Could you tell us more about our 2024 Yidan Prize for Education Development Laureates?

The award is going to go to three people, three very talented people who have come together to effectively deploy the platform, 'Can't Wait to Learn'. These people are Professor Mark Jordans, Marwa Zahr, and Luke Stannard, and each of them brings a set of talents to this initiative that I believe has really made it what it is today and so successful.

It works in many different areas. But this particular platform is being rolled out in seven countries and it's being rolled out to children in areas where there has been conflict and that has disrupted traditional schooling so children are out of school, and UNHCR estimates about 75 million children around the world are not in school. So it's a question of how do we reach these children. This education platform is deployed using solar tablets and software that promotes literacy, foundational learning, and math skills, and has been proven to actually make a difference.

What makes CWTL’s work stand out from others?

There are many education platforms, but usually we don't believe that they are cost-effective in reaching areas where there isn't a reliable internet, there isn't a reliable power supply. But they are using solar-based tablets. And they are using solutions that don't require you to be connected all the time, and perhaps most importantly, they are working very closely in partnership with local authorities and ministries of education to make sure that the educational offering is actually aligned to the national curriculum.

Apart from that, they're engaged in very rigorous assessment of how effectively children are learning. And that allows for continuous refinement of the solution, and it also means that those of us who are outside of their work ambit can learn from them.

Co-creation and integrating research into practice is central to the work of 'Can’t Wait to Learn'. Why is this so important?

They are trying to figure out in a very sincere way what actually works. And so that means there's a level of co-creation with the children. Finding out what works for the children, for example, measuring how much actual time on the tablet do you need. Do you need children to share tablets in order to promote learning? And so you see that these feedback loops. Working with the kids, working with the teachers — this is what makes the difference in terms of coming out with the winning solution.

How do you see the laureates' work changing education today and in the future?

I believe that we are already seeing a movement towards a greater focus on evidence-based policy and implementation. The approach that is being used by 'Can’t Wait to Learn' definitely is pushing us in that direction. The other thing is we’re seeing a movement towards a more pragmatic approach in the deployment of education technology. An evidence-based orientation and that will influence the choices in the technology. It also offers us a lot of opportunities for reaching children who we have not been able to reach before. If we look at the post-COVID environment where there are so many children who are out of school for long periods of time, there’s a lot they have to catch up on, so definitely we see distance solutions being part of the way forward.