Middle-East and Asia insights

Education is a prominent casualty in crisis situations, but it also plays a critical role in emergency response. Continued access to school provides a place of protection and sense of normalcy for children, while effective approaches to learning and inclusion foster resilience, and support longer-term processes of economic recovery and peace. With refugee numbers hitting headlines again, we reflect on two focus areas developed over more than 20 years’ experience working in fragile and conflict-affected states.

How did schools in Jordan adjust to the sudden shift to distance learning and what can we learn from the country’s approach to inclusive education during the pandemic? Learning Bridges is an innovative blended learning model adopted by Ministry of Education in Jordan in partnership with UNICEF and EdDevTrust. To date, the programme has enabled half a million children to continue their engagement with education during Covid related school closures.

Following our Global Dialogue event earlier this year, our latest report draws on the rich discussions from the event to develop our thinking on some of the key ways in which we may be able to improve education for all as the world recovers from Covid-19. In it, we consider the importance of evidence and data in informing interventions and solution design, the need for mechanisms for participation and problem-solving and the significance of harnessing community and parental engagement.

Accountability, quality assurance and school inspections have long been at the centre of Education Development Trust’s work in the Middle East. Drawing on this experience, we explore the importance of accountability and the use of evaluation as a tool for improvement.

As Covid-19 has forced governments around the world to close schools, policy responses to ensuring educational continuity are rapidly changing. As countries formulate and implement their strategies for education provision, our report examines the key themes emerging in the worldwide policy landscape and assesses which approaches are – and which are not – working well.

Governments rely on our expertise to deliver far-reaching English language teaching programmes. We recruit, develop and support qualified English-speaking teachers to transform the life chances of future generations – in particular in Brunei, the Middle East and India.

We have been working with ministries of education and government bodies in the Middle East and the Gulf countries to support school improvement and inspections of schools since 2007.

Our English language teaching work in the Middle East is largely funded by the ringfenced funds resulting from our merger with the Alexandria Schools Trust (AST) in 2014. We are committed to fulfilling the former charity’s mission, promoting and maintaining teaching of the English language in the Middle East.

Education Development Trust has been working with the Ministry of Education in Brunei since 1984. We lead the world's largest, longest running and most successful English-speaking teacher scheme recruiting top quality teachers to teach in Brunei's schools.

Education Development Trust has built a reputation as the world's leading authority on school inspections, evaluations and accountability. In 2007 the Knowledge and Human Development Authority (KHDA) along with Education Development Trust assisted in the development of the Dubai Schools Inspection Bureau (DSIB).

We are a world authority on school inspection and we apply our international best practice in our work in the Middle East. We design and tailor inspection frameworks, recruit and train inspectors and deliver inspections in private and government schools with detailed reports and data capture.

In Bangladesh, primary education relies heavily on textbook-based learning. To ensure the curriculum met the expectations of the development partners, Education Development Trust was selected to design the Bangla, English and social studies textbooks.