Ugandan NGO scoops global quality education award

 By Vision Reporter

 The World Innovation Summit for Education (WISE) has announced Promoting Equality in African Schools (PEAS) the winner of one of the 2013 WISE Awards.

Since 2009, the WISE Awards have helped to identify some of the most groundbreaking projects that address the most urgent global challenges in education. In total, WISE received more than 500 applications for these prestigious Awards.

PEAS is working to expand access to sustainable and quality secondary education in Uganda and other African countries through the opening of new schools which deliver a high standard of education.

Currently, only 20 percent Uganda’s villages have secondary schools, although 80 percent have schools at the primary level.

The project, which is the result of a unique public-private partnership with the Ugandan government, has already opened eight schools in their first year, with five of those taking under 12 months to become financially independent.

PEAS is working to create 10,000 new secondary school places across Sub-Saharan Africa by 2017.  

A jury composed of the most prolific individuals in the education world, chaired by H.E. Sheikh Abdulla bin Ali Al-Thani, Chairman of WISE, met recently to select the winning projects from a short list of finalists.

Dr. Al-Thani remarked, “The WISE Awards Jury has identified six diverse projects from around the world that represent inspiring models for all who seek to overcome obstacles to education. For five years the WISE Awards have been building a community of education pioneers from across the educational spectrum, including non-governmental organizations, academia and both the public and private sectors who are having a growing and sustainable impact. PEAS has created a model that overcomes a barrier to education found throughout the globe and, by naming it a 2013 WISE Award Winner, we hope to see it replicated around the world.”

The six projects that have received a 2013 WISE Award will, along with the finalists, participated in the recent annual WISE Summit which addressed the theme of “Reinventing Education for Life” in Doha, Qatar.