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Theirworld Education Innovation Award winners announced

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Freya Lucas

Nov 20, 2024

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Ten projects designed to engage and inspire marginalised children have been named as winners in the latest Theirworld Education Innovation Awards.

The Theirworld Education Innovation Awards were launched in 2021 and are open to non-profits, non Government organisations (NGOs) and charities. The fourth round of the awards attracted more than 1,200 expressions of interest, with applications from dozens of countries.

“New approaches are crucial to ending the global education crisis and ensuring every child has the best start in life, a safe place to learn and skills for their future,” Angela Solomon, Theirworld’s Senior Advisor for Innovation, Projects and Research, said.

“We see this as an investment in unlocking big change for children all around the world. This new cohort of 10 innovators is changing young lives through digital empowerment, early child education, AI-enabled technologies and much more. We are excited for them to benefit from the awards programme and can’t wait to see their impact grow.”

Winning projects ranged from using AI to turn community stories into picture books in Uganda to mobile libraries helping children shine in the Afghan capital Kabul.

A full list of winners, along with a brief description of their projects, appears below:

PACEmaker International (Kenya, Malawi)

This project turns Kenyan high school graduates on gap years and university students on long holidays into teaching supporters for students in underserved schools. Supported schools report an 8 per cent average improvement in national exam results and 93 per cent retention rates.

“We solve the education problem by solving another problem – the youth engagement problem,” a PACEmaker International spokesperson said.

Over the next three years, the goal is to scale up and reach 60,000 learners through 400 youth supporters in Kenya and Malawi.

Enjuba Spelling Bee (Uganda)

Enjuba enhances literacy and provides high-quality pre-primary education in rural areas. Using artificial intelligence, it curates stories from children, elders and parents and turns them into picture books for children and libraries. It also runs spelling competitions and activities.

“Our innovation focuses on making learning fun and tapping into the intrinsic motivation of children to become lifelong learners,” Enjuba said.

In the next year, the organisation aims to scale up to reach 47,000 children through partnerships with rural public schools and local government.

ThinkZone (India)

ThinkZone created a home-based programme that enhances education access in underserved communities by engaging parents in children’s learning. The system offers personalised support via affordable technology and its curriculum is endorsed by governmental bodies.

“We offer tailored educational materials in vernacular languages, free of charge,” a spokesperson explained.

The goal in the next three years is to expand the programme beyond its current 10,000 learners and integrate it into the state education system.

Charmaghz Cultural Services (Afghanistan)

The organisation created 32 mobile libraries, staffed by trained women librarians, that visit disadvantaged areas of Kabul.

They have been visited over a million times since 2018, with 54 per cent of visits being made by girls. Children in formal schools have also been reached through the Library Box project.

“We have been able to create spaces that foster learning and challenge the barriers that children face daily,” Charmaghz said.

Over the next three years, Charmaghz wants to increase its literacy and numeracy to support two million Afghan children.

The Reflective Learning Foundation NPC (South Africa)

Reflective Learning is a tech-based teacher tool which identifies and closes gaps in students’ mathematics and English knowledge. The software diagnoses what help each individual student needs then offers remedial learning. An AI-driven reading tool is being created to allow students to tell interactive stories.

“We aim to tackle learning gaps that have developed from previous years, instead of focusing on delivering the curriculum of the grade the student is in,” a spokesperson noted.

The goal is to scale up and reach 100,000 students through partners in countries where the foundation does not currently operate.

Power Learn Project (Kenya)

The organisation developed a virtual tech-skills learning portal to train youth in software development, enabling graduates of the 16-week programme to access work as junior software developers or tech-start-up owners with private enterprises and government bodies.

“Our solution has democratised access to tech-skilling by enabling thousands of learners to gain software development skills through a virtual learning platform,” Reflective Learning said.

The project aims to provide tech-job placements, internships and tech-enterprise support for 300,000 youth and children in 10 conflict-affected countries through collaborations.

EdCamp Ukraine

EdCamp applies social, emotional and ethical (SEE) learning, a system that develops 24 different capabilities including systems thinking, social skills, compassion and body literacy. The system has been piloted, with teacher training models, in 26 Ukrainian schools.

“Our innovation is the first national-level ecosystem, in Ukrainian, for social and emotional skills in schools, fostering children’s resiliency amid the war,” a spokesperson shared.

Over the next three years, the aim is to expand the SEE learning programme and introduce it to 400,000 students through a network of 50 hub schools.

Stichting Designathon Works (global)

The organisation empowers children aged five to 12 years of age, from across the globe, to design sustainable futures using simple technologies through a collaborative design process.

Children address issues such as climate change, water scarcity and poverty – designing, building and presenting their solutions.

Designathon Works said that what distinguishes its offer is an innovative educational approach, empowering children as proactive change agents in their communities and the world.

Within the next three years, Designathon Works aims to deliver a climate change and environmental curriculum, through partners in Asia, Africa and Europe.

Digital Chronicles (Uganda, Tanzania and Rwanda)

Digital Chronicles designed and developed an offline diagnostic tech assistant for primary schools called 3-D TATLAM. It diagnoses each learner’s competence in academic and other activities, identifying areas of strength and weakness, and informs the teacher of focus areas.

“It assists the teachers to generate lesson plans using weekly and termly planners and a curriculum monitoring tool. The application helps teachers analyse exam results and complete report cards,” a spokesperson explained.

The scale-up aim over the next three years is to reach more than 37,000 students, with 3-D TATLAM rolling out in 150 primary schools.

Digify Foundation (South Africa)

The foundation’s Kitso bot is a WhatsApp-based interactive learning platform that addresses limited digital literacy and internet safety skills among young Africans. They access self-paced education, multimedia resources and personalised learning paths tailored and analysed by the system.

“Kitso scales effortlessly to meet the needs of an ever-growing learner base without the significant costs associated with expanding physical classrooms or teacher resources,” a spokesperson explained.

The foundation aims to grow Kitso’s user base in the next three years to 10 million across Africa and beyond – also enhancing the curriculum, establishing educational partnerships and integrating AI for personalised learning.

Meet the previous Education Innovation Awards winners or learn more about Theirworld’s work.

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