How accelerated learning programmes can improve teaching beyond non-formal education

What challenges do out-of-school learners face in Ethiopia and Uganda?

Out-of-school children and youth (OOSCY) in Ethiopia and Uganda face myriad challenges to accessing quality education. While poverty, displacement or mobility, and gender-related barriers hamper access for many marginalised learners - including refugees and pastoralist communities - the poor quality of schooling, overcrowded classrooms and limited access to teaching and learning materials push many learners out of the system. In Ethiopia, at least 13 million children are not in school, with 3.5 million more at risk of dropping out (UNICEF, n.d.). In Uganda, completion rates indicate that approximately half of all learners finish the primary level (UNESCO-UIS, n.d.). Compounding these dismal numbers is the fact that having attended school does not equate to learning: an estimated nine in 10 ten-year-olds in Ethiopia and more than eight in 10 ten-year-olds in Uganda are unable to read a simple text designed for their age group (World Bank, 2022). To facilitate access to quality education, both governments have prioritised accelerated learning programmes, aiming to provide OOSCY with a second chance to enter the formal school system. One such model, initiated in each country by Geneva Global in close collaboration with the government, is called Speed School1.

What is Speed School?

The Speed School programme consists of classes situated in government-operated primary schools, called ‘Link Schools’ that operate to serve out of-school children. In these classes, groups of approximately 30-36 learners aged nine to 14 receive 10 months of play-based instruction to learn the formal Grades 1 to 3 curriculum2 before transitioning into conventional classes. The curriculum is aligned with the formal system’s competency-based curriculum, focusing on developing learners’ skills in literacy, numeracy, and social-emotional learning through activity- and play-based instruction.3 Through continuous formative assessment, facilitators track each student’s learning to adapt instruction and provide tailored support as needed. System-created and administered placement tests at the end of the school year help schools decide the most appropriate grade into which the Speed School learners will transition the following year. Classes are led by certified teachers4, called “facilitators,” who are trained specifically in Speed School practices buoyed through ongoing supervision and support, communities of practice, and coaching. These facilitators often come from the same communities as their students and teach in the learners’ home language. Additionally, Self-Help Groups that engage all Speed School learners’ mothers (or other parent or guardian) have contributed to increased savings, empowering families to invest in their children’s continued education once they transition to formal school.

What impact has Speed School had on formerly out-of-school learners? 

In Ethiopia, Speed School started in 2011 and now operates in nine of twelve regions plus Addis Ababa.⁵ Since then, the programme has reached an estimated 2.5 million out-of-school children, with 90% successfully integrating into conventional classrooms the next year.⁶ The programme’s documented success led to the gradual government adoption of the programme, culminating in 2021, when the Federal Ministry of Education and several regions established Speed School Units within their Adult and Nonformal Education (ANFE) Directorates.⁷ A growing number of regions gradually followed suit. The government now funds and operates an estimated 90% of Speed School classes, and accelerated education indicators are captured in the Ministry’s education management information system (EMIS).  

In Uganda, Speed School has witnessed similar success, albeit at a smaller scale and with a different manner of government buy-in. There, the ministry has not formally adopted the program, but the official district offices are responsible for the operation of all classes and the training and support of all facilitators. The programme began in 2016 in northern districts and now operates in ten districts of the North, Northwest, and East. In its first seven years of operation, more than 60,000 out-of-school children accessed Speed School classrooms, with 90% transitioning successfully to conventional classes upon completion (Geneva Global, 2023). 

More recently, a study of a broader set of skills, or ‘learning assets’––including foundational and socio-emotional skills, critical thinking, and independent learning––found that, two years after completing their Speed School class, learners in both Uganda and Ethiopia continue to outperform classmates who completed all their schooling in conventional classrooms (Geneva Global, 2025). For Ethiopia and Uganda combined, former Speed School students constituted 21% of the 152 (average) students taught by the 242 surveyed teachers but occupied more than 34% of the top-ten spots and 55% of the top-twenty, pointing to how these learners continue to excel after completing the programme (ibid).  

Two independent longitudinal studies from Ethiopia and Uganda provide additional evidence of the long-term success of learners after they transition from Speed School classrooms. In Ethiopia, six years after finishing the programme, former Speed School students surpassed classroom counterparts who completed all their schooling in conventional classes by every measure: retention, attendance, academic performance, parental support, and more (Akyeampong et al., 2018).  The Uganda study found smaller differences between the former Speed School students on quantitative measures, such as retention and test scores⁸, but reported sizable and significant differences favouring former Speed School students in terms of academic engagement, social skills, and household support (DRASPAC, 2023).    

How is the Speed School model contributing to improving teaching and learning at scale? 

The Speed School methodology features play-based learning, small group work, learners’ home language, contextualized lessons with practical applications, and abundant low- and no-cost learning materials beyond the textbook to achieve genuinely competency-based learning (University of Sussex, 2015). Facilitators incorporate stories, songs, art and games into their academic lessons to make learning joyful, better, and more durable. Facilitators pose both close- and open-ended questions, model key skills, conduct continuous formative assessments, with feedback, while prioritizing group learning and peer assessment to keep students attentive, motivated, and learning (Ibid.). Working together, students conduct learning tasks that foster their creativity, collaboration, and critical thinking. They cultivate a growth mindset and resilience, accepting and learning from their mistakes as well as from their successes. Ultimately, Speed School learners feel fully supported in developing not only academic skills but practical and personal ones along with a love for learning (Akyeampong et al., 2020). These competencies make them more independent and strategic once they transition to conventional classrooms, even when what they routinely find there are traditional, highly teacher-centred styles of teaching that promote rote learning and memorisation and thwart student agency or autonomy (Akyeampong et al., 2018). 

Over the years, some conventional classrooms in many ‘Link’ and other schools have incorporated certain Speed School pedagogic methods. Programme implementers describe how,  even in conventional classes, many teachers are now creating and using low- and no-cost learning materials, using group work, introducing songs and games to teach their lessons, and integrating knowledge, skills, and applications from their local contexts; all signs that Speed School principles and practices are being employed by more than just the Speed School facilitators. Research also suggests that the Speed School programme has helped improve conventional classroom environments by encouraging teachers to use praise, positive reinforcement, and rewards (Development Research and Social Policy, 2023). 

This success has been due in large part to the programme’s holistic teacher training model⁹ which applies four core strategies to help facilitators, government teachers, and school leaders achieve the capacity, confidence, and commitment to employ the Speed School methods effectively and consistently: 

• Direct training: Facilitators and, separately, teachers and school leaders attend workshops to develop skills in Speed School’s many core methods—e.g., play-based, learner-centred teaching, small group learning, and continuous formative assessment. Training is rooted in classroom practices, with workshop trainers modelling the teaching strategies they want their trainees to use with their students. The training features three main elements: (i) delivering sample lessons to the trainees as if they were primary students, giving them the combined intellectual and emotional learning experience the trainers want them to give their students when they return to their classes; (ii) providing basic conceptual explanations of the activity-based learning methods; and (iii) giving trainees many opportunities to apply what they are learning and receive feedback from their fellow trainees and the trainers.¹⁰ The ultimate aim is to send the trainees back to their classes and schools with improved methods and skills but, especially, to return there with a growth mindset and a set of strategies they will use alone and together to continue to solidify and build upon what they learned in the training. 
• Supportive supervision: Both external education agents—e.g., inspectors, centre tutors, and cluster supervisors—and school-based leaders conduct classroom observations of facilitators and teachers to appreciate success and provide constructive and targeted feedback and direction on where and how to improve. Geneva Global staff emphasise the supervision and support role of school leaders, who can “pay attention” to teachers with much greater regularity. For external agents, they promote the use of SMS, phone calls, and other digital means to connect and advise these school leaders and, in turn, facilitators and teachers in a timely fashion. Dialogue and reflection results in tailored support for teachers who, together with a supervisor, identify concrete actions they will take for future growth and development. 
• Peer training and support: External agents, school leaders, and conventional teachers themselves all enlist Speed School facilitators to train and support their conventional classroom peers in specific Speed School methods. This may involve short, targeted training delivery, one-on-one advising, classroom observations, or other strategies. 
• Education communities of practice (ECoPs): The programme also guides Speed School facilitators to engage together - including with their conventional classroom counterparts - to meet regularly as a community of professional practitioners to analyse and tackle shared pedagogic, classroom, and school-wide challenges. Among the specific ECoP strategies are teacher journaling, reflection sessions, action-research, lesson study, and co-planning lessons. 

School-based collaboration is at the core of this holistic training model. The Speed School programme intentionally places at least two Speed School classrooms in each Link School so that Speed School facilitators have a ‘micro-community’ of peers with whom to work. By also engaging conventional classroom teachers and Link School leaders, the programme helps to foster wider adoption of Speed School methods and make all students’ transition into higher grades smoother and more successful (Geneva Global, 2020/2021). Learning amongst the two teachers is bidirectional, whereby the pedagogic skills and content knowledge of government teachers are also valued. As one implementer noted, "Government teachers also have knowledge and innovations to share... Speed School facilitators can’t do all the work alone.” 

Acknowledging the logistical and other challenges inspectors, centre tutors, and other system agents face in providing frequent in-person support to teachers, the holistic training approach expects and trains school leaders to play a key role in providing direct instructional leadership. School leaders conduct classroom observations, conduct micro-trainings, facilitate peer reflection and collaboration, support lesson planning, and more, all to foster their teachers’ strengthened performance and their commitment to continuous growth and improvement.  

Furthermore, the holistic teacher training model helps Geneva Global work across various layers of the system – i.e., not just for accelerated education – to embed Speed School methods, foster a shared understanding, and instil collective goals centred around effective, competency-based teaching and learning. As a programme lead from Ethiopia said, “we are helping the system to function, not creating a lot of new things. We are trying to leverage what is already there but taking new approaches and modalities” to accomplish this. Although the operational models in Ethiopia and Uganda are distinct, each involves working closely with national and subnational actors, from the Ministry of Education to local governments, Regional Education Bureaus and District Education Officers to the school leaders, teacher trainers and teacher supervisors operating at the front-line of school improvement.  

In Ethiopia, Cluster Supervisors¹¹ have the major responsibility for scaling the Speed School, or AEP model, on behalf of the government, charged with the ongoing training, monitoring, and support of teachers and school leaders. In Uganda, this responsibility is held jointly by Centre Coordinating Tutors (CCTs) from the country’s network of Primary Teacher Colleges and school inspectors. Described as the pedagogic “backbone” of the education system, CCTs are involved in “the everyday lives of teachers.” They conduct classroom observations, facilitate training sessions, and encourage ECoP activities, fostering collaboration amongst teachers and improving classroom instruction and learning outcomes. In both countries, Geneva Global works closely with the responsible agents to shift from an ‘inspection’ approach, focused on finding teachers’ faults to fix, to a supervision and support model, engaging in dialogue with teachers - anchored in mutual trust - to commit together to improving teaching for better learning. 

Witnessing the positive impacts of the Speed School teaching methods and holistic training models, the Government of Ethiopia is now moving towards the adoption of the core approach in all primary and secondary schools. Meanwhile, several regions are now integrating the Speed School teaching methodology into government-led teacher preparation and training programs, with a plan to reach all 38 of the country’s teacher training colleges (Education.org, 2022) and the six university centres of education excellence. The Federal Ministry of Education’s (2021) current five-year Education Sector Development Plan (ESDP VI) explicitly includes a strategy to ‘adopt and introduce the Speed School accelerated learning classroom, instructional methods and holistic teacher training model’ (p.89). Headway is also being made in Uganda, where civil servants at the national and subnational levels are acting as champions and active agents of the programme.  

Lessons for similar contexts

• Prioritise teacher practice and professional agency: Speed School’s training model emphasises practice over theory. During workshops, learner-centred instruction is modelled, and Speed School facilitators and conventional classroom teachers all have opportunities to apply what they learn through repeated lesson planning and practice.  They also have many opportunities to critique and receive critique from their fellow facilitators. Back in their classrooms, facilitators receive frequent attention and constructive personalised feedback from school leaders, colleagues, and - less frequently -from external education agents, such as inspectors (increasingly through text messages and other digital means). Mustering their growth mindset, facilitators regularly join as a community of practice to expand their knowledge, skills, and performance. These are all proven strategies, key to effective teacher professional development (Hennessy et al., 2022). With a focus on foundational skills, facilitators are also encouraged to draw content from the local context while using locally sourced materials, stories, and cultural references to enliven and deepen learning. This flexibility allows them to “colour outside the lines” of the formal curriculum to foster creativity, ownership, and deeper engagement for both themselves and their students. 
• Use a whole-school approach to facilitate wider adoption: Collaboration at the school level brings great value to the Speed School model. When at least two Speed School facilitators are placed in a school, they engage routinely and enthusiastically in peer-to-peer learning, shared problem-solving, and mutual support. At the same time, Geneva Global provides training to teachers from conventional classrooms, and trains and encourages school leaders to support teacher development, including by establishing and actively promoting the operation of communities of practice. The ECoPs bring Speed School and government teachers together to co-develop lessons, conduct classroom observations, participate in action research, and reflect on teaching practices. A whole-school approach strengthens professional relationships and accelerates the spread of truly competency-based, learner-centred pedagogy across classrooms. 
• Work through middle-tier actors to enhance scale and sustainability: Despite having distinct models in Ethiopia and Uganda, Speed School works closely with school leaders, teacher trainers and supervisors, and local authorities, all of whom are middle-tier actors who offer unique capacities to facilitate collaboration, broker knowledge, provide instructional direction to school-level practitioners, and scale innovations (UNESCO, 2023). These actors not only train and mentor teachers in Link Schools but also transfer Speed School practices to other schools for which they are responsible. By actively embedding the approach within government systems, Geneva Global aims to promote long-term ownership, policy alignment, and the institutionalisation of effective teaching practices at scale.