BEC Photo Contest Winner and Finalists

BEC received hundreds of incredible photo submissions. Each one is a beautiful depiction of the impact of international basic education programs around the world. Thank you to all of the BEC members who participated!

BEC’s Photo Contest Winner
(Sightsavers)

Second Place
(Room to Read)

Third Place
(Right to Play)

Fourth Place
(Right to Play)

Fifth Place
(Right to Play)

Sixth Place
(Right to Play)

Seventh Place
(World Learning)

Eighth Place
(Right to Play)

Ninth Place
(Right to Play)

Tenth Place
(Sightsavers)

BEC's Gender & Social Inclusion Working Group Publishes a new Gender & Education Advocacy One-Pager!

Throughout 2023, BEC’s Gender and Social Inclusion working group engaged in a collaborative effort to produce the following Gender & Education one-pager, to bolster advocacy around these issues across the International Basic Education community.

Please click on the image below or HERE to download the one-pager.

Special thanks to Julia Miller (FHI 360), Sarah Bever (IREX; BEC GSI co-chair); Abie Spangler (Room to Read; former BEC GSI co-chair), Julianne Norman (RTI; BEC GSI co-chair).

BEC Welcomes CARE Back as a New Member!

Founded in 1945, CARE is an international humanitarian organization based in Atlanta, GA, that works around the globe to save lives, defeat poverty, and achieve social justice. We seek a world of hope, inclusion, and social justice, where poverty has been overcome and all people live with dignity and security. This year, CARE and partners worked in 109 countries, reaching 167 million people through more than 1,600 projects.

CARE believes every child has the right to a quality education. We put women and girls in the center because we know that we cannot overcome poverty until all people have equal rights and opportunities. To achieve this vision, CARE strives to increase access to quality education, further gender equity, and promote the empowerment of adolescents, including leadership, life, work, and digital skills. We work with the hardest-to-reach children and young people, including girls and women, who have less access to education and economic opportunities.

CARE has institutional expertise in early childhood education, accelerated learning, non-formal education, youth workforce development, education in emergencies, gender and girls’ education, and monitoring, evaluation and assessment.

Some examples of CARE’s work include:

  • CARE’s non-formal education program called Strengthening Opportunities for Adolescent Resilience (SOAR) is a multi-country initiative working with Ministries of Education to provide accelerated education for out-of-school adolescents, particularly girls, enabling them to acquire key academic and life skills. In addition to building their capacity to read and do math, the SOAR curriculum includes leadership skills, financial literacy, and sexual & reproductive health. Adolescents who complete the program transition into formal school, enter a vocational training program or seek meaningful work. SOAR was first developed and implemented in India in 1999 before being replicated in additional countries, including Afghanistan, Ethiopia, Malawi, Nepal, Pakistan, Somalia, Tanzania, Zambia, and Zimbabwe, and has reached over 4 million students globally.

    Notably, in Somalia, the USAID- and FCDO-funded Adolescent Girls’ Education in Somalia (AGES) program has reached 90,698 out-of-school ultra-vulnerable adolescents and female youth to date, using accelerated education and leadership development skills to transition them to formal education or self- or wage-employment and boost youth-led civic action.

  • INDIA PARTNERSHIP FOR EARLY LEARNING (IPEL) is a five-year project supported by USAID to transform foundational learning in primary schools in the states of Bihar, Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh, and the Municipal Corporation of Delhi. The project aims to ensure children (by grade 2) acquire reading with comprehension (in any vernacular language) and fluency, solve two-digit subtraction, and handle and express emotions. The project is also working to support state governments in operationalizing and strengthening preschool education in line with the vision of the National Education Policy.

  • HATUTAN – or Hahán ne’ebé Atu fó Tulun ho Nutrisaun no Edukasaun/ Food to Support Nutrition and Education funded by the USDA McGovern Dole Program builds partnerships between schools and their communities to improve literacy, learning, health, and nutrition for school children. CARE in Timor-Leste supports the program in the four municipalities of Ainaro, Ermera, Manatuto and Oé-cusse, targeting 46,614 total beneficiaries, including 43,035 school-aged children, 741 teachers, 188 schools, 870 Parent-Teacher Associations, 1,740 Village Savings and Loans Associations and 40 Government of Timor-Leste representatives. As part of the program, HATUTAN II provides school meals to students consisting of local and USDA commodities.  The meals are protein-dense, resulting in more than doubling literacy scores for students who consume them.  HATUTAN II is working with the Government of Timor-Leste to ensure that achievements are sustained, that the country can graduate from USDA assistance and that it has a self-sufficient school feeding program that helps students reach their full potential.

  • Multilingual Education: CARE pioneered multilingual education approaches in India, Peru, and Cambodia, supporting Ministries of Education in developing curricula and guidance on teacher training. Notably, CARE supports the Ministry of Education in Cambodia to implement multilingual education activities. In July 2020, CARE was awarded for developing remote learning approaches for minority students as part of the national COVID-19 response.

  • Supporting Education Sector Strengthening: CARE supports governments globally in improving quality education for every child. In Somalia, CARE supported the Federal Ministry of Education and state Ministries to implement the GPE-funded Education Sector Program Implementation Grant, increasing access to education for 50,000 students and supporting all primary schools in five states with quality learning materials, school management and teacher training. It now supports the Ministry through the Girls’ Education Accelerator to achieve its Partnership Compact to increase equitable access to education, improve literacy and numeracy outcomes, and strengthen the regulatory system. It also supports the Ministry through the System Capacity Grant, which will facilitate sector planning, coordination, monitoring, and capacity strengthening. In India, CARE works with the State governments in Uttar Pradesh and Odisha to implement improved literacy teaching strategies and increase access to school for marginalized girls. CARE is also an accredited Grant Agent to the Global Partnership for Education.

Learn more about CARE here and its education work here.

BEC Welcomes One World Network of Schools as a New Member!

The One World Network of Schools is a global nonprofit whose mission is to help education leaders solve their most complex challenge - the gap between ambition and implementation.

One World leverages over 25 years of global experience to serve education partners across Latin America, Africa, the Middle East, South Asia and Eastern Europe. We work with a wide range of education organizations – from networks of schools to ministries of education and higher ed institutions – to design and implement solutions that endure.

As senior-level advisors and experienced trainers, One World supports local education partners over multiple years by providing the thought partnership and capacity building they seek so classroom learning can thrive. One World’s passion is instructional excellence and helping schools deepen the quality of teaching and learning by strengthening their organizational culture, data-driven instruction, and teacher effectiveness.

One World focuses our efforts on working deeply with education organizations to help them become exemplars in their local context.  We then identify the effective practices that helped achieve those results to then codify and disseminate them at a regional or national scale. 

Below is a sampling of partners that are illustrative of our work.

  • Aptus is an NGO that provides training and resources to public schools throughout Chile. One World provides support with curriculum development, teacher and leader training, and school improvement strategies.

  • ISFODOSU is a university in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. One World partners with ISFODOSU to deliver an Instructional Leadership program for school leaders and to provide intensive coaching to pilot schools implementing an early grade literacy approach.

  • Reflective Learning is an online tech platform based in South Africa that provides gamified learning modules for students in English and Mathematics. One World works with the leadership team to strengthen their performance and improve school implementation.

  • Next Generation Early Grade Reading (NextGen) is a USAID initiative to improve early grade literacy in Malawi. One World works with Chemonics to support the design and implementation of aligned teaching techniques in classrooms across all primary schools.

  • Akanksha is a network of 26 government schools across India. One World supports the leadership team in key areas, including alignment of the education support team, curriculum development, and implementing a personalized learning model.

  • Educating the Future Activity (EFA) is a USAID initiative to improve the impact of school leaders and regional directors in the country of Georgia. One World works with Chemonics to support their in-country team to lead training for regional leaders and new principals.

 

Learn more by visiting One World’s website.

BEC Welcomes EdIntersect as a New Member!


Welcome to BEC!


EdIntersect is a certified woman-owned small business (WOSB) based in North Carolina’s Research Triangle. The global education firm draws on a seasoned, international academic-practitioner network to provide research, evaluation, assessment, capacity development, and program design services for education sector programs, notably in literacy, numeracy, and social-emotional learning. The firm’s commitment to an intersectional lens means that gender and disability inclusion integrate thoroughly into EdIntersect approaches. EdIntersect’s consideration of intersectionality recognizes that the many elements of individual identity - disability, gender, ethnicity, race, age, language, urbanicity, class or caste, citizenship status or religion - are not static characteristics. These dynamics also overlap and interact in ways that affect how individuals or groups experience marginalization and exclusion from education. The firm brings innovative and technology-infused approaches to evaluation and to engagement with stakeholders of all types, with a strong commitment and proven capabilities in building local capacity and local leadership in each context where EdIntersect works. Inclusion in a distinctly participatory process in each local context is a key priority in all of the work conducted by the EdIntersect team. Together, the EdIntersect team has worked in over 25 countries on reading, math, social-emotional learning, gender, disability, girls’ education and empowerment, and social behavior across the life cycle and education ecosystem, from early childhood and pre-primary to primary, secondary, and on to teacher training levels. In addition, EdIntersect has conducted country-wide education sector evaluations, performance evaluations for specific projects, and partnered with development organizations and donors as a prime contractor and subcontractor in technical assistance, system-strengthening, capacity-partnering, and research and evaluation roles.

 

The EdIntersect team brings the overall knowledge and planning to carry out research required by donors, but with an expertise unique to the depth of skills and experience brought by the firm. Drawing on meaningful assessment principles, EdIntersect develops research instruments with a suite of sub-skills to assess learner outcomes in a variety of national languages depending on the context, which address needs at the country level but also speak to donor and international guidelines. EdIntersect works hand in hand with governments, ministries of education, and local organizations to build understanding around approaches to foundational skills development and assessment, as well as to engagement with school and home stakeholders relevant to the learner’s development. As a research team, EdIntersect brings a life course view of learning to its work as well as forward-thinking understanding and concentrated experience in using USAID’s frameworks for national and district assessments to look at school quality, and literacy and foundational skills progress for learners and the systems serving them.

 

Since its inception in 2013, EdIntersect has been working across the globe to incorporate multiple factors using an intersectional approach to frame critical issues and create practical, lasting solutions. EdIntersect is currently undertaking or has successfully implemented, along with its partners, USAID projects focused in pre-primary and primary education, including USAID Malawi NextGen, USAID Tajikistan Learn Together Activity, USAID Senegal Lecture Pour Tous, and USAID Rwanda Soma Umenye. In addition, EdIntersect served as the lead evaluation partner for the adolescent girls’ leadership and empowerment through education program USAID Mali GLEE over the course of that five-year award. EdIntersect also recently completed education sector evaluations funded by the World Bank and UNICEF in Cape Verde and Nigeria respectively. The EdIntersect team works closely with counterparts in diverse country contexts on capacity building across thematic areas, incorporating a seasoned teaching and learning approach for education systems and inclusive education solutions that take into account gender, disability status, rural/urban location, language group, and marginalizing factors specific to each context. In this sense, EdIntersect directly shares in BEC’s mission to “Promote expanded, equitable, access to quality basic education so that all children have the chance to learn.”

Visit EdIntersect’s website to learn more:

https://edintersect.com/

October 24 Webinar: Lessons and New Directions in Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) Measurement

The Basic Education Coalition's Monitoring, Evaluation, Research, & Learning (MERL) working group is excited to host this webinar on Lessons and New Directions in Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) Measurement.

During the webinar, we'll learn from the following BEC member interventions:

  • FHI 360 will share its process for developing the Rwanda SEL assessment tool aligned with the Rwanda national SEL framework on the USAID/Rwanda Schools and Systems (Tunoze Gusoma) program.

  • RTI International will share about its work developing a national survey in Kenya that collects information on both social emotional learning and educational achievement.

  • Teach for All (and partner organizations Enseña por Paraguay, Enseña Ecuador, and Enseña por Colombia) will share about its development of a Student Learning Assessment Item Bank in the LAC region that measures student learning outcomes in academic (math, reading) and non-academic (social-emotional learning) domains aligned to local and international frameworks.

We look forward to seeing you there!

BEC Welcomes Humanity & Inclusion as a New Member!


Welcome to BEC!


Founded in 1982 and a co-recipient of the 1997 Nobel Peace Prize, Humanity & Inclusion (HI), formerly named Handicap International, is an independent and impartial organization working in situations of poverty and exclusion, conflict, and disaster. HI works alongside people with disabilities and individuals living in situations of extreme hardship, taking action and bearing witness in order to respond to their essential needs, improve their living conditions and promote respect for their dignity and fundamental rights. Since HI was founded in 1982, our work has benefited tens of millions of people worldwide. In 2022, we ran 466 projects in 60 countries. 

Humanity & Inclusion is a federation implementing projects in over 60 countries with eight national associations in Belgium, France, the UK, Germany, Luxembourg, Switzerland, the USA and Canada. Inclusive education (IE) is a core part of HI’s global strategy (2016-2025) which is to promote access to services (mainstream or specific) and to promote the social participation and equal opportunities of people with disabilities and vulnerable populations in emergency, post-emergency and development contexts.  

Humanity & Inclusion has been working in the field of education for more than 20 years and collaborates with education, social and healthcare partners to ensure quality inclusive education for children with disabilities primarily in the state formal education system. We are currently implementing more than 60 education projects in 27 countries across Africa, the Middle East and Asia. Since 2015, Inclusive Education in Emergencies (IEiE) has been a sub-sector within HI’s IE programming, growing to a portfolio of 15 IEiE projects in 14 countries. 

A core strength of HI’s operating model is our qualified, dedicated and skilled teams in-country, technically supported by experts in HI’s headquarters, and close partnerships with local implementing partners including Organizations of People with Disabilities (OPDs). In addition, HI is a recognized actor on the international scene: HI is part of different education networks, including the Global Campaign for Education (GCE) international and various national branches (Send My Friend (UK), Coalition Education (France), Educaid (Belgium) and GCE-US the International Network for EiE (INEE), Educaid, EENET and IDDC inclusive education working groups. Through our membership to IDDC we are also directly involved in the Global Action on Disability (GLAD) network and specifically the Inclusive Education working group, as co-chair representing the IDDC network. Our membership in these networks is helping to raise the issue of disability inclusive education within the wider mainstream education sector and the wider disability sector.

During the recent years, HI has been involved in several important events for inclusive education, such as taking part in the UNESCO Conference in Columbia to celebrate 25 years since the first Salamanca statement on inclusive education ( 2019) ,helping to shape the recommendations for the Global Education Monitoring (GEM) report on inclusion in education (2020),  the UN Transforming Education Summit (2022), and inputting into the agenda and commitments for the Global Disability Summit (2018 and 2022) . HI has also been involved in drafting various key chapters and statements around Inclusive Education for children with disabilities, for example in relation to the HLPF reviewing SDG 4. 

Learn more about Humanity & Inclusion at www.hi-us.org.

BEC Members Chemonics and Room to Read Commemorate International Literacy Day

The Unlocking Literacy: Navigating Challenges in Early Reading event marked the 2023 International Literacy Day with a panel discussion on the global state of literacy and its importance as a basic human right.

Chemonics, in partnership with co-hosts Room to Read and Reading Partners DC, were proud to host Unlocking Literacy: Navigating Challenges in Early Reading on September 7, 2023, at their corporate headquarters in Washington, DC’s Navy Yard neighborhood. The event saw engagement from a diverse array of attendees from literacy advocates to graduate students.

By discussing tangible challenges and solutions with diverse literacy advocates, powerbrokers, and champions, the event built discourse and reflected on literacy as the human rights issue of our time. The literacy issue is seen clearly in statistics; according to the National Assessment of Educational Progress, over 50% of Black, Hispanic, and American Indian/Alaska Native fourth graders read “below basic” compared to 37% of all fourth graders in the United States. Key to the discussion were selected clips from The Right to Read, a new film from Roco Films and executive-produced by LaVar Burton.

Opening remarks by Chemonics' Education Global Practice Lead Audrey Spencer highlighted literacy as a basic human right, calling for focus on education interventions that aim to provide inclusive, equitable, accessible, and quality education to all. Local middle-school teacher and author of A-Train Allen and Nearer My Freedom, Lesley Younge, delivered the keynote address underlining the impetus for effective literacy instruction and grounded the themes of the event in her personal and professional experiences as a mother and a teacher.

In her keynote address Ms. Younge said, "While there is much work and even struggle ahead, the reward is to collectively offer every child within our reach this precious gift, one that sows seeds of opportunity and self-determination in every area of life. One that builds bridges to people, information, and the larger world. This gift requires unique and special delivery, one mind at a time, one connection at a time. And as they say, many hands make light work. There are children making gains today who will backslide tomorrow if we are not vigilant, if we do not all hold ourselves accountable for growing the gift. For most of our kids it will take years to become proficient at reading and writing and they deserve a knowledgeable and committed educator at every step of their journey. Imparting the gift of literacy takes teamwork and a collaborative mindset, the kind demonstrated today by our hosts: Chemonics, Room to Read, and Reading Partners. I stand ready to grab the baton and run my leg. Are you?”

The esteemed panel included Dr. Joanie Cohen-Mitchell (Policy and Technical Leadership Lead, Center for Education, USAID), Dr. Katherine Norris (Chair, Department of Curriculum and Instruction, Howard University), Dr. Kenya Dugger (Sr. Advisor/Director of DE&I, Chemonics International), Heather Simpson (Chief Program Officer, Room To Read), and Audu Liman (Head of Atiku Institute for Development, American University of Nigeria; USAID Global Reading Network). The panelists discussed key issues surrounding literacy including the advent of technology and its role in teaching literacy, access to quality reading materials, evidence-based literacy instruction, and emerging needs for equitable learning from their personal, professional, and organizational perspectives. The post-event social produced new connections and collaborations that will continue championing and advocating for literacy as a basic human right.

Chemonics’ global education work is driven by the belief that tomorrow’s world must be better than today’s, which is why our approach to working with children, youth, and adults centers on continuous learning and instructional excellence. Chemonics has been sponsoring Reading Partners DC since 2019 and are frequent collaborators with Room To Read on international literacy projects.

BEC Launches New Universal Design for Learning (UDL) Video

In Education, One Size Does Not Fit All

Not all students learn the same way. Academic researchers have found that, just as every individual has their own fingerprint, every single student looks, sees, and senses instruction differently.

Universal Design for Learning (UDL) is an education framework specifically designed to reach ALL students at the same time. That’s why, over the last 30 years — and with particularly explosive growth in the last decade — this new, evidence-based approach for learning has steadily gained ground. In fact, UDL has become experts’ preferred way to design learning experiences around the world and USAID is now requiring the UDL approach to be integrated into all new education programming.

BEC’s Gender & Social Inclusion (GSI) working group banded together with Brooklyn Story Lab to develop a quick-and-simple overview of this inclusive education approach. Our hope is that implementers, donors, school leadership, teachers, and others around the world will use this video to become better informed about UDL — and perhaps even implement it or encourage its implementation.