Doha: Six pioneering projects addressing global educational challenges have been recognised by WISE for their positive contribution to education and society.
The WISE Awards aim to highlight projects that have demonstrated impact in their communities and have the potential to set international standards and best practices worldwide. Since the creation of the programme in 2009, WISE, an initiative of Qatar Foundation, has received over 4,900 applications from more than 150 countries.
The 2022 WISE Awards winners, hailing from India, Qatar, Mexico, the USA, and Kenya, are models of excellence that serve as an inspiration for innovation and creative action for education. They tackle access to quality education in disadvantaged areas, early childhood development, collaborative learning networks, climate-action youth development, and social-emotional learning and wellbeing at school.
Stavros N. Yiannouka, CEO of WISE commented: “The work celebrated by the WISE Awards is important in spotlighting new possibilities offered by innovation in education, with each of the six 2022 WISE Awards winners demonstrating new and proven solutions to key education challenges within their communities and beyond.”
“Whether enabling access to quality early childhood education, empowering youth through climate action, instilling wellbeing practices across schools, and more, these winning projects are actively transforming young lives and empowering communities to take action in the face of today’s most heightened challenges”.
This year’s WISE Awards winners are: Opportunity EduFinance by Opportunity International is working to get more children into better quality schools with social finance in low- and middle-income countries across Africa, Asia, and Latin America. Opportunity EduFinance first partners with financial institutions to provide technical assistance to launch and grow Education Finance Portfolios.
It then invites partners’ school borrowers to join EduQuality, a three-year holistic training program designed to equip school leaders to run sustainable schools and increase the quality of education over time. Educating for Wellbeing by AtentaMente focuses on adult social and emotional competency (SEC) development, to promote educators’ wellbeing and build caring environments in the classroom and school. This in turn, provides a protective learning environment for students.
The approach combines professional educator training, a curriculum for students, leadership training, and resources to engage parents. In three years, 12,500 preschool principals, teachers and educational authorities have trained in EW.
Childcare Social Franchising by Kidogo was developed to support women as entrepreneurs to run their own early childhood centers, enabling young children to receive quality, affordable education and care. Kidogo is now the largest childcare network in Kenya, with over 750 franchises reaching 16,000 children.
Remake Learning connects students with learning experiences that cultivate creativity and imagination not only in the classroom but anywhere in the community. It is a peer network of over 1,200 members, including school administrators, teachers, artists, librarians, designers and more. Remake Learning brings educators and innovators together to create learning opportunities that are engaging, relevant, and equitable for students, and then supports them as they navigate rapid social and technological change.
The Internet Free Education Resource Bank by Education Above All is a universally accessible collection of technology-free and low-resource requiring project-based learning resources, games, and activities for an engaging and relevant student-led approach to learning. This adaptive solution has been used in different contexts, reaching over 827,000 learners in over 14 countries with over 30 partners, including marginalised learners in refugee settlements, remote rural communities, and underserved urban contexts.
