• Civil Society and Governance
  • Civil Society and Governance Overview
  • Institutional Capacity Building
  • Civic Education
  • Citizen Participation
  • Advocacy
  • Democratic Governance
  • Grants Solicitation and Management Capacity
  • Women's and Minority Rights
  • Disenfranchised Groups
• Education
  • Education Overview
  • Basic Education
  • Higher Education
  • Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages
  • Education for Vulnerable Groups
• HIV/AIDS
  • HIV/AIDS Overview
  • HIV/AIDS Prevention
  • Orphans and Vulnerable Children (OVC)
  • Grants Solicitation and Management Capacity
  • Institutional Capacity Building
• International Visitors Exchanges
  • International Professional, Academic, and Cultural Exchanges Overview
  • Undergraduate and Graduate Academic Exchanges
  • Professional Exchanges
  • Youth Exchanges
• Capacity Development and Training
  • Capacity Development and Training Overview
  • Participant Training
  • Institutional Capacity Building
  • Undergraduate and Graduate Academic Exchanges
  • Grant Solicitation and Management Capacity
  • Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages

Basic Education

While most countries offer education to young children, hundreds of millions of young people and adults across the globe do not complete schooling, and many are illiterate.   World Learning believes that basic education is the driving force behind individual, community and national growth, as well as a primary means for achieving positive social change and realizing worldwide human potential. Without investments in basic education, a country’s workforce is unable to meet labor market needs and adapt to advances in technology. Uneducated or under-educated citizens are often ill-equipped to exercise their full legal and social rights, participate in democratic institutions, and communicate effectively in order to take part in peaceful change. Ultimately, when educated children grow into parents, they raise healthier, better educated, and more productive families.

World Learning works with governments, communities, parents, and professionals to strengthen basic education by improving access, relevance, quality, and performance levels within basic education. General areas include pre- and in-service teacher training, curriculum and educational materials development, girls’ education policy development, school-based health and nutrition, and systemic educational reform. 

Strategies include:

• Making education affordable by creating cost-recovery models for schools at the community level which include forming partnerships and engaging stakeholders to reform educational policies and increase investment in education.
• Training teachers and school administrators to help teachers adapt child-centered training practices and new technologies and to help teachers, school administrators, and local and regional authorities improve leadership and management skills. World Learning’s training focuses on: active, participant-centered learning; literacy and numeracy training; accelerated and flexible learning; teacher mentoring; and grants management and school governance.
• Providing school infrastructure support in order to create safe, sustainable schools that are appropriate to the environment and foster learning. World Learning also supports schools in developing and producing teaching materials, at low or no cost, from local resources and recycled materials.
• Promoting community-school partnerships by collaborating with parents and community leaders to support schools and increase parental participation while holding schools accountable for providing the best possible education.

World Learning collaborates with host country institutions—both governmental and non-governmental—to design and deliver high quality programs to strengthen the technical and institutional capacities of host partners. World Learning is also committed to working in situations of special need, such as HIV/AIDS-affected communities, indigenous and minority populations and child labor environments.