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Our approach to improving outcomes for girls through better quality pedagogy is based on a rigorous and holistic understanding of what it takes to change the behaviour of all actors in schools and across local and national systems. This includes leaders, teachers and learners – we call it ‘Good quality pedagogy for learning and equity.’ In this commentary, we discuss the key aspects of our approach to this critical issue for improving learning for all girls and boys across the world.

Our Building Learning Foundations (BLF) programme is taking a system-wide approach to improving girls’ and boys’ learning in Rwanda, tackling inequality through teacher development, school leadership, system strengthening, inclusive education and safeguarding. This also involves addressing gendered inequalities within the education system. In this case study, we focus on the elements of the BLF programme that specifically aim to improve gender equity in learning and enhance female leadership for learning.

Teachers are among the most critical actors in ensuring meaningful change in education systems around the world and ensuring their buy-in to gender-responsive pedagogy and the importance of educating girls will be crucial to achieving gender equity in education. In this commentary, we draw on our recent research project with the British Council to explore teachers’ and school leaders’ attitudes to girls’ education in Nigeria, as well as examples of promising practice.

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.

Available for the 2021-24 academic years, this programme offers Early Career Framework-based support for early career teachers and mentors. It helps them improve practice while building confidence and resilience, leading to better job satisfaction and retention.

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.