People often ask us how children in Luminos classrooms go from not recognizing letters of the alphabet to reading short stories within a single school year. A year ago, we published our answer—The Luminos Method: The Secret to Unlocking the Light of Learning in Every Child.

The Luminos Method sets out the nine core elements behind a decade of joyful, foundational learning, from phonics for first-generation readers to teacher-led assessment and community partnerships. It distills what we have learned alongside children, teachers, and communities in Ethiopia, Liberia, Ghana, and beyond.

Year One, by the Numbers

In its first year, The Luminos Method reached:

Bigger Than Any One Organization

The scale of the global learning crisis demands more than one organization can deliver. In low-income countries, nearly 90% of 10-year-olds cannot read a simple sentence. Globally, 82 million primary-school-aged children are out of school.

We know every child can learn when given the right support. We also know that is needed in far more classrooms than Luminos can reach alone. The Luminos Method is our open invitation to governments, educators, and partners to adapt, apply, and build on what we have learned.

The book is one entry point to a larger body of work. The Luminos Method exists in several forms, each designed to meet education systems where they are:

• The published book, written for policymakers and teacher training institutes
• Free online resources, with videos, guidance, and downloadable tools for each of the nine elements
• Practical teacher training programs that bring the Method into government classrooms
• The Learning Lab, where African-led organizations join workshops and immersive classroom visits and adapt the Method to their own contexts

Alongside the Luminos Method, our classroom materials are free for all. Teacher’s Guides, Student Books, Decodable Readers, and Read Aloud stories cover ten months of learning, enough for students to progress through the equivalent of three years of primary school. Grounded in the science of reading and aligned with national curricula, they are open to any teacher, ministry, or partner who wants to use them.

What Building a Movement Looks Like

A movement grows when others make the idea behind it their own. This year, ministries and partners began doing exactly that with one shared aim: putting children at the center of learning so that every child can thrive in school.

In Ethiopia, for instance, the book is already shaping training and policy guidance. Luminos training for the 2025-26 school year in the region brought together partners from across all levels of government, including supervisors, district and zonal heads, and curriculum experts. Then Head of the Tigray Regional Education Bureau, Dr. Kiros Guesh, pointed to The Luminos Method as a bridge between children connected to AI and digital innovation and those still struggling to access quality education. That gap is already narrowing, he said: children in Luminos classes in Tigray are outperforming expectations.

The Luminos Method is also reaching the people who will lead the sector next. It now sits in libraries at several prominent universities and teacher training institutions as a resource for students and faculty. As one education faculty member at the University of Cambridge put it, it “has been a valuable reference for our education students and colleagues.”

Organizations closer to the classroom are putting the Method to work, too. This spring, four African-led organizations completed the 2025–26 Learning Lab, participating in a series of workshops on five elements of the Luminos Method and experiencing the Method in action while visiting Luminos’ Liberia program. Each organization is now adapting these practices in its own education programs.

In its first year of publication, The Luminos Method book proved there is demand for practical, evidence-based guidance on how children learn to read, write, and do math, even in the most challenging circumstances. In year two, we will bring the book to even more ministries of education and sector leaders, and launch our second Learning Lab cohort—where African-led organizations will learn from and build on the Method in their own programs.

The Luminos Method is a living resource, and it grows stronger the farther it spreads. Each adaptation puts the tools for joyful, foundational learning in more hands and brings more children within reach of them. If you are a teacher, a policymaker, or a partner working toward joyful, foundational learning for every child, we invite you to join us!

• Get The Luminos Method book >
• Explore the nine elements online >
• Download our free classroom materials >