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Completed projects

A map of the World showing all Real research projects completed in 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 completed REAL Centre research projects.


Students ready to graduate from Sebeta Special Needs Education Teachers College Ethiopia(Photo: @GPE/Kelley Lynch) 1 Sub-Saharan Africa South Asia Higher Education Access and Learning Gender

Achieving equity in higher education

This research aims to assess the current state of higher education and prospects for the future with a particular focus on extending equitable access.

Read More Deaf girl at her desk in the classroom(Photo: Pippa Ranger/DFID) 2 India Secondary Education Access and Learning

Activity Based Learning evaluation in India

Tamil Nadu’s Activity Based Learning programme represents a significant departure from conventional pedagogical practices in Indian classrooms. This project comprising a multi-disciplinary team of researchers is focused on undertaking an evaluation of the programme’s pedagogic features impact on student outcomes and political economy.

Read More Indian NGO Pratham pre-school program in Delhi slums(Photo: GPE/Deepa Srikantaiah) 3 India Secondary Education Access and Learning

Child development in India

This research tackles the problem of scaling quality early childhood care and education (ECCE). It analyses the contexts practices and costs of ECCE for disadvantaged families/communities in two states of India – Tamil Nadu and Bihar. The study focuses on the experiences and negotiations of families within government and non-government ECCE centres.

Read More A student pushes his classmate in a wheelchair in the school yard(Photo: @GPE/Alexandra Humme) 4 Malawi Kenya Uganda Primary Education Access and Learning Disability

Disability in Malawi Kenya and Uganda

The Reach Forward project aims to address the exclusion of children with disabilities in Malawi Uganda and Kenya from quality education. The ultimate goal is to strengthen the capacity of partners in the South to set their own research agendas and inform the development of effective education systems.

Read More Primary school children in Madhya Pradesh India(Photo: GPE/Deepa Srikantaiah) 5 India Early childhood education Access and Learning

Early childhood education in India

This project focuses on the supply demand and impact of different forms of early childhood education (ECE). We analyse a mixed-methods longitudinal survey following 12000 children across the Indian states of Assam Rajasthan and Telangana. The data comprise 12 survey waves carried out with young children. With household interviews multiple learning assessments and detailed information on ECE centres primary schools villages and households these data enable unique analysis of conditions in the country with the world’s largest youth population.

Read More Amar Iyoti project for disabled children to be integrated(Photo: Jasper van’t Veen) 6 India Secondary education Access and Learning Disability

Education for children with disabilities

The objective of this research project is to provide an analysis of current educational provision at secondary level for children with special needs in India advise on relevant national and international experience in secondary education (Classes IX and X; ages 15 and 16) and highlight costed policy options for the future provision of secondary education to children with special needs.

Read More Children from Ivory Coast go to school in Liberia camps(Photo: Robert Stansfield/DFID) 7 India Pakistan Ghana South Africa Disability

Educational outcomes and poverty

Poverty often leads to inferior educational outcomes. Those outcomes in turn play a major role in determining the future incidence and extent of poverty. RECOUP aimed to study the mechanisms that drive this cycle of deprivation identifying the policies needed to ensure that educational outcomes benefit the disadvantaged.

Read More Learning Maths with sticks India(Photo: GPE/Deepa Srikantaiah) 8 Sub-Saharan Africa South Asia Primary education Access and Learning Gender

Ensuring equitable learning by 2030

This research project focuses on disparities in learning outcomes in poor countries. The project analyses nationally-representative household surveys to inform policy on the causes of these disparities and identify appropriate ways to address them.

Read More Enumerator administers the EGMA Kenya(Photo: GPE/Deepa Srikantaiah) 9 Sub-Saharan Africa South Asia Primary education Access and Learning

From assessment to action

This project aims to support the People’s Action for Learning (PAL) Network and its members in developing their theories of change identifying variations between contexts and documenting case studies of approaches being used for assessments that lead to action.

Read More Primary school students Ethiopia(Photo: GPE/Alexandra Humme) 10 Ethiopia Primary education Access and Learning

Improving access to education in Ethiopia

This research project in Ethiopia tracks children who attended Speed Schools and their families to measure impacts of the project on primary school completion learning outcomes and poverty. Children who have dropped out of school are also tracked together with a control group to compare outcomes for children who attended Speed Schools to those who did not. The research aims to provide a comprehensive understanding of whether public schools into which Speed School graduates are re-integrated are able to sustain improvements over time.

Read More Boys playing carrom a popular board game in India(Photo: Nick Cunard/DFID) 11 India Access and Learning Disability

Inclusive schooling in India

The research carried out in government schools in rural Karnataka India aims to investigate the impact of mainstream schools and other educational provision on the learning experiences and social outcomes of children with disabilities. Using a community-based approach this primarily qualitative research aims to undertake a systemic examination of the experiences of children with disabilities and their parents as they negotiated schooling processes.

Read More A teacher at an outdoor blackboard in northern Ghana(Photo: Henry Donati/DFID) 12 Ghana Access and Learning

Leadership for Learning Ghana

The Leadership for Learning (LfL) programme explores the applicability to basic schools in Ghana of a set of principles concerning the connections between leadership and learning. It also researches the opportunities and challenges of introducing the principles nationwide and the impact of doing so on school leaders teachers and pupils.

Read More Infographic: Disrupted education journeys for adolescent girls in conflict settings(Photo: REAL Centre) 10 Access and Learning Gender

Let Girls Learn in conflict settings

Building on First Lady Michelle Obama’s Let Girls Learn initiative this project draws attention to the most pressing issues facing adolescent girls living in conflict settings in their educational journeys and seeks to identify policy-relevant solutions.

Read More Three students on the computer in primary school in Tamil Nadu India(Photo: Deepa Srikantaiah) 14 Sub-Saharan Africa Primary Education Access and Learning

OER4Schools programme

The OER4Schools programme develops and researches the impact of an open professional learning resource for use in pre-service or in-service education in sub-Saharan Africa. The multimedia resource supports interactive teaching and inquiry-based collaborative learning of primary school mathematics and science – generally and through using mobile technologies digital open educational resources (OER) and Open Source software.

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