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Introducing Focus to Flourish: A Messaging Campaign on Five Actions to Accelerate Progress in Learning

Now that most children are in school, the world's focus must shift to learning, which requires fundamental changes in our approach to education. RISE has formulated five actions and a set of resources to help put every country’s education system on a path to universal early foundational learning and subsequent educational goals.

Authors

Image of Lillie Kilburn

Lillie Kilburn

RISE Directorate

Blavatnik School of Government, University of Oxford

The severity of the global learning crisis is increasingly clear: while most children go to primary school, far too many are not learning during the years they spend there. The RISE Programme’s ‘Five Actions to Accelerate Progress in Learning’ bring together RISE research into key policy messages and recommended actions for stakeholders.

The five actions

  1. Commit to universal, early foundational learning

    A commitment to universal early conceptual and procedural mastery of foundational skills in literacy and numeracy is an ambitious and forward-looking goal: if children do not gain foundational learning in the short term, they cannot attain more complex educational goals in the long term. But learning for all will require all for learning; education systems must fully commit to foundational learning as a central purpose.

  2. Measure learning reliably, regularly, and relevantly

    Education systems collect detailed data on enrolments and inputs, yet many do not use data on student learning to inform policy and improve instruction. It's crucial to measure learning over time starting early in school.

  3. Align systems around learning commitments

    In many contexts, the curriculum is misaligned with children’s learning levels— such that classroom lessons cater to the most advantaged children. Curriculum, exams, and teacher instruction are often poorly aligned. To move beyond these misalignments, there are four principles for Aligning Levels of Instruction with Goals and the Needs of Students (ALIGNS).

  4. Support teaching

    In many education systems, neither teacher training nor teacher compensation structures support teaching that cultivates student learning. It's essential to reform teacher careers to attract, retain, and motivate quality teaching.

  5. Adapt what you adopt as you implement

    When programmes are implemented without enough adaptation or iteration, even a technically well-designed programme may have no impact. Embrace adaptation and iteration as the key to success.

Messaging campaign

Through a seven-week messaging campaign starting on 24 October 2022, RISE will share materials each week on a different aspect of the five actions needed to accelerate progress in learning: 

  • Week 1 (w/c 24 Oct): Introduction: The Learning Crisis and the Focus to Flourish campaign
  • Week 2 (w/c 31 Oct): Commit to Universal, Early Foundational Learning
  • Week 3 (w/c 7 Nov): Measure Learning Regularly, Reliably, and Relevantly
  • Week 4 (w/c 14 Nov): Align Systems Around Learning Commitments
  • Week 5 (w/c 21 Nov): Support Teaching
  • Week 6 (w/c 28 Nov): Adapt What You Adopt As You Implement
  • Week 7 (w/c 5 Dec): Introducing the RISE Policy Paper and Five Actions Recap

Visit our campaign page for further details, links to the campaign assets, and the weekly social media toolkits. Tag @riseprogramme on social media with #FromSchoolingToLearning to join the conversation.

Campaign events

To learn more about the five actions, join us at the following events:

The next few months will also see 13 activities and events run by RISE's Community of Practice across 10 countries (in Argentina, Côte d’Ivoire, India, Indonesia, Kenya, Nigeria, Pakistan, Peru, and Tanzania). See our Community of Practice events page for further details.

RISE blog posts and podcasts reflect the views of the authors and do not necessarily represent the views of the organisation or our funders.