The WISE Awards Recognizes Projects for Innovative Solutions to Urgent Education Challenges
The World Innovation Summit for Education (WISE), an international initiative for innovation and collaboration in education, today announced the Luminos Fund’s Speed School project as a winner of its 2017 WISE Awards, which recognize and promote innovative education initiatives around the world.
Based in Boston, the Speed School project is an intensive, child-centered program run by the Luminos Fund to enable out-of-school children to catch up to their grade level at government schools.
It is among six WISE Awards winners this year, selected by a panel of experts from a group of 15 finalists. Other winners include Colorado-based PhET Interactive Simulations, the engineering college 42 (with a presence in France and California), Lights to Learn (Spain/Latin America), The Learner Guide Program (Tanzania/UK) and Ubongo Edutainment (Tanzania).
Stavros N. Yiannouka, CEO of WISE, remarked: “From rural Tanzania and South America to Silicon Valley and Paris, our six WISE Awards winners reflect the wide range of what can be achieved in advancing education –whatever the social or geographical context– when there is a creative solution and a determination to see it through. We look forward to showcasing our winners and runners-up at the WISE Summit in Doha in November, and to supporting their progress as they grow.”
Caitlin Baron, CEO of the Luminos Fund, which runs the Speed School, said of winning the award: “This award will be invaluable in advancing our mission as the R&D lab for innovative ways to reach the last 10 percent of children around the world who are still denied the chance to go to school.”
To be selected, the winning projects were required to show success and innovation, demonstrating a transformative impact on individuals, communities and society. They must be financially stable, have a clear development plan and be scalable and replicable. The judging process as well as on-site due diligence was overseen by independent education consultants from Parthenon-EY.
The six WISE Awards winners as well as the runners-up will be celebrated at the eighth World Innovation Summit for Education, November 14-16, 2017, in Doha, Qatar. The application process for the 2018 WISE Awards will be launched at this year’s summit.
In addition to publicity and networking opportunities, each winning project receives $20,000 (US).
For further information, visit https://www.wise-qatar.org/wise-awards.
