It’s World Children’s Day!

Every year the rights of children around the world are celebrated on this day. But with education disrupted so severely by the pandemic, Theirworld decided to celebrate not only children, but the people who help them to grow and reach their potential.

In a new video, we meet Yola Ibrahim, a teacher at the Mtein School in Lebanon who, thanks to a Theirworld project, was able to teach her pupils remotely when Covid-19 forced schools to shut.

📹 Watch and share our video!

Theirworld helps organisations use data to deliver innovative education projects

Innovation and creative thinking are essential for solving problems and overcoming challenges. But so is data - the hard evidence that shows a concept will actually work and deliver results.

Theirworld’s Innovation Programme has awarded six Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning (MEL) Fellowships for innovative NGOs and social enterprises working to scale up their pilot projects. Each will receive masterclasses, mentoring and regular advice.

They range from programmes for early childhood education and refugee children to marginalised youth in countries including Uganda, Greece and Lebanon. Meet our new MEL Fellows.

What’s the big idea? Cities are challenged to tackle youth skills crisis

It’s tough right now for young people around the world. Millions are marginalised by being out of school, without a job or training and with little hope for the future - even in the richest countries.

In the United States, one in 10 young people - that's four million - are currently not in work or education. Drastic action is needed. But so is innovation and creativity. That’s why the Big Ideas, Bright Cities Challenge has been launched to help build crucial skills for young people.

The Global Business Coalition for Education, a Theirworld initiative, is running the challenge, which aims to build a network of “skills-friendly cities” across the US and will award grants of $100,000 and $50,000 as well as business support to cities with the most powerful ideas.

Sarah Brown: we need collective action to improve girls’ education

Innovation, inclusion and finance are the drivers of improvements in girls’ education, Theirworld Chair Sarah Brown told a panel discussion hosted by the Hilton Foundation and Devex as part of a series called the Future of Humanitarian Action.

She said education “brings normality when a child’s world is turned completely upside down”, and called on governments to commit to innovative new ways to invest in education.

Philippines re-opens schools slowly after lengthy shutdown

Thousands of children in the Philippines returned to school on Monday for the first time in nearly two years. A pilot scheme has resumed face-to-face learning after the pandemic disrupted the education of 27 million students.

Also in our roundup of global education news - United Nations agencies have committed to back more than 60 countries who want to provide nutritious school meals for every child in need by 2030.

💬 Quote of the week 💬

"When there are floods, we take our shoes and socks off and put them in our school bags. We have to wade through the water to our classrooms."

Fathimath, a student on a small island in the Maldives, talking about the effect of climate change.

Did you know? 🤔

44% on track

In low and middle-income countries, 44% of children who attended early childhood education programmes are on track in literacy and numeracy skills - compared with only 12% of children who did not attend any programmes.

Taken from the section on Education and Early Childhood in The Key, Theirworld’s online resource for education advocates.

📖 What we're reading this week.

👩🏾‍🦱 How to take a gendered approach to the fight against malaria. A fascinating opinion piece by Theirworld Global Youth Ambassador Munira Muhammad Abdul. Read more

👧🏽 Is a girl’s right to education denied or protected? UNESCO’s Her Atlas team analysed the legal frameworks of nearly 200 countries to find out. Read the full story

💍 “Education can be a weapon to drive away poverty. If communities are educated, that can help chase away child marriage.” Kadiatu from Sierra Leone contributes to the West African girls’ Manifesto on ending harmful traditional practices. It was delivered to the African Girls’ Summit this week in Niamey, Niger.

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Thank you,

The Their News team