Laureates for the 2020 cycle of Al-Sumait Prize for African Development in the field of education have been endorsed by the prize’s board of trustees for their outstanding work in educational development in Africa.
The 2020 Al-Sumait Prize is jointly awarded to Ubongo Learning and Molteno Institute for Language and Literacy.
Ubongo Learning, which is based in Tanzania, is awarded the prize for its “innovative and transformative initiative for disadvantaged children. It has tremendous potential in reducing the gap created by education disparities, by utilising a massive scale-up approach, while delivering attractive edutainment materials through radio, TV, and basic mobile phones to 17m children across Africa.”
It also aims to reach 60m learners by 2025; hence, demonstrating the potential size and breadth of its impact, sustainability, affordability, ease of adaptation and replicability. Furthermore, an evaluation of the project, thus far, has shown its strong influences on early childhood education (ages three to six years).
Molteno Institute, which is based in South Africa, was awarded the prize for its exemplary efforts in providing “an effective solution to major challenges surrounding linguistic factors in African Education, by providing mother tongue literacy programmes with a bridge to English for early childhood education. These are coupled with professional development courses for teachers in literacy skills, as well as training for journalists, writers, and artists, and the development of free learning materials as open education resources. The initiatives of the Molteno Institute for Language and Literacy help not only South Africa, but have also supported eight other African countries, namely: Angola, Botswana, Ghana, Lesotho, Malawi, Namibia, Uganda, and Zambia.”
Director General of the Kuwait Foundation for the Advancement of Sciences, Dr. Adnan Shihab-Eldin, which administers the award, said, “The two awarded organisations, Ubongo Leaning and Molteno Institute for Language and Literacy, have shown far-reaching positive impact and innovative programmes whose implementation can carry over to many African counties. Both organizations responded creatively to educational issues and challenges, including those that are faced by disadvantaged children.”
