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

Open Letter to the National Education Forum in Ghana

Mar 4, 2025 | Luminos Fund | Ghana, In the News

The Luminos Fund welcomes the launch of Ghana’s National Education Forum under President John Dramani Mahama. Ghana faces a severe learning crisis, with most children failing to learn even the basics of literacy and numeracy. We are encouraged by President Mahama and Minister of Education, Hon. Haruna Iddrisu, recognizing the urgency of strengthening the country’s basic education system.

The Forum was formally launched on February 18, 2025, featuring keynote addresses by Professor Joseph Seyram Agbenyegah, and Luminos Board Member Dr. Kwame Akyeampong, along with participation from Luminos staff. A key takeaway from the discussions was the shared recognition that Ghana must prioritize its most pressing education needs rather than attempt broad reforms all at once.

To support this effort, Luminos is amplifying a unified call from education leaders in Ghana urging the government to address the learning crisis. In addition to engaging in person, we have convened a coalition of non-governmental organizations and education experts to sign an open letter urging the National Education Forum to prioritize foundational learning.

The full letter and signatories are below.

February 18, 2025

National Education Forum Planning Committee
The Ministry of Education, Ghana
Ministry of Education, K Block, Ground Floor
Accra, Ghana

Urgent Action to Improve Foundational Learning for the Most Vulnerable Children

Dear National Education Forum Planning Committee,

We, the undersigned education organisations, advocates, and leaders, write to urge you to take immediate action to focus on improving foundational skills through basic and complementary education, for the most marginalised children.

Learning to read is the gateway to lifelong learning, unlocking pathways to prosperity and success. Yet, far too many children, especially the most marginalised, fail to read and understand a simple text by age 10.

In the past decade, the government of Ghana has made significant progress towards improving access to education. Nevertheless, Ghana is facing a severe learning crisis.

Figure 1: The majority of Ghanaian children are not learning to read. UNICEF Multiple Indicator Cluster Surveys (MICS6)

Data from UNICEF (Figure 1) shows that less than one in five 10-year-olds can read at a Grade 2 level. The situation for the poorest children is especially alarming – by age 14, only 17% achieve even this basic level of reading proficiency.

Since the COVID-19 pandemic, a large and growing number of children are out of school and in urgent need of quality education. Even more alarmingly, most of our children are ‘silently excluded’ – attending school but learning very little.

Every Ghanaian child is precious and has immense potential to contribute to our country’s development – yet far too many are being denied the opportunity to flourish.

We all aspire to an education system that equips Ghana’s children and youth with the 21st-century-skills needed to drive progress. But these higher-order skills can only be built upon a strong foundation of literacy, numeracy, and socio-emotional skills.

Ghana has the expertise to tackle this challenge. Our academics have been at the forefront of global policy discourse on improving learning outcomes. Dr. Kwame Akyeampong, for instance, serves on the prestigious Global Education Evidence Advisory Panel which provides advice to policy makers across the world to ensure all children have the opportunity to learn and thrive.

Research has long emphasized that without a true commitment to learning for all, policy initiatives may expand access to education, but generally do not improve quality (Akyeampong, 2007; Nudzor, 2013).

Our scholars are also leading efforts to highlight the importance of mother-tongue instruction as a key driver of learning and preventing drop-out across the continent (Atintono and Nsoh, 2018; Ampiah et al, 2017). Additionally, experts have highlighted the specific pedagogical shifts needed to enhance learning for all children (Asare and Afriyie, 2023).

Importantly, we already have key tools in place to improve learning outcomes. In 2018, Ghana launched a new Standards-Based Curriculum for basic education, designed to provide children with the foundational literacy, numeracy and socio-emotional skills needed to become lifelong learners. Complementing this, supplemental teaching and learning resources (TLRs) were developed specifically for Ghanaian language literacy in early grades (KG1-B3), which have been lauded as cutting-edge examples of effective literacy tools for African languages.

Given this urgent challenge, we respectfully call on the National Education Forum to:

Prioritize the basics, maintaining a relentless focus on improving literacy, numeracy and socio-emotional skills in basic education, with particular attention to the most marginalised children.
Leverage the knowledge and tools that we have, including high-quality materials for teaching literacy in the early grades.
Proactively measure learning through national Early Grade Reading Assessment and Early Grade Mathematics Assessments (EGRA/EGMA) to benchmark how Ghanaian children are progressing and where to focus the most efforts.

Addressing this crisis requires bold action and unwavering commitment. We stand ready to collaborate with you in designing and implementing solutions that ensure every child has the opportunity to learn and thrive.

Sincerely,

Justice Agyei-Quartey
Akyeampong Research and Development Consult

Elizabeth Agyekum
FHI 360

Dr. Kwame Akyeampong
The Open University

Dr. Richard Amoah
Education Sub-Saharan Africa

Bless Carol Amu
Plan International Ghana

Kirk Anderson
Link Community Development

Mandela Atibila
AfriKids

Dr. Samuel Atintono
Accra College of Education

Saraswati Arthur
Rising Academies

Dr. Esinam Avornyo
University of Cape Coast

Tony Dzidzinyo Dogbe
Sabre Education

Dr. Pauline Essah
Education Sub-Saharan Africa

Caroline Kwamboka
African Renaissance

Awudu Yakubu Omoro Modoc
Afram Plains Development Organisation

Obed Sam
Radgi Consultancy

Wedadu Sayibu
School for Life

Senyo Tettegah
The Luminos Fund Ghana

Chinwe Umeh-Ujubuona
Human Capital Africa

Elihu Wumbei
Literacy and Development through Partnership

References

Akyeampong, K. (2007) Ghana – 50 Years of Educational Progress and Challenge, Parliament Offices, Westminster, London

Ampiah, J. G., Kwaah, C. Y., & Adu-Yeboah, C. (2017). Implementing a language of instruction policy in diverse linguistic contexts in Ghana. In Culturally Responsive Education (pp. 17-31). Routledge.

Asare, E., & Afriyie, E. (2023). Barriers to basic school teachers’ implementation of formative assessment in the Cape Coast metropolis of Ghana. Open education studies, 5(1), 20220193.

Samuel A. Atintono and Avea E. Nsoh (2018) Inconsistent Language Policy and its Implications for the Quality of Education in Ghana.

Ryan Shawn Herman and Aminu Sulemana (2024) Learning locked away? Promoting the use of teaching and learning materials in Ghana’s classrooms.

Nudzor, H. P. (2013). The big question: why do change initiatives in education often fail to yield desired results?

Download the PDF

About the Luminos Fund: The Luminos Fund runs catch-up education programs for some of the most vulnerable and hardest-to-reach children in parts of Sub-Saharan Africa and the Middle East. In just one school year, out-of-school children learn how to read, write, and do math – to learn how to learn – through a joyful, activity-based curriculum. As an international education nonprofit, our mission is to ensure all children have equal access to joyful, foundational learning, especially those shut out of education by crisis, poverty, or discrimination. To date, Luminos has helped over 377,407 children secure a second chance to learn.

To learn more about the Luminos Fund program in Ghana, visit https://luminosfund.org/ghana/.
For additional information or to explore opportunities for collaboration, please reach out to Senyo Tettegah at senyo@luminosfund.org.

Overcoming Trauma to Learn and Grow in Tigray

Nov 22, 2024 | Mara Chan | Data, Ethiopia, In the News

This blog was originally posted on the Global Partnership for Education (GPE) website and can be viewed here.

In Tigray, Ethiopia, programs supported by the Luminos Fund help thousands of out-of-school children catch up to grade level, reintegrate into government schools and prepare for lifelong learning.

Nahom doesn’t talk much about his family’s journey fleeing war in northern Ethiopia. He was too young to do much of the walking. For hundreds of miles, he was carried, passed among his mother, father and uncles as his family desperately tried to reach safety.

“Everything happened suddenly,” recalls Nahom’s mother Shishay. “There was shooting and we didn’t know what to do. The only possibility was to leave home… It was difficult. We traveled from village to village on foot.”

After several months, Nahom’s family arrived in Mekelle—the capital of the Tigray region. Nahom is one of over 1 million internally displaced people in Tigray. From 2020 to 2022, war devastated the region and disrupted education for millions of children, leaving over 1.5 million children out of school for 3 years.

“I remember the sound of shooting and feeling afraid,” says Nahom quietly.

Relaunching Accelerated Learning in Tigray

After a peace agreement was announced, the Luminos Fund moved quickly to relaunch our education program in Tigray in partnership with the Tigray Regional Education Bureau, building on our long history of operating in the region prior to the conflict. Luminos commissioned a study to help inform how to tailor our program to the unique learning needs of children now.

The study highlighted the impact of the war, with alarming results. There was evidence of significant learning loss and deep psychological trauma among children, parents and teachers. Survey responses indicated 62% of children expected that they would be killed and 72% experienced shooting at a very close range. In the words of Dr. Kiros Guesh, Head of Tigray’s Regional Education Bureau, “Many of our children have seen all the evils.”

Read the original report summary, “Examining Levels of Learning Loss, Trauma, and Resilience in Children, Parents, and Teachers in Tigray, Ethiopia,” ↑

Our students’ well-being is the heart of everything we do at Luminos. In response to the study results and in addition to joyful, foundational learning, our Tigray program includes: trauma-healing support, an emphasis on socio-emotional learning and midday meals to address the significant food insecurity in the region.

Nahom’s teacher, Filagot, helps Nahom’s group during class. “I’m building their base,” says Filagot on teaching his students. “This is the foundation so that they can use it in later years.” (Photo: Mara Chan/Luminos Fund)

Joyful Classrooms to Learn and Heal

At the beginning of the Luminos program, Nahom, like many of his classmates, was shy, lonely and afraid according to his teacher. Now 9-year-old Nahom participates actively and excels in math. He has also built friendships with his classmates that have been like a lifeline, making him eager to come to class and learn.

“I’m safe now,” says Nahom.

Nahom’s brightly decorated Luminos classroom (located within a government school compound) is a place of joy and light for his classmates and him, the majority of whom are internally displaced. Letters of the Tigrinya alphabet cover the walls in a rainbow of paper as students eagerly raise their hands to read in front of the class.

Nahom and his classmates are not only learning foundational reading, writing and math skills that will serve them for life, but are also developing socio-emotional skills and working towards healing.

“At the beginning of the school year, the kids were lonely,” reflects Nahom’s teacher, Filagot. “We had 25 children and they were all individuals. They were not interacting with one another. Now they love and respect each other—they even walk to school together. They’re all friends.”

Nahom has formed close friendships with Luminos classmates Mariamawit, Saron, and Belaynesh (left to right), and now walks to and from school with them every day. (Photo: Mara Chan/Luminos Fund)

“What gets me out of bed each morning is the resilience of the children. Despite all the distractions, all the trauma, all the loss… They still believe in education.”

Dr. Kiros Guesh, Head of the Tigray Regional Education Bureau

Shishay also follows her son’s progress closely: “At first Nahom didn’t know any letters or numbers. Now he reads. He knows the letters and can identify them. He identifies numbers and can do addition and subtraction. His behavior has improved. They used to play by making pretend guns, but they have stopped doing that now. He used to be aggressive when kids wanted to play, but he’s not anymore.”

Nahom also frequently helps his classmates when they struggle. “I like coming to school to learn. I want to be the top of my class,” says Nahom. Outside of school, he gathers younger children in his neighborhood and teaches them what he has learned.

“What gets me out of bed each morning is the resilience of the children,” says Dr. Kiros of the Tigray Regional Education Bureau. “They still believe in education — despite all the distractions, all the trauma, all the loss. They still believe in education.”

Hope for the Future

One year after Luminos’ program relaunched in Tigray, new research shows students participating in the accelerated learning program have made incredible progress.

Symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) have decreased by 53%, the number of students experiencing severe hunger has declined by 48% and children have also showed positive improvements in social and emotional skills.

Furthermore, nearly all students (94%) in the accelerated learning program have successfully transitioned into Grade 4, equipped with the skills to continue their education.

These findings underscore the importance of addressing both psychological and foundational learning skills to help children recover from conflict and trauma.

Download the summary report

As another school year progresses in Tigray, there continue to be significant challenges and needs. Luminos’ mission of ensuring all children have equal access to joyful, foundational learning—especially for those shut out of education by crisis, poverty or discrimination—has never been more important. We look forward to serving more children like Nahom this school year.

Nahom and his mother, Shishay, outside their one-room home in Mekelle. (Photo: Mara Chan/Luminos Fund)

A GPE partner country since 2004, Ethiopia has received close to $700 million in GPE grant support to transform its education system with a focus on expanding access to education, including through community awareness programs on education barriers for girls and children with disabilities, as well as improving learning outcomes through quality teacher training, supporting school leaders, establishing quality assurance mechanisms, and aligning teaching and learning materials to curriculum.

Ethiopia is part of the GPE Knowledge and Innovation Exchange (KIX) Africa 19 hub and has launched the Basic Education Network Ethiopia (BEN-E) through funding from Education Out Loud—GPE’s dedicated fund for civil society advocacy and social accountability.

Read the Luminos Fund’s report summary, “Recovering from Trauma: Evaluating the Effects of Social-Emotional Learning and Activity-Based Teaching Methods in Tigray, Ethiopia.”

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The Luminos Fund provides transformative education programs to thousands of out-of-school children, helping them to catch up to grade level, reintegrate into government schools and prepare for lifelong learning. In just one school year, out-of-school children learn how to read, write, and do math–to learn how to learn–through a joyful, activity-based curriculum. To date, Luminos has helped over 277,787 children secure a second chance to learn.

To learn more about how to support Luminos’ work in Tigray, please contact us at tigray@luminosfund.org.

To learn more about our Ethiopia program, click here.

Commit, Measure, Iterate: Three Steps to Drive Impact on Student Learning Outcomes

Aug 9, 2024 | Luminos Fund | In the News

This blog was originally posted on UNESCO’s World Education Blog and can be viewed here.

By Dr. Kirsty Newman, Vice President of Programs, and Kirstin Buchanan, Communications and Advocacy Manager, The Luminos Fund

Globally, 250 million children are out of school, and millions more are in school but not learning, costing an estimated USD 10 trillion annually by 2030. In Sub-Saharan Africa, 90% of children do not learn to read by age 10. Given the scale of the learning crisis, it is tempting to look for a silver bullet to address it – a proven solution that can be scaled up wherever children are not learning. However, there is no single formula or recipe for education delivery. Various evidence-based approaches, including structured pedagogy for teachers and targeting teaching instruction by learning level, can effectively support learning. However, when trying to deliver learning outcomes, how you implement matters just as much as what you implement. More specifically, education programs that improve learning generally commit to learning as their single focus, measure whether learning is taking place, and continuously iterate to optimize learning outcomes.

At the Luminos Fund, our sole mission is to ensure all children experience joyful, foundational learning. Since 2016, our model has been well-tested and refined to deliver transformative learning for children. Below we summarize why a commit, measure, iterate approach is essential to drive impact on student learning outcomes.

Commit

We are often asked what we believe governments or donors need to do to ensure children are learning. Our response is that they must first commit to a single focus on ensuring children’s learning. This can sometimes be a frustrating response – the recommendation to first focus on whether there is enough commitment could feel a bit woolly and esoteric when weighted against recommendations of more practical or targeted actions, such as increasing student attendance or expanding access.

Often, it is assumed that simply working on an education project or with an education ministry means that delivering learning is implicitly the aim of education interventions. This misconception – that most people and organizations working on global education have learning as their driving goal – plays a significant role in the learning crisis.

A recent study investigating the objectives driving education projects in various developing countries found that improving learning outcomes was rarely the primary aim. Factors such as political patronage and student attendance frequently dominate the focus. There is a similar pattern in donor-funded education projects – objectives such as access or equity often play a significant role in project design and implementation, with an assumption that learning will follow. Yet very few education programs in developing countries – whether led by governments or donors or both – have demonstrated an impact on learning outcomes. Currently, three out of five of the largest global funders of basic education have no evidence of impact on literacy at scale. Those few programs that have achieved impact on learning outcomes have done so not by accident but by focusing relentlessly on learning and making intentional programmatic decisions to maximize learning outcomes.

A Luminos student in Ghana raises her hand to answer a math problem during a numeracy lesson. (Photo: Obeng Baah for the Luminos Fund)

Measure

Once there is a commitment to prioritize student learning outcomes as a central aim, the logical next step is to measure whether children are grasping foundational skills. This is critical because there is no one magic formula that is guaranteed to deliver the same impact to every child, regardless of context. For example, Luminos uses a structured pedagogy approach and has achieved remarkable learning outcomes in Liberia. But there are also examples of structured pedagogy interventions that have achieved little to no impact. Indeed, some interventions show strong impact in one context but negative impact in other contexts.

Effectively measuring learning takes careful skill and effort. The evidence tells us that if given the chance to cheat on assessments, humans generally will do so! Therefore, ensuring assessments are kept strictly confidential and training staff to rigorously collect, clean, and analyze data is of paramount importance.

At Luminos, we are laser-focused on measuring our impact on children’s learning and we regularly collect and use real-time data to drive the necessary program adaptations. Such efforts require significant investments in time, staff capacity, tools, and resources. But by investing in these systems, you gain a clear and accurate understanding of the extent to which each student is learning.

Iterate

Data is critically important to verify whether your program is actually achieving impact. It also informs decisions that will boost student learning outcomes as you implement. Getting education right for children requires careful research, astute design, disciplined implementation, and, importantly, rapid cycle iteration.

Iterations can and should be made at multiple levels. For example, at a classroom level, robust data can help teachers target support to struggling students, including those with learning differences such as dyslexia. At a program level, data can reveal which specific skills or areas students are struggling with which can, in turn, inform plans for teacher training and coaching.

For Luminos, iterative design is a core component of our identity and approach, and research results continuously demonstrate our approach’s powerful impact on student learning.

Learn more about Luminos’ approach to iterative design in the Luminos Method!

Learn More

The commit, measure, iterate steps are not unique to the Luminos Fund. For instance, very similar principles are embedded in the RISE Five Actions to Accelerate Progress in Learning, the UNICEF RAPID framework to accelerate foundational learning, and the Teaching at the Right Level (TaRL) approach.

This convergence on best practices is indeed a good thing! We do not need a new silver bullet to solve the learning crisis – several organizations are already succeeding in improving learning, and they identify these three steps as integral to their success. We know what works; now, let’s embrace these key steps to create a future where all children achieve joyful, foundational learning.

Dr. Kirsty Newman is the Vice President of Programs at the Luminos Fund where she oversees the global programs team to support joyful, foundational learning for children at the margins. Before joining Luminos, Kirsty held senior leadership roles in various bilateral, multi-lateral, and non-governmental development organizations. Kirsty trained initially as a scientist (she has a PhD in Microbiology and Immunology) and has worked throughout her career to enable local research and evidence networks to support decision-making.

Kirstin Buchanan is the Communications and Advocacy Manager at the Luminos Fund where she amplifies student voices and program stories, in addition to helping drive content, messaging, and fundraising strategy. Kirstin leads the development and implementation of the communication strategy relating to the organization’s advocacy and government engagement work. She also leads engagement with the Luminos Fund Advisory Board.

Three Tips to Maximize the Impact of Investments In Accelerated Learning

Aug 5, 2024 | Luminos Fund | In the News

By: Dr. Kirsty Newman

Getting education delivery right, especially in low-resourced contexts, is hard. Globally, 82 million primary school-age children are out of school, and millions more are in schools that fail to teach them to read. Increasingly, accelerated learning is seen as a crucial tool for countering learning loss, closing education access gaps, and supporting the most vulnerable out-of-school children to reintegrate into government schools.

Despite good faith efforts to support the most marginalized children to get a second chance at education, rarely is global education funding directed towards education interventions having an impact on children’s learning. Currently, three out of five of the largest global funders of basic education have no evidence of impact on literacy outcomes at scale.

Dr. Kirsty Newman, Luminos Vice President of Programs

The Luminos Fund, an international education nonprofit, delivers transformative, accelerated learning programs in four African countries. In just 10 months, Luminos students progress from not recognizing letters of the alphabet to reading short stories.

A recent randomized controlled trial (RCT) demonstrates the powerful impact of our approach on student learning and finds that the Luminos program is one of only three education programs shown to be both transformational for children’s learning and cost-effective.

The Luminos program is one of only three education programs that has been shown to be both transformational for children’s learning and cost-effective. Source: USAID, Early Grade Reading Barometer, GEEAP

Throughout my career in bilateral, multilateral, and non-governmental development organizations, including as Vice President of Programs at the Luminos Fund, I have worked to enable local research and evidence networks to support decision-making. Drawing from our experience at Luminos and the global evidence base, I propose three clear recommendations for maximizing the impact of investments in accelerated learning.

1. Scale What is Working Already

Donors should expand and scale up programs that have an established track record of impacting learning outcomes. This means identifying programs that routinely gather data on student learning and can demonstrate that they are improving learning outcomes.

The reality is that many, if not most, international education interventions set up to improve learning fail. Unlike other sectors such as health, education reform cannot be solved by a single formula or approach that guarantees the same impact for every child, regardless of context. Therefore, it cannot be assumed that a new program or organization will be able to achieve high impacts, even if it uses approaches that have been proven to work elsewhere. In our experience, successful education programs are those that commit to a single focus of achieving impact on learning, routinely gather data to assess whether children are grasping foundational skills, and continuously iterate to refine program implementation and maximize impact.

All too often, the dominant model for non-governmental organizations measures success by a program’s adherence to the original design plans rather than student learning gains. In my experience, rigid donor procurement systems set up to support new programs or projects that adhere to a strict design structure compound this challenge, and significantly limit funding for existing programs. Such procurement systems lack the flexibility needed to support existing programs that may not fit perfectly to the donor specifications but have proven impacts on learning outcomes. Generally, it is much more cost-effective to fund programs that have already devoted time and resources to optimizing learning outcomes, rather than to establish entirely new projects.

Innovating to increase the likelihood that funds go to projects that work is possible. One such example is a recent change in the rules for the Foreign, Commonwealth, and Development Office (FCDO) procurement to ban exclusivity agreements in consortia. This change allows local organizations to join multiple bidding consortia, reducing the risk of exclusion from funding opportunities and ensuring that high-impact, evidence-based education programs are more likely to receive support.

3 Tips to Maximize Impact of Investments_header 2

Luminos student Momodou demonstrates in front of his class in The Gambia. (Photo: Lena Nian for the Luminos Fund)

2. Simplify to Succeed

Accelerated learning programs that achieve impact generally focus on building children’s foundational literacy and numeracy skills. These foundational skills are crucial to enabling lifelong learning in children and improving their chances for success later in life. Yet at present, most education systems fail to build these skills; in low- and middle-income countries, 70% of children are unable to read by age 10.

Given the scale of the learning crisis, it is essential to prioritize efforts that improve learning outcomes. Successful organizations implementing foundational learning programs recognize the need to simplify to succeed. This may require delaying other competing education reform goals, such as expanding schooling, and other aspects of broad national curricula to focus relentlessly on building foundational skills. This does not mean that other skills or priorities in education are not important – it just means that there is a necessary sequence. If children do not master foundational learning early, they cannot attain more complex educational goals later.

If children do not master foundational learning early, they cannot attain more complex educational goals later.

3. Choose Impact Metrics Wisely

Often, the success of accelerated learning programs is measured by the proportion of children who complete the program and transition into government schools. While this is undoubtedly important, it is not the only metric. On its own, such data does not provide a sufficient measure of whether children have mastered the foundational learning skills that will be necessary for them to benefit from further schooling. Research shows that without strong foundations in literacy and numeracy, children are likely to fall behind, and drop out of school altogether.

In contrast, a longitudinal study of the Luminos accelerated learning program in Ethiopia confirms the transformative impact of foundational learning on children’s education trajectory. Children who completed the Luminos program persist in school longer and complete primary school at nearly twice the rate of their peers who started in the government school system. Furthermore, Luminos students continued to outperform their peers academically even six years after completing the program – a fact that is particularly remarkable given that the students in the Luminos program are some of the most disadvantaged children.

In addition to enabling children to succeed in further schooling, strong foundations in literacy and numeracy skills are critical for the employability, trainability, and resilience of older children and youth. This is particularly relevant when transitioning to government schools after completing an accelerated learning program is not possible due to the student’s age, or the fragility of an education system because of conflict or crisis. In such circumstances, it is still possible to dramatically improve students’ life chances by equipping them with foundational literacy and numeracy skills. Thus, in some cases, learning outcomes (even without high transition rates) may be the more effective impact metric.

Luminos students complete an activity in their student book during class in Ghana. (Photo: Obeng Baah for the Luminos Fund)

At Luminos, we believe all children should have the opportunity to experience joyful learning, and we know how transformational effective, accelerated learning programs can be for bridging education access gaps and addressing the learning crisis. The need for funding to support such programs has never been greater. By following these guidelines, funders can maximize the impact of every dollar invested in this crucial work.

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