The Luminos Fund has been named a top 10 finalist for the Klaus J. Jacobs Best Practice Prizes 2022, a set of three awards each worth CHF 200,000 ($208,000) that honor outstanding achievement and practice in advancing quality education. Headquartered in the United States, Luminos Fund runs education programs for out-of-school children aged 8-14 in Sub-Saharan Africa and the Middle East helping them to catch up on three years of learning in just one school year, and reintegrate into local government schools.
Learning as a joyful experience
With a focus on learning-through-play and assessment-led pedagogy, Luminos strives to make learning a joyful experience, to equip students with a positive outlook on education. The program is delivered through community-based organisation partners whose capabilities Luminos helps build, support, and oversee. Classrooms are taught by high-potential local young adults who Luminos trains to teach, thereby fuelling local education systems with much-needed trained resources.
To date, Luminos has supported more than 152,000 children across Ethiopia, Ghana, Liberia, The Gambia, and Lebanon, and plans to reach an additional 200,000 students by 2024. They work with governments, advising on curriculum development, strategies, and national education policy. This enables Luminos to drive forward lasting, systemic change and to ensure that out-of-school children remain a priority for national education planning.
The three recipients of this year’s Best Practice Prizes will be announced at a ceremony in Zurich on 30 September 2022. For the first time, the 10 finalists will convene for a co-creation event, taking place on 1 October 2022. They will exchange knowledge and ideas on advancing learning, and will have the opportunity to partner with other shortlisted applicants to develop proposals for new projects. Two concepts will receive follow-on funding of up to CHF 150,000 ($156,000) each.