Luminos
The Luminos Fund works to provide every child with the chance to go to school. Its accelerated learning programme has already enabled over 480,000 children across sub-Saharan Africa and the Middle East to return to formal schooling. Since 2018, we’ve been supporting the Luminos Fund’s rapid growth in Ethiopia. Between 2022 and 2023, we also funded its back-to-school programme for Syrian refugee children in Lebanon. We’re now supporting Luminos' efforts in every country where it's active.
luminosfund.org | Partner since 2018
Challenge
1 in 5 children in sub-Saharan Africa are out of school, and 92% of children in low-income countries cannot read by age 10.
Response
Luminos works at the margins of the education system to bring quality education to children who have never attended school or have been forced to drop out due to crisis, poverty or discrimination. Its accelerated learning programme prepares vulnerable and out-of-school children in Ethiopia, Ghana, Lebanon and Liberia to return to state school by helping them fill the most important gaps in their education. It teaches them to read, write and solve basic maths problems.
Luminos’ programme uses a structured, play-based curriculum in local languages and monitors the attendance and progress of every learner. Crucially, its classes are smaller than average to ensure every child can receive focused attention.
Wherever it operates, Luminos works in partnership with community-based organisations to co-create country-specific curricula and implement its programme. Increasingly, Luminos trains government teams to implement its accelerated learning programme directly. For example, in Ethiopia, where more than 5 million children are out of school, the Ministry of Education is now replicating the Luminos programme, with highly encouraging results – demonstrating the potential for Luminos’ solution to spread and scale.
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