Visit the Bilingual Boost website to learn more: www.bilingual-boost.org.
Accra, Ghana, April 27, 2026 — The Luminos Fund, with support from the Gates Foundation, is launching a new initiative to strengthen how children learn to read in multilingual classrooms across sub-Saharan Africa.
The three-year initiative, Bilingual Boost, will bring together community-based organizations, educators, researchers, and government partners to address a critical constraint to learning: the transition between languages of instruction in the classroom. Students often begin learning in their home language or another familiar language, but are expected too quickly to read and learn in a second language before foundational skills are fully established. As a result, too many children fall behind in both languages. The fact that nine out of ten children in low-income countries cannot read by age 10 underscores the scale of this challenge. There is strong evidence that learning in a familiar language is effective, but far less is known on how to support children as they shift to a second language. The transition can interrupt learning—especially for vocabulary and comprehension—making it harder for children to build on what they already know.
Bilingual Boost will generate new evidence about how children can transition from one language to another, without falling behind, by piloting bilingual literacy approaches across Ghana, Mozambique, and South Africa. The pilot will create practical, open-access resources for educators and governments to use to inform their own practice, with the potential to scale.
“Every child has the potential to learn far more, far faster than many systems expect,” said Caitlin Baron, CEO of the Luminos Fund and editor of The Luminos Method. “But too often, children are expected to learn in a language they do not yet understand. Bilingual Boost will help ensure that the most marginalized children can build strong foundations in a language they know and successfully transition to a second language.”
“Every child has the potential to learn far more, far faster than many systems expect. But too often, children are expected to learn in a language they do not yet understand. Bilingual Boost will help ensure that the most marginalized children can build strong foundations in a language they know and successfully transition to a second language.”
Caitlin Baron, CEO, The Luminos Fund
“Children learn best when they can first build strong reading skills in a language they speak and understand—and when schools know how to support them as they transition to a second language. Bilingual Boost is an important step toward identifying practical, evidence-based approaches that help teachers transfer skills from a child’s first language to a second language. By focusing on both foundational skills and how they transfer, this work can inform more effective instruction and policy at scale in typical classrooms in sub-Saharan Africa,” said Dr. Nic Spaull, Senior Program Officer at the Gates Foundation.
“Bilingual Boost is an important step toward identifying practical, evidence-based approaches that help teachers transfer skills from a child’s first language to a second language. By focusing on both foundational skills and how they transfer, this work can inform more effective instruction and policy at scale in typical classrooms in sub-Saharan Africa.”
Dr. Nic Spaull, Senior Program Officer, Gates Foundation
Working in partnership with Associação Progresso, Click Learning, and MAPA Consultores, Bilingual Boost will support children to build strong reading skills in their first language and successfully transfer those skills to a second language—an essential step for long-term learning success. The initiative will also identify what works to help children learn across languages and develop tools for teachers and Ministries of Education to improve instruction. This includes new approaches to measuring vocabulary and reading comprehension, as well as clear guidance on when and how to transition between languages in the classroom.
A central feature of the initiative is the Bilingual Advisory Council (BAC), an independent group led by experts from sub-Saharan Africa and beyond, advancing bilingual literacy. The BAC will contribute insights and guidance to efforts like Bilingual Boost while helping ensure the work reflects both the latest research and real classroom experience. The BAC will also play a key role in ensuring research findings reach policymakers and practitioners who can drive practical change.
For Luminos, the initiative builds on more than a decade of experience delivering cost-effective education programs that help vulnerable and out-of-school children to develop literacy, numeracy, and socio-emotional skills. Working in communities affected by crisis, poverty, and discrimination across sub-Saharan Africa and the Middle East, Luminos has helped nearly half a million children secure a second chance to learn. Bilingual Boost represents the next step in this work, applying these lessons to one of the most significant challenges facing education systems today: how children learn across languages.
Ultimately, our goal is to ensure all children have equal access to joyful, foundational learning.
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About the Gates Foundation
Guided by the belief that every life has equal value, the Gates Foundation works to help all people lead healthy, productive lives. In developing countries, they work with partners to create impactful solutions so that people can take charge of their futures and achieve their full potential. The Global Education team works to improve reading and math skills for children in sub-Saharan Africa and India. They develop innovative solutions rooted in data and evidence to accelerate improvements in learning outcomes, close research gaps, and test bold ideas that can lead to solutions that rapidly improve foundational learning on a broad scale.
About the Luminos Fund
The Luminos Fund runs education programs for some of the most vulnerable and hardest-to-reach children in sub-Saharan Africa and the Middle East. We support children to learn how to read, write, and do math through a joyful, activity-based curriculum that helps them catch up and thrive in school. Luminos’ 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 hundreds of thousands of children to develop literacy, numeracy and socio-emotional skills.
About Associação Progresso
PROGRESSO is a Mozambican civil society organization established in 1991, widely recognized for its pioneering role in promoting bilingual education in Mozambique. Since 2008, the organization has led the implementation and expansion of bilingual education, advancing literacy among children, youth, and adults through the use of local languages alongside Portuguese. Over the years, PROGRESSO has supported the introduction of bilingual education in more than 1,800 primary schools, strengthening early grade reading and writing skills. In addition, the organization has developed culturally relevant teaching and learning materials, including children’s books and supplementary reading resources in both Portuguese and local languages. The organization was awarded the UNESCO King Sejong Literacy Prize in 2015 and the International Reading Association (IRA) Award in 2005.
About Click Learning
Click Learning is an NGO that helps under-serviced primary schools in South Africa improve foundational literacy, numeracy and digital skills through online learning programs. These programs allow young learners to work at their own pace and navigate their learning journey using technology. In the process, Click Learning creates jobs for unemployed youth who assist schools and teachers with implementation.
About MAPA Consultores
MAPA Consultores is a Mozambique-based consulting firm that provides technical assistance, research, and implementation support to strengthen education systems and improve learning outcomes. MAPA works closely with government, donors, and local partners to design and support practical, scalable solutions in areas such as foundational learning, bilingual education, teacher professional development, and education research. With deep knowledge of the Mozambican context and strong local networks, MAPA helps bridge policy and implementation to ensure education initiatives are relevant, feasible, and positioned for impact.
