Street Child UK
Executive Summary
Project Host:
Project Host: Street Child UK
Fellows:
Annelise Buzaid
Drew Edwards
Melissa Hogenboom
Simi Lawoyin
Introduction
About Street Child UK (SCUK)
Street Child works with local organisations to ensure every child has access to an education. Their purpose is to see all children safe, in school and learning – especially in low-resource environments and emergencies.
Street Child in Somalia
African Education Trust (AET), part of Street Child, started working in Somalia in 1996, at a time when many organizations were leaving the country after the aborted UN Peacekeeping mission. By working through local staff, organizations, and institutions they have been able to continue to operate throughout the country despite successive cycles of drought, famine, and conflict. They provide essential quality education through school rehabilitation, psycho-social support for children experiencing long-term insecurity, teacher training, supporting parental involvement in school management and provision of hygiene facilities especially for girls and children with disabilities.
Context
Somalia and Somaliland face significant educational challenges, including low literacy rates and 4.8 million children out of school with 1.4 million children living in IDP (internally displaced) settlements. Most internally displaced children have little to no foundational education.
Street Child's initiative to improve foundational learning outcomes through the Teaching at The Right Level (TaRL) approach aims to address these issues in both regions. The TaRL focuses on assessing children’s foundational literacy and numeracy skills and grouping them by ability rather than age and teaching is targeted at the child’s learning level. This method is particularly useful in low-resource settings with diverse learning levels.
Project Host Need and Deliverables
LEAP Challenge Fellows were pleased to partner with SCUK to address challenges related to scaling their TaRL program.
Having recently concluded an initial pilot in Somalia and Somaliland, SCUK sought to determine how to adapt the programme for different settings, identify which programme components were scalable, and manage costs while maintaining programme quality. SCUK approached the LEAP Challenge Fellows with a number of broad questions:
What works?
What can be scaled/replicated?
Utilisation of NGOs and/or government for sustainability?
How effective is TaRL in a highly conflicted and fragile environment?
Can we use a stepped scale model in Somalia and a mixture of bridging and remedial approaches?
Considering these questions, as well as opportunities recently presented to SCUK, we identified three core deliverables to address their needs:
A Flexible Implementation Model to adapt the programme across contexts.
Education Scalability Checklist to consider the feasibility of scaling the programme from the perspective of key stakeholders.
A Budget Analysis Tool to simulate various budget scenarios and compare cost effectiveness across different implementation approaches.
These deliverables are designed to help SCUK make informed decisions about scaling the TaRL programme sustainably while also serving as resources that other organizations can adapt for similar challenges.
How We Worked Together
LEAP Fellows, Annelise Buzaid, Drew Edwards, Melissa Hogenboom, and Simi Lawoyin, partnered with the Project Host, Street Child UK, over a 12-week period to learn about their programme and co-create solutions to support their scaling endeavours.
Collaboratively
We worked closely with the Project Host to understand their goals, challenges, and priorities. Through a series of working sessions, we ideated, built out initial drafts and refined them together to align with SCUK’s vision for the project.
Iteratively
At every stage, we gathered feedback from the SCUK team to ensure our deliverables were relevant and feasible to implement. This iterative process allowed us to make real-time adjustments and ensure alignment with SCUK’s operational realities.
Leveraging Existing Frameworks and Tools
To benefit from proven methodologies and maximize efficiency, we used existing frameworks like the Brookings Education Scalability Checklist and a proprietary stakeholder engagement matrix (developed by one of the Fellows). These tools provided structure for our deliverables and ensured that the solutions were rooted in established best practices while tailored to SCUK’s specific needs.
In approaching this project, we wanted to ensure the practicality of the tools we developed, making them user-friendly and actionable for SCUK's needs. We also had in mind the need for adaptable solutions that other organizations in the education sector could use to address similar challenges.