Blog

GEEAP Co-Chair Professor Kwame Akyeampong highlights the evidence for multilingual foundational learning and the importance of teaching children in languages they understand.

Drawing on evidence and examples from across Africa, he argues that the challenge is no longer identifying what works, but scaling effective approaches so that multilingual foundational learning becomes the norm rather than the exception.

GEEAP is working with a range of partners to amplify and contextualize its findings and recommendations across different contexts. Alongside ongoing collaboration with WWHGE, the GEEAP Secretariat is engaging with multiple organizations to support uptake and application of evidence.

One of the learning success stories in the GEEAP Smart Buys report is about Sobral — once one of Brazil’s poorest municipalities.

Despite having the 5th lowest GDP per capita among the 26 Brazilian states, the state of Cear? has experienced the largest increase in the national education quality index in both primary and lower secondary education between 2005 and 2017. Ten of its municipalities are now among the nation’s top 20. One of those municipalities is Sobral, with the highest score in the country.

This blog is part of a blog series: “How can we improve the use of evidence for policy, planning and implementation in education”? The Blog Series is hosted by Building Evidence in Education (BE²) and Global Education Evidence Advisory Panel (GEEAP) Secretariat.

The blog highlights how Embedded Evidence Labs equip governments to systematically use data and evidence—aligning policy priorities, strengthening capacity, and institutionalizing learning cycles to improve education policymaking and implementation at scale.

What does recent evidence tell us are “Smart Buys” for improving learning in low- and middle-income countries?

An estimated 7 in 10 of all children in low- and middle-income countries are unable to read and understand a simple text by age 10. This is just the starkest of many indicators showing that global education is in crisis, a crisis that has sharply deepened with the pandemic.

This blog is part of a blog series: “How can we improve the use of evidence for policy, planning and implementation in education”? The Blog Series is hosted by Building Evidence in Education (BE²) and Global Education Evidence Advisory Panel (GEEAP) Secretariat.

The blog highlights how education research is becoming more user-driven, locally led, and tech-enabled to improve evidence use in policymaking and practice in low- and middle-income countries.

This blog is part of a blog series: “How can we improve the use of evidence for policy, planning and implementation in education”? The Blog Series is hosted by Building Evidence in Education (BE²) and Global Education Evidence Advisory Panel (GEEAP) Secretariat.

The blog calls for recognizing knowledge brokers as key to turning education evidence into action, highlighting their unique mix of data, policy, and communication skills, and the need to train and support them.