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Over the last 18 months, Covid-19 has affected education systems around the world, but in refugee settings, the effects of the pandemic on education have been particularly acute. Already in crowded classrooms and often without the necessary educational resources, children and teachers in such settings have generally not had the luxury of turning to online learning. In the calls for teachers to be at the centre of education recovery, it is essential that teachers in refugee settings are not forgotten in plans to ‘build back better’.

What have Covid-19 school closures meant for some of the world’s most vulnerable learners, urban slums and arid and semi-arid regions in Kenya? Our recent report for the EdTech Hub highlights how community co-operation – more than technology – can improve educational outcomes for marginalised girls.

With finite financial resources for education around the world, ministers and policymakers are rightly preoccupied with efficiency and value for money. In our recent side event to the Global Education Summit, ‘High-Impact Domestic Financing: Evidence, Equity, Efficiency’, we heard fascinating insights from ministers and experts into how evidence of different types including disaggregated datadata is being used in parts of sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia to inform cost-effective, impactful policy which holds the potential to transform the chances of the most vulnerable students. In this commentary, we examine three key themes which emerged from their discussions.

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.

While many parts of the world have witnessed significant progress in girls’ education and refugee education in recent years, access to learning remains a critical challenge for refugee girls. In this commentary, we reflect on key learnings from a recent research report published by the Inter-Agency Network for Education in Emergencies (INEE), which specifically considers the state of girls’ education in crisis and conflict situations.

TechPathways London was a two-year project, ending in 2021, designed to bridge the gap between the digital skills acquired in education and those required by London’s digital and creative industries. It offered a programme of free training for educators working with young people aged 11-24. Funded as part of the Mayor of London's Digital Talent programme, the project was a collaboration between the Connected Learning Centre, part of Education Development Trust, and Queen Mary University of London.

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.

At Education Development Trust, the impact of our work is critical to all we do. 2019/20 was an exceptional year in many ways, as we rapidly adapted and pivoted our programmes and research to meet the needs of learners, educators and leaders around the world during the Covid-19 crisis. In this review, the second of our Annual Impact Reviews, we present the ways in which our work has made a positive difference – both in rising to the education challenges of the pandemic and in more broadly furthering our mission to improve lives by transforming education worldwide.

The Early Years Professional Development Programme (EYPDP) provides high quality, evidence-informed continuous professional development for practitioners working with children between the ages of two and four in some of the most disadvantaged areas in the country. Over the course of the programme, around 3,000 practitioners will gain Level 3 and Level 4 qualifications in Language and Literacy, as proof of the difference they are making to increase children’s communication skills and improve outcomes in language, literacy and mathematics.

In Kenya, our Girls’ Education Challenge project is helping girls into vocational training to help them set up their own businesses. Among the more than 3,700 girls who have benefitted from bursaries for secondary schooling or vocational training, several are now employed to make protective face masks to combat the spread of Covid-19.