The World Innovation Summit for Education (WISE) has announced 15 projects from nine countries as finalists for the 2017 WISE Awards.
WISE will announce the six winners in September.
The finalists have been selected from a number of projects from several countries around the world for their innovative and impactful approaches to today's most urgent education challenges.
Each year, the WISE Awards recognise and promote innovative projects that address global educational challenges.
The projects selected for the WISE Awards 2017 are ANEER, Morocco; Building a Teacher–led Movement for Change and Innovation, the UK; Lights to Learn, Spain; Mindspark: Personalised, technology-based learning, India; PhET Interactive Simulations, US; Open Book Publishers, UK; OPENPediatrics - Serious Games to Save Children's Lives, US; REACH, Ghana; 42, France; Science Bits, Spain; Shams Generation, Qatar; Tele-Education Project-SAME, India; The Learner Guide Programme, Tanzania/UK; The Speed School project, US and Ubongo Edutainment, Tanzania.
The projects tackle a number of pressing education issues, including early childhood education, basic infrastructure for schools, girls' education, coding and digital skills, access to books, critical medical care for children, boosting mathematics, science and reading levels, stimulating critical thinking and creativity, making learning fun and inclusive, and enhancing teacher motivation.
Stavros N Yiannouka, CEO of WISE, said: "The 2017 WISE Awards finalist projects have built effective, tested solutions to global education challenges. Whether ensuring access to fundamental primary education or preparing young people for the 21st century workplace, each project is already transforming lives and provides an inspirational model for other communities to adopt. This is vital to our mission at WISE, dedicated to empowerment and collaboration."
A pre-jury of international experts selected the 15 finalists and the process was overseen by independent education consultants from Parthenon-EY.
The finalists were evaluated according to strict criteria. They must be successful, innovative education projects that have already demonstrated a transformative impact on individuals, communities and society. They must be financially stable, have a clear development plan and be scalable and replicable.
The six WISE Awards winning projects will be announced in September and celebrated at the eighth WISE summit to take place from November 14 to 16 in Doha. In addition to publicity and networking opportunities, each project receives $20,000.
