Rising Academy Network

Together with our partners we are very pleased to share the Liberian Education Advancement Program (LEAP) Learning Report, which captures key insights from the first eight years of this transformative public-private initiative: https://bit.ly/3TFgkIe LEAP is a partnership between the Government of Liberia and non-state partners aimed at enhancing the quality of public education through targeted capacity-building. This report highlights the program's achievements, challenges and lessons learned to date, while also offering recommendations to further strengthen the partnership's systemic impact in the years ahead. 𝐊𝐞𝐲 𝐚𝐜𝐡𝐢𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐬: > 𝐄𝐪𝐮𝐢𝐭𝐲: 47% of students in LEAP-supported schools are female, with female pupils being <1% less likely to drop out than males. > 𝐒𝐜𝐚𝐥𝐞: LEAP operates in 475 schools across all 15 Liberian counties, supporting 125,000 children—nearly one-fifth of public primary schools. > 𝐎𝐮𝐭𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐬: An independent RCT confirmed LEAP schools outperformed comparison schools by up to two and a half additional years of learning. > 𝐂𝐨𝐬𝐭-𝐄𝐟𝐟𝐢𝐜𝐢𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐲: Annual per-pupil spending reduced from USD 304 to USD 45, achieving government financial sustainability targets. > 𝐂𝐨𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐮𝐢𝐭𝐲: LEAP successfully continued to deliver across three government administrations over its eight-year history. > 𝐒𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐠𝐢𝐜 𝐈𝐧𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐞: LEAP is part of Liberia's Education Sector Plan for 2022-27. We extend our heartfelt thanks to Honourable Ministers Professor Dr. Ansu Soni, Dr. Jarso Maley Jallah and George Werner for their visionary leadership, and for fostering an environment that enabled LEAP to thrive. We also express our deep gratitude to the LEAP partners—UMovement, Street Child Liberia, Bridge Liberia, and Rising Academy- for their unwavering commitment to working with students, parents, teachers, and government stakeholders to improve Liberia's public education system. Finally, thanks to Social Finance for their long-term support around funding coordination, contracting and data analysis for the program. #Education #StrongSchools #VenturePhilanthropy

Congratulations to All the World Best School Prize Winners! It is a well-deserved win, and we are proud of each of you for the incredible work you do in your respective categories. Your dedication and commitment to education shine through, and we celebrate this moment with you. We are all winners in this journey, united by our shared mission to provide quality education to our students. Despite the many challenges we have faced, we continue to create safe spaces where learning can thrive. A special thank you to T4 Education for this great recognition, which serves as a reminder of the impact we are making together. Vikas Pota Rising Academy Network Conrad Sackey

Next week, we'll find out if Rising Academy Waterloo will be named a winner in the World's Best School Prizes in the Overcoming Adversity category. The Waterloo community has faced incredible challenges: civil war, Ebola, COVID-19 and multiple economic shocks. Yet, despite it all, their belief in the transformative power of education has never wavered. If you visit the school, you'll hear Head Teacher Alpha Kamara say, "There is no limit to what we can achieve if we believe in ourselves." This spirit has driven Rising Waterloo to become the top-performing school in the district and one of the highest-ranked in Sierra Leone. Enrollment has more than doubled in recent years. Congratulations to Rising Academy Waterloo and the proudest Head Teacher in the world, Alpha Kamara! Watch the video below to learn more about this amazing community. #StrongSchools #WorldsBestSchools T4 Education #SierraLeone

Our school, Rising Academy Waterloo in Sierra Leone, has been named a Top 3 Finalist for T4 Education's World's Best School Prizes. A special thank you to Tony Blair for taking the time to recognise the school's phenomenal achievements. The Government of Sierra Leone has been a driving force in fostering partnerships and innovation within the education system in recent years, creating opportunities for organisations like Rising Academies and Tony Blair Institute for Global Change to test new academic approaches and technologies that unlock the potential of schools and students across the country. No where has this been more true than at Rising Academy Waterloo which has not only used innovative approaches to deliver some of the country’s best exam results, but has also piloted technologies which are now reaching over 260,000 students. We’re excited to continue building on these partnerships with the government and organisations like Tony Blair Institute for Global Change! #WeAreRising #WorldsBestSchools #StrongSchools Conrad Sackey David Moinina Sengeh

Empowering Teachers to Drive RisingFaster’s Success in Rwanda. As we kicked off the new school year in Rwanda, we concluded a successful training session for contact teachers (school subject leaders) and new teachers at Groupe Scolaire Kimironko 2 in Gasabo District, Kigali City, focused on strengthening their understanding of the RisingFaster program. The program is implemented in 40 schools across 7 districts. 107 teachers gained deeper insights into using the FasterReading and FasterMath materials effectively and were equipped with the skills to support their peers and lead school-based training. These trained teachers will reach over 18,000 lower primary students. Through interactive sessions, these teachers left with practical tools to enhance literacy and numeracy in their classrooms. We were honoured to be joined by  MUGENZI N. Léon from the Rwanda Basic Education Board (REB) on Day 2, reaffirming REB’s commitment to improving education quality nationwide through our ongoing partnership. We’re incredibly excited to see the positive outcomes this will bring to students’ learning journeys! #RisingFaster #TeacherTraining #EducationQuality #Rwanda #REB #Literacy #Numeracy #ProfessionalDevelopment #EducationPartnerships

Congratulations again to Rising Academy Waterloo, Sierra Leone, on being announced as a Top 3 Finalist for T4 Education's World’s Best School Prizes in the Overcoming Adversity category! The news was revealed to the school and wider community during a start of year celebration held last Thursday where we were honoured to be joined by a host of VIP guests including Sierra Leone's Deputy Minister for Senior and Secondary Education Mamusa Massaquoi, popular singer Incredible JJ, footballer Musa Noah Kamara and MP Ahmed Joseph. The students, teachers, parents and community members adorned their very best Africana attire and Waterloo’s outstanding School Leader, Alpha Kamara, led the celebrations with singing and dancing! Thank you to everyone that has shared their support for Rising Academy over the last few days, particular thanks goes to Sierra Leone’s Chief Minister David Moinina Sengeh and Minister for Senior and Secondary Education Conrad Sackey. Over the coming weeks we’re going to be giving our followers a greater insight into Rising Academy Waterloo, the challenges the school and community have overcome and why it is so worthy of being recognised as one of the World’s Best Schools! #WeAreRising #StrongSchools #WorldsBestSchoolPrizes #SierraLeone #Education

Very grateful to Chief Minister David Moinina Sengeh for the kind words about Rising Academy Network Waterloo, after it made the Top 3 in the World's Best School Prizes in the Overcoming Adversity category (organised by T4 Education). His focus on innovation and inclusion over the last 6 years has been instrumental in allowing us to take some of the promising technologies and methodologies that we've been iterating on in schools like Waterloo and start testing them in public schools at much larger scale and across a much broader array of communities. We're so proud to be partners in the Government's vision for education system transformation. The Chief Minister is Mr Delivery, so when he says "Bring it home", we'll take that as an order! #StrongSchools #BestSchoolPrizes #BestSchoolPrizes24 #WeAreRising

We are thrilled to announce that Rising Academy Waterloo, Sierra Leone, has been revealed as a Top 3 Finalist for T4 Education's World’s Best School Prizes in the Overcoming Adversity category! These are the world’s most prestigious education prizes which recognise and celebrate the pivotal role that schools play in our society. Congratulations to everyone connected to this inspirational school: the school’s leaders, teachers, students, parents, alumni and the wider Waterloo community. Special recognition has to be given to the schools inspirational school leader, Alpha Kamara, who has played such a pivotal role in Waterloo's extraordinary journey. Sierra Leone has faced many challenges over the past 10 years, what they have achieved during this time is truly remarkable and a testament to their profound commitment to ensuring children learn regardless of the obstacles they face. The impact of their work has reached far beyond the school gates and they have helped to shine a light on the amazing innovations taking place in Sierra Leone. Congratulations! 🇸🇱 #WeAreRising #StrongSchools #BestSchoolPrizes #BestSchoolPrizes24

Our Rising Institutes took place last week across Sierra Leone, Ghana, Liberia and Rwanda in preparation for the start of the new school year. Open to all of our private and government partnership school teachers, these institutes are a 2 - 4 day program covering areas such as our new core curriculum for English and Math, safeguarding, the science of learning, our accelerated learning programs and how we grow at Rising. For the first time this year we held a separate institute for school leaders and ECE teachers also received a bespoke two day training programme focussing on their new curriculum. Check out some of images from a various institutes…

Congratulations to Alhaji Mohammed Haroon on being selected as a finalist in this year's Africa Education Medal organised by T4 Education! Founded by T4 Education and HP, the African Education Medal is Africa's most prestigious education accolade. The award is given to an outstanding individual who has demonstrated impact, leadership and advocacy in the field of education. Alhaji Mohammed Haroon has made a phenomenal contribution to education in northern Ghana, where he has been an integral part of the Rising team. We have had the honour of collaborating with him on on our efforts to strengthen foundational literacy and numeracy and improve learning outcomes for primary school students in some of the most resource constrained schools in the country. Find out more: https://lnkd.in/ebECVMkd