From Classrooms to Systems: Ten Years of Joyful Learning in Ethiopia
Many education programs that work in a few hundred classrooms falter in a few thousand. Researchers call it “voltage drop”: as a program scales, training gets thinner, support stretches further, and learning gains decline.
How can an effective foundational learning program reach more children without losing its impact?
That question shaped Luminos’ tenth annual UNGA Week luncheon, where education leaders, funders, and partners gathered to reflect on our decade of work in Ethiopia, discuss results from our latest Ethiopia impact report, and launch our online library of structured pedagogy materials.
What Works in a Typical Classroom?
Dr. Benjamin Piper, Director of the Global Education Program at the Gates Foundation, opened the conversation by placing Luminos’ work within Ethiopia’s long history of literacy and education reform.
Structured pedagogy, which pairs teachers with sequenced lesson plans, robust training, and ongoing coaching, is widely recognized as a cost-effective way to strengthen foundational learning, but the real test is whether it holds up at scale. To pass that test, Ben argued, structured pedagogy cannot depend on an exceptional teacher working in ideal conditions. It must work for typical teachers in typical classrooms—and importantly, enable them to see children progressing. “I really have been thankful to have seen Luminos take their very strong model with very beautiful classrooms, scaling that level of intensity up to what would actually work in a rural school in Ethiopia. I think what we have today is what would actually work in a typical rural school,” he shared.
“I really have been thankful to have seen Luminos take their very strong model with very beautiful classrooms, scaling that level of intensity up to what would actually work in a rural school in Ethiopia.”
Dr. Benjamin Piper, Director of the Global Education Program at the Gates Foundation
Planting the Seed Where It Must Grow
Dr. Alemayehu “Alex” Hailu Gebre, Luminos’ Senior Director of Programs, took guests back to the origins of our work in Ethiopia where Luminos began a decade ago with an accelerated learning program. In joyful classrooms rooted in their communities, out-of-school children caught up and transitioned into government schools to continue their education with peers. Year after year, they made strong learning gains. But could this experience be sustained at scale?
That question helped shape our next chapter. Since 2022, Luminos has partnered with regional governments to strengthen the program by bringing structured pedagogy into mainstream schools and developing it alongside government from the beginning. As Alex put it, “You can’t plant a seed in a greenhouse and just transplant it. You have to sow it in its natural habitat, where it is supposed to grow.”
For Alex, sustainable scale starts with rejecting the divide between “us” and “them.” Government is not an audience waiting to receive a finished intervention. It is the education system itself, and the work must be developed within that system. “They are the mainstream. We are tributaries,” he said.
Government is not an audience waiting to receive a finished intervention. “They are the mainstream. We are tributaries.”
Dr. Alemayehu Hailu Gebre, Luminos Senior Director of Programs
In the most recent school year, Luminos worked with government partners in approximately 950 classrooms across Sidama and Tigray. In Sidama, the program expanded nearly fivefold government supervisors assumed responsibility for teacher coaching. Despite that growth and transfer of responsibility, children ended the 2025–26 school year reading an average of 23 correct words per minute—almost matching the previous year’s result of 24.
The results challenge the widely held assumption that voltage drop is inevitable. Luminos CEO, Caitlin Baron, noted “We don’t have to be satisfied with incremental learning gains. In fact, we shouldn’t be.”
Education reform requires substantial effort from ministries, teachers, partners, and communities. That makes it especially important to pursue improvements large enough to transform children’s learning. “Implementing even a mediocre education reform program is an enormous amount of work for partners, but most importantly for ministries. If we’re going to ask everyone to work as hard as we ask them to, let’s make sure we’re working to deliver transformational learning gains,” shared Caitlin.
“Implementing even a mediocre education reform program is an enormous amount of work for partners, but most importantly for ministries. If we’re going to ask everyone to work as hard as we ask them to, let’s make sure we’re working to deliver transformational learning gains.”
Caitlin Baron, CEO of the Luminos Fund
Developing Materials Worthy of Trust
Trust with government makes the work possible. The materials determine whether it works in the classroom. Neha Raheel, Luminos’ Director of Teaching and Learning, took guests behind those materials and the process that shapes them. “Alex has the harder job, which is to build the trust. My job is to ensure that when that trust is built, what we design is worthy of that trust,” shared Neha.
Before creating materials in a new region, Luminos begins by listening—to government partners, teachers, and language and numeracy experts.
Together, we examine how the language works, how much instructional time is available, what constraints teachers face, and what children need to learn.
Sometimes listening means changing course. In Sidama, government colleagues were initially concerned that having detailed, structured lesson plans might limit teachers’ autonomy in the classroom. So Luminos started with a lighter lesson-planning toolkit, gathering data on how teachers used it and what children learned, and sharing that data with government partners along the way. As the evidence built confidence, government chose to co-create structured daily lesson plans, or Teacher’s Guides, with Luminos.
Listening shapes how the materials handle contextual challenges such as language, too. In Tigray, the materials teach reading systematically at the fidel, or syllable, level to reflect the structure of Tigrinya script. In Oromia, Luminos and government experts found a locally acceptable way to preserve the essential principles of phonics while responding to the linguistic, historical, and political context surrounding Afaan Oromo. “Evidence can tell you what children need, but context is what tells you how to get that to children,” Neha explained.
“Evidence can tell you what children need, but context is what tells you how to get that to children.”
Neha Raheel, Luminos Director of Teaching and Learning
Sharing the Tools behind Luminos’ Learning
During the luncheon, Luminos launched its new online library of structured pedagogy materials from our programs in Ethiopia, Ghana, Liberia, and The Gambia. Our Teacher’s Guides, Student Books, and supplementary reading materials—in over seven languages—are all freely available, giving governments, educators, and education organizations ready-to-use resources they can tailor to their own classrooms.
The Iteration Cycle
Developed and refined over a decade of implementation our materials are free to download and adapt.
The resources are grounded in the science of reading and evidence-based approaches to foundational learning, while remaining locally rooted and aligned with national curricula. Developed and refined across a decade of implementation, they have been shaped through classroom testing, student learning data, teacher feedback, and continuous revision. “Our hope is that different organizations will download these materials, adapt them, make them their own, and use them to reach more and more children,” shared Neha.
Strong materials alone, however, are not enough. Effective implementation also depends on strong teacher training, classroom support, ongoing coaching, and real-time data that helps educators respond to children’s progress.
What Government-Led Reform Requires
Dr. Joan Osa Oviawe, founding Executive Director of Foundational Learning initiative for Government-led Transformation (FLIGHT), closed the panel by connecting Luminos’ experience in Ethiopia to a wider opportunity across Africa. FLIGHT is an African-led initiative designed to help governments overcome barriers to scaling foundational learning by connecting national priorities with African expertise, flexible support, catalytic funding, and a clear focus on learning outcomes.
Drawing on her own experience in government, Joan emphasized that government leadership must be more than an aspiration—it must shape how priorities are set and support is delivered.
It means listening when ministries identify their priorities, aligning support with the reforms they have chosen, and helping remove the practical barriers that prevent effective approaches from reaching more children.
“We want to move beyond the rhetoric of government-led reform and see how we can support African governments to scale—and scale well,” shared Joan.
“We want to move beyond the rhetoric of government-led reform and see how we can support African governments to scale—and scale well.”
Executive Director of Foundational Learning initiative for Government-led Transformation (FLIGHT)
Ten years into Luminos’ journey, our role continues to evolve: demonstrating what is possible, sharing the evidence and tools behind it, and supporting governments to take lasting ownership.
