Examples of our education work
Zenex Foundation: addressing learning backlogs in South Africa’s education system
Challenge: South Africa’s education system faces many intersectional challenges, including learning backlogs – a lack of required knowledge from previous grades, which prevent learners from accessing their grade-level content. These gaps in foundational knowledge build over time and hinder further learning.
Partnership: In 2021, the Zenex Foundation approached Reos Partners to begin a process to address the issue of learning backlogs in the country. Reos engaged a range of education stakeholders to distil a shared understanding of how to define the problem of learning backlogs, inform effective responses, and improve the coordination of stakeholders.
Transformation: Zenex is building upon this collaborative approach and using a synthesised report to provide input and influence the Department of Basic Education’s 2024 curriculum review process. Research on the interplay between language and learning is also being done, and interventions to address the backlogs are being explored with potential partner organisations.
Emergency Aid Lab: co-creating the future of emergency financial aid
Challenge: It’s increasingly difficult to afford college in the US, and for many students, a small, unexpected expense can lead to them dropping out. Several higher education institutions in the US offer some form of emergency aid (EA), but only a few have a robust program that provides the potential for maximum impact on student retention and completion.
Partnership: Supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Reos Partners facilitated an Emergency Aid Lab (EAL) with higher education leaders – financial aid and student services administrators, faculty, counsellors, students, and other partners – over 18 months to determine how to structure an EA program on campus best.
Transformation: The end product of the EAL is the Roadmap to Effective Emergency Aid. This program guides higher education leaders in transforming informal emergency aid efforts into a comprehensive program that increases student success. The program is delivered through an interactive online course, in-person workshops led by Reos Partners, and coaching.
Brazil Education Scenarios: transforming the future of education in Brazil
Challenge: In 2015, Brazil’s national education system was struggling to serve its 50 million students, and grade repetition and drop-outs were common. The system was fragmented, and the discourse was mired in ideological divides as various perspectives and priorities competed to influence the future of education in Brazil.
Partnership: Reos Partners used transformative scenarios to bring together a team of education leaders in Brazil to engage in dialogue about the different and often conflicting perspectives on what is required to transform the future of basic education in the country. The Brazil Education Scenarios became a meeting point for deep listening and learning to collaborate and explore conflicts and differences.
Transformation: There was a clear shift in the relationships between key stakeholders, most of whom had previously met only in adversarial contexts. The resulting National Scenarios for the Future of Education in Brazil were disseminated nationally. They provide new language, an improved understanding of the challenges beyond ideologies, and a precedent of relationship within the sector.
