The REAL Centre undertakes research across a range of contexts aimed at understanding and improving access to quality education for all children. Below is a summary of ongoing REAL Centre research projects.
(Photo: Pratham Education Foundation)
Accountability in India
This research project aims to understand whether, and how, school accountability for learning can be improved from the grassroots. In order to address this objective, we use the case of a community-based intervention in rural India, which aims to engage with local school actors (teachers, headteachers, administrators and school management committees) and provide them with knowledge and resources to implement activities in line with the goal of improving children’s foundational learning in the classroom.
CAMFED’s girls’ education interventions in sub-Saharan Africa
This research aims to provide an evidence base on what works to support marginalised girls’ secondary education, with a focus on CAMFED’s programmes in Tanzania. In particular, analysis of the cost of sending a marginalised girl through secondary school and improving her learning will be undertaken. This aims to inform targeted financing mechanisms that ensure that no girl is left behind, in the drive for quality education for all.
This project explores the experiences and transitions of out-of-school girls and boys in the Complementary Basic Education (CBE) programme in Northern Ghana. It aims to assess changes in literacy and numeracy as a result of the CBE programme, including once these children continue to primary school.
This project seeks to assess how the Ethiopian Government’s interventions targeted at expanding pre-primary education have affected children’s access and learning, with particular attention to vulnerable children.
The first five years of a child’s life are among the most critical for their long-term development. Yet spending on pre-primary schooling internationally is very low. Since 2017, we have been working with Theirworld, a global children’s charity committed to ending the global education crisis and unleashing the potential of the next generation.
This research has focused on documenting the impact of the war on Palestine's education system, including the destruction of education infrastructure, loss of learning and impacts on students, teachers and communities, while identifying priorities for restoring and rebuilding equitable and quality education.
(Photo: Vicki Francis/Department for International Development)
Evidence-based inclusive education reforms in Pakistan
The Data and Research in Education – Research Consortium (DARE-RC) is an education research programme generating rigorous, actionable research to transform education in Pakistan.
Evaluation of global Girl’s Education Challenge projects to ensure up to one million of the world’s most marginalised girls complete a full cycle of either primary or secondary education.
Higher education to empower young Africans for sustainable futures
The Mastercard Foundation Scholars Program at University of Cambridge is part of a global initiative established by the Mastercard Foundation to develop the next generation of transformative leaders.
As part of the Research for Improving Systems of Education (RISE) programme, this five-year research project in Ethiopia aims to examine whether and how a large package of national reforms works to improve equitable learning in one of the world’s poorest and most diverse countries.
As learning partners for the Mastercard Foundation’s Leaders in Teaching Initiative in Rwanda, the REAL Centre and Laterite are collaborating to develop robust evidence on how the initiative is working overall to improve the quality of teaching and student learning in secondary schools, particularly for those most at risk of not learning.
This project focuses on developing an online database that catalogues policy-relevant education research conducted by researchers and institutions in sub-Saharan Africa. Through reviewing and synthesising this research, the aim is to increase its visibility and accessibility.
Promoting research collaboration with African researchers
Cambridge-Africa research funds aim to catalyse new and strengthen existing collaborations between researchers in Africa and Cambridge and support high quality training activities.
Focusing on India and Pakistan, this project aims to identify which aspects of teaching are most important for improving all children's learning, and so inform governments on the strategies needed to support children who face multiple disadvantages. The research pays particular attention to children with disabilities, who are most likely to be excluded from learning.
This project is conducting applied research on scaling pathways for Schools2030’s innovative model of Design Thinking for Teachers. Design Thinking is a process that allows teachers to assess student learning and teaching environments, identify challenges, and develop and implement innovative practices to improve student learning outcomes.
The What Works Hub for Global Education (WWHGE) is a global implementation science hub that seeks to understand how education reforms can be implemented effectively at scale with equity.
