As many as 12 projects from 10 countries are in contention for the WISE (World Innovation Summit for Education) Awards 2023 and the six winners are expected to be announced this month.
WISE, a global education initiative of Qatar Foundation yearly awards six innovative projects from around the globe. The winners will be celebrated at the WISE 2023 in Doha from November 28-29. In addition to publicity and networking opportunities, each winning project will receive $20,000.
The 2023 WISE Awards finalists are Fontán Relational Education (FRE) by Colegio Fontán Capital (Colombia); Shamba Letu by So They Can (Tanzania); Tekwill in Every School by ATIC (Moldova); International Common Assessment for Numeracy (ICAN) by PAL Network (Kenya); Transform Schools by People for Action (India); Thaki Digital Literacy Rights by Thaki (Lebanon); NaTakallam: Connecting Refugees & Language Learners Worldwide by NaTakallam (US); Transforming Education Systems by EIDU (Germany); Ahlan Simsim by IRC in partnership with Sesame Workshop (US); Biodivercities Nature-Based Education Network by OpEPA (Colombia); Catalysing ECE at Scale by Rocket Learning (India); and ELIFE by Fondation Tunisie pour le Développement (Tunisia).
These projects have been selected for their innovative and impactful approaches to global educational challenges. This year’s finalists represent a diverse range of sectors and locations, showcasing a growing resource of expertise and sound educational practice. The projects emphasise the need for education to be inclusive and equitable, with many finalists working to ensure that marginalised communities have access to quality learning opportunities.
Among the 12 finalists, the Fontan Relational Education project seeks to provide a respectful educational environment for all, providing methodologies and practices that highlight students’ individuality, empower their abilities and offer them life choices while Shamba Letu project establishes and cultivates school farms to improve food security in vulnerable communities in Babati, Tanzania.
The Tekwill in Every School project is one of the largest educational programmes in Moldova, offering students equal educational opportunities driven by IT sector market needs and the next finalist ‘ICAN’ is a simple-to-use and scalable tool that measures children’s foundational numeracy.
'Transform Schools’ programme enables students in Grades 6-10 in government middle and secondary schools to reach the right learning level in their states’ regional language, English, Math and Science and the next project ‘Thaki Digital Literacy Rights’ supports refugee and vulnerable learners who have limited or no access to digital education.
‘NaTakallam’ project leverages technology to solve the challenge of millions of highly educated displaced persons and their host communities with no access to income while EIDU has developed an open platform which brings together the best educational interventions, helps governments to deploy them quickly and efficiently. The Ahlan Simsim initiative from the Middle East brings early childhood development and playful learning to children affected by conflict and crisis in the Middle East.
The project, ‘Nature-based School Networks’ focuses on consolidating a learning community with citizenship skills that promote harmonising the people and nature relationship, allowing them to become planetary stewards and ensuring social wellbeing while ‘Rocket Learning’ builds early childhood and foundational learning at scale by connecting the government system, teachers and parents, and driving community change by systemically leveraging technology, media, and social incentives. Finally the ELIFE programme aims to build 10 technology centres dedicated to Tunisian youth in the ten most marginalised and disadvantaged regions of the interior of Tunisia.
Since its inception in 2009, the WISE Awards have recognised and promoted 90 innovative projects, from over 150 countries.
WISE Awards finalist, 'Nature-based School Networks’ focuses on consolidating a learning community with citizenship skills.
