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Ongoing projects

A map of the World showing all REAL research projects ongoing across Africa and Asia

Access to quality education for all children

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.


Girls sitting on floor studying in a classroom India(Photo: Pratham Education Foundation) 1 India Primary education Accountability and finance

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.

Read More Two school pupils and a teacher sit under a tree with a school building in the background(Photo: CAMFED) 6 Tanzania Secondary education Access and Learning Gender

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.

Read More girls and boys in the Complementary Basic Education (CBE) programme in Northern Ghana(Photo: Henry Donati/DFID) 2 Ghana Primary education Access and Learning Gender

Complementary Basic Education in Ghana

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.

Read More A smiling student in class at Azimpur Government Primary School. Dhaka Bangladesh(Photo: GPE/Chantal Rigaud) 12 Bangladesh Primary education Teaching teachers Disability

Developing inclusive school systems in Bangladesh

This project undertaken by the Cambridge Network for Disability and Education Research (CaNDER) aims to understand the impact of inclusive education for children with disabilities in Bangladesh. It will gather evidence on how to successfully develop inclusive school systems in a low-middle income country.

Read More Mother and child at Megab Health Center(Photo: UNICEF Ethiopia/2019/Mersha) 3 Ethiopia Early childhood education Access and Learning

Early childhood education in Ethiopia

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.

Read More A young girl in class at the KDEC Pre-Primary School Masorie. Sierra Leone(Photo: GPE/Ludivica Pellicioli) 13 India Pakistan Early childhood education Access and Learning

Early childhood education financing

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.

Read More Morning Class at Gbimsi High School(Photo: GPE/Stephan Bachenheimer) 4 Ghana Secondary education Access and Learning Accountability and finance

Ghana’s Free Senior High School Policy

This two-year project seeks to conduct a rigorous mixed-method evaluation of Ghana's Free Senior High School Policy focusing on 1) equitable access 2) maintaining quality and 3) sustainable implementation. In doing so it seeks to draw lessons for policymakers in Ghana as well as other countries that are considering the abolition of secondary school fees.

Read More A young girl in a Girl’s Education Challenge project(Photo: Russell Watkins/DFID) 5 Sub-Saharan Africa South Asia Primary education Secondary education Access and Learning Gender

Girls’ Education Challenge evaluation

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.

Read More Children playing a board game South Africa(Photo: Lindsay Mgbor/DFID) 7 Sub-Saharan Africa South Asia Access and Learning

Impact Initiative

The Impact Initiative for International Development Research seeks to increase the uptake and impact of research from the Joint Fund for Poverty Alleviation Research and the Raising Learning Outcomes in Education Systems Research Programme. The approach aims to connect policymakers and practitioners with world-class social science research maximising the uptake and impact of research.

Read More A young girl from Awassa southern Ethiopia(Photo: Pete Lewis/DFID) 10 Primary education Access and Learning Gender

Improving systems of education in Ethiopia (RISE)

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.

Read More School-based mentor for teachers Rwanda(Photo: VVOB/Etienne Ntawigira) 10 Secondary education Teaching teachers Gender

Leaders in Teaching in Rwanda

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.

Read More Girls learn how to use coding Ethiopia(Photo: Anna Dubuis) 10 Sub-Saharan Africa Higher education

Mapping education research in sub-Saharan Africa

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.

Read More Girls’ school in Kasur TEACh project 2015(Photo: IDEAS Pakistan) 11 India Pakistan Primary education Teaching teachers Disability

TEACh in India and Pakistan

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.

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