The Council gathers 16 highly accomplished educational researchers and innovators to foster collaboration and drive education progress globally

7 December 2020, Hong KongSAR – The Yidan Prize Foundation, a global philanthropic educational foundation focused on inspiring and supporting innovative education ideas and practices, today announced the formation of a Council of Luminaries (“The Council”) at this year’s Yidan Prize Awards Presentation Ceremony and Summit, held virtually in Hong Kong SAR. The council will be a transformational force and support closer collaboration among the world’s most distinguished educational leaders, to amplify their collective voice and take practical action in educational policy and reform.

Now, more than ever, there is a need for urgent action to provide quality education. According to UNESCO’s ‘Save Our Future’ White Paper published this summer, 1.6 billion students’ education has been interrupted due to COVID-19. The pandemic forced school closures that have affected 90 percent of the world’s students. In a time when online learning is the only option for many, half of the world’s children cannot access the internet. More importantly, there is a gap between educational research and practices. As society begins to take small but positive steps towards a post-COVID-19 world, collaboration in education is becoming increasingly important. There has never been a better time to rethink educational practices, foster a more equitable and inclusive system, and build bridges between research and practice.

Creating an open and people-driven platform for education

“As a firm believer in the power of education, the Yidan Prize Foundation believes the world needs an open and people-driven platform that brings together the brightest minds in education to inspire progress and change in education for a better world,” said Dr Charles CHEN Yidan, Founder of the Yidan Prize, at the Summit.

“The Council of Luminaries are coming together to create a more equitable and inclusive global community, and we are very pleased to be part of it, accelerating change and action. We all believe in the power of education. We know that we need to work together. We are hopeful for the future.

Where education systems are flourishing, we can learn from their strengths and successful experiences. This knowledge will benefit other systems which have their own unique contexts and constraints.

“All our luminaries are passionate educators who are highly accomplished and dedicated. The luminaries’ work has already brought about hugely positive changes in communities all around the world. They have made transformations possible in innovative, sustainable ways.”

The council will be a place where these experts are encouraged to share and address key issues within educational practices, and to bridge the gap between research and practice. The Yidan Prize Foundation is determined to bring closer collaboration among highly accomplished and widely respected educational leaders to amplify their impact on the communities of educational researchers and practitioners around the world. The luminaries hope to inspire educators, philanthropists, and policymakers who share their passion to positively contribute to and transform education to benefit future generations and society.

Bringing together the brightest minds to build a better world through education

The Council of Luminaries (see end of this news release for a full list of members) gathers the world’s brightest minds – researchers, educators, neuroscientists, psychologists, economists, statisticians, and innovators. The luminaries are determined to take concrete actions to close the inequality gap in education around the world. They aspire to build new bridges between the worlds of research and practice to make education more responsive to the challenges of the 21st century, and more inclusive for the millions of children who are marginalized by today’s systems.

The luminaries are a diverse group of highly accomplished leaders, who have developed both practical and theoretical expertise in education by drawing on different disciplines. In their own work, they have seen the power of education to change lives, transform communities, economies, and societies, and build a better world. The council’s unique strength lies in its ability to have educational experts from multiple disciplines. This means the council can look at problems from many different angles, from listening to learners and communities; and working together in teams that have different skills.

“The challenge in education is so large that we need all of us, global multilateral funds and empowered local community leaders, nation-state resources and agile philanthropy, researchers and activists, all playing our part in concert. We must judge ourselves against the most demanding of standards. The words ‘leave no child behind’ are not a slogan; rather, they are the benchmark to which we all must deliver,” Julia Gillard, Former Prime Minister of Australia and Chair of Global Partnership for Education, said at the closing of the Yidan Prize Summit.

Solving real-world problems collectively is at the heart of the council

There is strong interest across the council members in exploring potential areas for collaboration on real-world problems. They envisage working together towards enhancing greater engagement with the public through new research and ideas in education. Additionally, the members have identified important opportunities for the council to speak with a collective voice on major matters of international educational concern. They will work together using evidence from the science of human development in learning programs, and engage the public in education’s newest ideas and research. To this end, the council will be collaborating all year round; taking part in regular discussions, panel debates, and presentations. They will also hold an annual summit, to share ideas and debate new initiatives with the public, regulators, and government officials. This will enable them to spread ideas within the network and beyond.

“There are clear opportunities to do things differently and better,” said Professor Carl Wieman, Professor of Physics and Graduate School of Education and DRC Chair at Stanford University, who won this year’s Yidan Prize for Education Research and is one of the luminaries. For Professor Wieman, science and technology is fundamental. With basic technical literacy, humans can make much better decisions when tackling pressing global issues, from global warming and energy sources to health.

Two other luminaries Lucy Lake, Chief Executive Officer, CAMFED, and Angeline Murimirwa, Executive Director – Africa, CAMFED, who won the Yidan Prize for Education Development, are excited about working with and learning from council members. “We see the Council of Luminaries as an incubator of fresh thinking in education. Its inauguration comes at a critical time when we need to be daring and think differently – both to navigate the challenges posed to education by the current global crisis, and to use this moment to bring through new models for the future,” said Lucy Lake.

Creating ground-breaking collaboration

This year’s Summit keynote address was given by HRH Princess Laurentien of the Netherlands, who has newly joined the Board of Directors of the Yidan Prize Foundation. “I am proud to officially launch the Council of Luminaries: a group of outstanding men and women from around the world. Scientist and practitioners, driven by a passion for learning. For curiosity. For solid facts. They are all optimists. Original thinkers. And disrupters in their own field. What an extraordinary force for change by connecting them as individual change makers.”

Members of the Council of Luminaries (listed alphabetically by surname)

• The late Sir Fazle Hasan Abed, Founder, BRAC – represented by Muhammad Musa, Executive Director, BRAC International and Dr Erum Mariam, Executive Director, BRAC Institute for Educational Development
• Professor Anant Agarwal, CEO and Founder, edX; Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
• Kamal Ahmad, Founder, Asian University for Women
• Vicky Colbert, Founder and Executive Director, Fundación Escuela Nueva
• Professor Carol Dweck, Lewis and Virginia Eaton Professor of Psychology, Stanford University
• Professor Usha Goswami, Director, Center for Neuroscience in Education, University of Cambridge
• Professor Eric Hanushek, Paul and Jean Hanna Senior Fellow and Professor, Stanford University and Hoover Institution
• Professor Larry Hedges, Chairman, Department of Statistics, Northwestern University
• Professor Thomas Kane, Walter H. Gale Professor of Education and Economics, Harvard Graduate School of Education, Harvard University
• Salman Khan, Founder and CEO, Khan Academy
• Wendy Kopp, CEO and Co-founder of Teach For All
• Professor Patricia Kuhl, Professor, Speech and Hearing Sciences, Co-Director, University of Washington Institute for Learning & Brain Sciences
• Lucy Lake, CEO, CAMFED
• Angeline Murimirwa, Executive Director—Africa, CAMFED
• Professor Carl Wieman, DRC Professor in the School of Engineering and Professor of Physics and of Education, Stanford University
• Professor Yongxin Zhu, Founder, New Education Experiment