Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what steps her Department is taking to integrate the successful elements and key learnings of the EQUIP-T programme in Tanzania into its other education Official Development Assistance bilateral programmes aimed at improving children’s literacy and numeracy at scale.

The EQUIP-T education programme in Tanzania is a good example of an at-scale, sustainable programme that had a measurable impact on learning. It was recently included as an example in a global review of how best to improve learning at scale. It showed how the programme successfully improved literacy and numeracy skills for pupils, especially girls and more disadvantaged children, working with like-minded partners and supporting teachers to improve learning for all.

The principles of this programme - strengthening the education system, supporting teachers and reaching the most marginalized - sit behind all of our programming. The Girls' Education Action Plan, which the Prime Minister launched last year, and the global education targets agreed at the G7 have reinforced the UK commitment to prioritise improving children's foundational learning at scale and we use data and evidence to do this effectively. Our programmes continue to be underpinned by the best available evidence, including learnings from the EQUIP-T programme - for example, our new programming in Bangladesh which we announced last year, and several new bilateral programmes currently under design. We routinely apply learnings and quality evidence to inform our approach - including the recommendations from the recent Global Education Evidence Advisory Panel report which reinforces the importance of focusing on foundational literacy and numeracy skills, working at scale and reaching the most marginalized children in order to address the learning crisis.