, it becomes something more than an educational program. It becomes a true learning organization.

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Kinkino is a teacher using the Luminos Method in a government-run acclerated learning program in Sidama, Ethiopia. Since Luminos introduced a structured pedagogy approach and more robust training, Kinkino has enjoyed learning new interactive teaching methods and taking full advantage of the detailed teacher’s guide for his lessons. “Being a teacher in the Accelerated Learning Programme has changed how I approach teaching and has deepened my love for the profession,” he says. (Photo: Mekbib Tadesse for the Luminos Fund)

Solomon Takele Chekol is a senior education expert with over 20 years of professional experience leading initiatives focused on education quality, equity, and access, working across government, non-governmental organizations, and UN agencies. He recently completed his second master’s degree in Changing Education at the University of Helsinki, where his empirical research evaluated the implementation of Accelerated Learning Programmes (ALPs) through the lens of organizational learning theory. Throughout his career, Solomon has specialized in foundational learning recovery, gender-responsive programming, and education in emergencies, frequently coordinating high-level collaborations between the Ministry of Education, Regional Education Bureaus, international NGOs, and UN agencies.

Why Phonics Can’t Be One-Size-Fits-All

Jul 21, 2026 | Luminos Fund | Ethiopia, Ghana, Luminos Method, Teaching & Learning

In sub-Saharan Africa, 80% of children are taught in a language they might not fully understand. This is one of the most significant barriers to learning to read.

At Luminos, we have long emphasized that effective phonics instruction must be systematic, explicit, and clearly structured. As our programs expand across countries and languages, one thing has become increasingly clear: phonics instruction must also be grounded in language structure and cultural context.

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of children in sub-Saharan Africa are taught in a language they might not fully understand

The Structure of a Language Shapes How Children Learn

How a language is taught depends on its structure and writing system. In alphabetic languages like English and Sidaamu Afoo, letters represent individual sounds. Children learn to connect letters to sounds, blend those sounds into syllables (a combination of consonants and vowels), and then form words. In alphasyllabic languages such as Amharic, symbols represent whole syllables rather than individual sounds. In these languages, children learn to recognize the unique symbols that represent syllables, making the blending of individual sounds unnecessary. In Amharic, this means children must learn 230 symbols (known as fidel). Without this foundational understanding, even well-intentioned instruction can miss the mark, leaving children without the tools they need to become confident readers.

Luminos student Fayze reading Amharic_600px high_vs2

Luminos student Fayze practices reading in Amharic, her favorite subject. Amharic is an alphasyllabic language that uses symbols called fidel to represent whole syllables rather that individual sounds. Before learning to read, Fayze first had to learn all 230 fidel. “I love school! It gives me joy that I’m learning now — and that I know my letters and I’m able to read!” says Fayze. (Photo: Mara Chan/Luminos Fund)

While much of the global research on phonics comes from English-language instruction, it is important to recognize that English is an outlier.

How one spells and reads words in English is complex and inconsistent. A single letter or combination of letters can represent multiple sounds. Consider how differently “ough” is pronounced in the words “though,” “through,” “thought,” and “tough.” For a child learning to read, these inconsistencies require extensive and often prolonged instruction.

Many African languages are far more predictable and consistent than English. Asante Twi in Ghana, for example, has a more predictable spelling system. The vowel “a” sounds the same in the words “papa” (meaning, good) and “kasa” (meaning, to speak). Once a child has learned that sound, its use remains consistent across words. Because languages differ so significantly in how predictable or systematic these letter-sound mappings are, the same phonics method cannot be equally efficient or appropriate across all languages, making a single universal approach inadequate.

Learn more about Luminos’ approach to phonics instruction in the “Phonics for First-Generation Readers” element of the Luminos Method!

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Because languages differ so significantly in how predictable or systematic these letter-sound mappings are, the same phonics method cannot be equally efficient or appropriate across all languages, making a single universal approach inadequate.

Instruction and Materials Must Reflect Students’ Languages and Contexts

Given the linguistic diversity across the African continent, children may arrive at school speaking different home languages, each with its own sound system. A child in Ghana who speaks Asante Twi, for example, may struggle to hear or produce the /z/ sound in Dagaare because it does not exist in their home language.

Effective phonics instruction must be responsive by adapting it to students’ linguistic backgrounds. This includes allocating more time to foundational skills like phonemic awareness and vocabulary where needed, and using familiar language as a bridge to new learning.

At the same time, what children read matters just as much as how they are taught. When learning materials reflect students’ daily lives through familiar characters, settings, and experiences, reading becomes more accessible and meaningful. Centering learning materials in the local context helps students see their worlds reflected in text, making it more likely that they will understand, engage with, and persist in their learning.

In Liberia, student Beatrice reads a story set in a community just like hers. (Photo: Mara Chan/Luminos Fund)

Effective phonics instruction must be responsive by adapting it to students’ linguistic backgrounds.

A Call to Rethink “What Works”

There is no universal script for teaching reading. But when phonics instruction is thoughtfully adapted to a language’s structure, responsive to students’ linguistic backgrounds, and includes learning materials that reflect learners’ cultural context, the results can be transformative.

Luminos programs in countries like Ethiopia and Ghana show that when phonics instruction is designed in this way, children can achieve remarkable reading gains in just one year. In the 2024-25 school year, Luminos students in Ghana read over nine times the national average for Grade 2 students in Asante Twi by the time they completed the program.

If we want every child to learn to read, we must move beyond one-size-fits-all solutions and design instruction that reflects the rich diversity of languages and cultures in which children learn.

Diana, a student in Ghana, practices reading a short passage in Asante Twi in her Student Book. (Photo: Obeng Baah for the Luminos Fund)

The Error That Isn’t Random: What Students’ Mistakes Reveal About How We Teach

Jun 23, 2026 | Luminos Fund | In the News, Teaching & Learning

By: Neha Raheel

Across sub-Saharan Africa, the learning crisis in foundational education is well-documented, but the conversation has largely centered on literacy. Although that focus is warranted—with roughly 70 percent of children in low- and middle-income countries unable to read a simple text by the end of primary school—numeracy deserves equal urgency.

Research consistently shows that early math skills are among the strongest predictors of long-term academic achievement. Children who leave primary school without secure number sense and arithmetic fluency face compounding disadvantages at every stage of schooling that follows.

Neha Raheel, Director of Teaching and Learning, Luminos Fund

Paying close attention to the common mistakes students make is one of the most powerful ways to improve how we teach.

At Luminos, we have spent years developing and refining structured numeracy materials for vulnerable and out-of-school children in Ethiopia, Ghana, Liberia, and The Gambia. Our programs build on proven teaching methods: explicit, systematic instruction; moving from concrete to pictorial to abstract representations to build understanding in deliberate stages before working with symbols; and regular assessments to keep learning on track.

Yet good frameworks alone do not guarantee learning. The challenge is ensuring that students truly grasp foundational concepts—and paying close attention to the common mistakes they make is one of the most powerful ways to improve how we teach.

Students in Ghana work out a math problem using stones and bottle caps during group work. (Photo by Mo Scarpelli for the Luminos Fund)

What Real-Time Data Can Reveal About Teaching

Our team routinely reviews classroom observation and student assessment data, analyzing patterns and asking what they reveal about learning progress. During one of these reviews in Liberia, a pattern emerged that stopped us in our tracks.

Internal data showed students performed well on foundational tasks but lost ground as arithmetic problems grew more complex; particularly addition and subtraction with three-digit numbers, regrouping numbers across place values, and understanding number sequences.

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The Luminos Method: Real-Time Data

Real-time data drives classroom- and program-level decision-making for individual student impact, and is an essential component of the Luminos Fund’s accelerated learning program.

Learn more here

Taken individually, each of these gaps looks like a different instructional problem. Viewed together, however, they point to a common root: students needed a stronger understanding of place value.

Research on how children learn math is clear: lasting fluency isn’t just about knowing the steps to solve a problem, it depends on truly understanding the concepts behind them.

Understanding the Root Cause

Research on how children learn math is clear: lasting fluency isn’t just about knowing the steps to solve a problem, it depends on truly understanding the concepts behind them. A child may learn the steps for ‘carrying’ in an addition problem, but if they do not understand what those steps mean, the process can quickly fall apart. Carrying is not just moving a digit. It means exchanging ten ones for one ten because our number system is built around groups of ten. When students only memorize a procedure, their knowledge can be fragile. One unfamiliar problem format, or one forgotten step, and they may no longer know what to do.

Place value is one of the building blocks of early math. It helps children understand what a digit means based on where it appears in a number. It explains why a zero matters, why we carry or borrow when doing arithmetic, and how larger numbers work.

Without this foundation, students often rely on memorized rules rather than truly understanding the problem they are solving. Yet it is one of the most commonly underestimated gaps in early numeracy instruction. This is not because teachers fail to teach place value, but because students often encounter more complex arithmetic problems before they have had enough hands-on practice working with physical objects or pictures to really understand what each digit in a number means.

Our analysis in Liberia showed that the issue was not the lesson content itself, but how effectively teachers helped students grasp the underlying concepts.

Misconception:

Regrouping in addition is mechanical: students treat the the carried digit as just a “1”.

What it looks like:

A student learns to “carry the 1” in an addition problem without realizing that this “1” actually represents a ten. So they either forget to add it in the next column, or they add it but have no idea why.

Try this:

Trade 10 loose sticks for 1 bundle and say out loud: “I’m carrying 1 TEN, not just a 1.” When writing it down, circle the carried digit as a visual reminder before adding the tens column.

Excerpt from the Luminos Foundational Numeracy Misconceptions Guide, 2026

Turning a Pattern Into a Resource

Our response was practical: we created a guide for teachers on common numeracy misconceptions and evidence-based strategies for addressing them. We designed it as a classroom tool rather than a theory document, to help teachers look beyond the wrong answer and understand the thinking behind it.

For each misconception, it asks three questions: What does the student actually believe? What misunderstanding is driving this error? And what can a teacher do, today, to address it?

A student who makes the same mistake repeatedly is showing you where their understanding broke down — not how little effort they are making. Diagnosing the specific misconception is the first step to helping them.

Luminos Foundational Numeracy Misconceptions Guide, 2026

We introduced the Foundational Numeracy Misconceptions Guide during teacher training in Liberia and the impact was immediate. We saw it in the quality of discussions during training sessions and, importantly, in how supervisors later described what they observed in the classroom. This is a mature program with years of implementation and iteration behind it. The fact that careful data analysis could still uncover opportunities for improvement is not a failure—it is exactly what a responsive system should do. Just as importantly, the solution was not redesigning our materials, but sharpening our focus on how we support teachers.

In Ethiopia and Ghana, classroom data revealed a similar pattern with missing number identification. In response, we adapted and translated the guide for use there, and we have already seen improvements in math scores across the board.

The guide will become part of our Teachers’ Guides for the upcoming academic year, signaling that what began as a targeted response to a data pattern has become a core part of how we train and support teachers across our programs.

Why This Matters

A growing body of research points to the importance of foundational numeracy. However, the sector has yet to develop the same shared practitioner vocabulary around diagnosing numeracy challenges that the science of reading brought to literacy instruction.

In many low-resource contexts, teachers receive training in what to teach but less support in recognizing the common misconceptions that predictably emerge, understanding what those errors reveal, and responding to them in the moment.

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Access Our Materials

Great tools should be in as many hands as possible. Our classroom materials—including Teachers’ Guides, Student Books, and supplementary reading materials (Decodable Readers and Read Aloud stories)—are freely available.

Access our materials

This matters because misconceptions in numeracy compound. A student who doesn’t understand place value will struggle with regrouping. A student who doesn’t understand regrouping will struggle with multi-digit operations. And a student who has only ever learned procedures, without understanding the ideas behind them, will find every new topic harder than the last; not because they are incapable of learning, but because they are building on a foundation that was never solid.

Sharing what we are learning is one way Luminos hopes to contribute to this conversation. We do not have all the answers, but we have found that the most useful insights come from paying close attention to what the data tells us and using it to ask better questions.

A student who has only ever learned procedures, without understanding the ideas behind them, will find every new topic harder than the last; not because they are incapable of learning, but because they are building on a foundation that was never solid.

What We Owe Every Child in the Classroom

I keep coming back to a particular kind of student: one who has been sitting in a classroom, trying their best, but making the same mistake week after week. Quietly, that student is concluding that math is not for them. That they are just not good at numbers. That something is wrong with them.

More often than not, the problem is not ability. It is understanding. The student was taught a procedure without being shown what it means. They were asked to memorize before they were allowed to understand. Over time, the gap between what they understood and what they were being asked to do became wide enough that they stopped trusting themselves.

Our job—as program designers, as trainers, and practitioners—is to close that gap. Not by moving faster or repeating instructions louder, but by asking: What does this child actually believe? Where did the understanding break down? And what, concretely, can we do about it today?

Those are the questions that guide our work. Behind every data point is a child sitting with a problem they cannot yet solve. What we owe them is not just better teaching materials: it is the curiosity to ask why, and the humility to let the answer change what we do next.

Neha Raheel is Director of Teaching and Learning at the Luminos Fund where she leads the development of high-quality teaching and learning materials grounded in the latest evidence from the science of teaching. She also designs and delivers impactful training on foundational learning and strengthens the capacity of colleagues and partners to help every child learn. Prior to joining Luminos, Neha worked at the World Bank, where she supported the Education Global Practice team on curriculum, instruction, and learning, focusing on foundational learning.