If you only have one minute:
Since 2016, the Luminos Fund has reached nearly 44,000 out-of-school learners in Liberia, with many surpassing their peers in literacy, numeracy, and foundational learning, and over 90% transitioning to government schools. The organisation’s approach shows that access alone is not enough for out-of-school children. What matters most is whether children are learning. By making joyful learning its “north star,” Luminos combines culturally relevant monitoring and evaluation tools with lighter classroom assessments to track learner progress in foundational skills and better support teachers. Monitoring is not an end in itself: data is analysed, discussed, and shared with teachers to improve instruction and adapt programme design. To build support, Luminos invites government partners to see results firsthand, securing buy-in and long-term ownership.
Lessons for similar contexts:
- Put joyful learning at the centre of monitoring, evaluation, and programme design: Many education programmes assume that having learners in the classroom will result in learning, yet extensive evidence shows this is not true—particularly in low-income countries, where progress is minimal or too slow. To address this, AEPs should put joyful learning at the centre of their goals, embedding formative and teacher-led assessments into monitoring frameworks to guide decision-making and programme adaptations.
- Use monitoring and evaluation as the engine to achieve joyful learning: Foundational skills in literacy, numeracy, and social-emotional learning are context specific, so assessment and monitoring tools need to be adapted to local realities, languages, and cultural values. Collecting data is only part of the solution, and ample time should also be spent on analysing and discussing the results, and feeding it back to teachers and implementers, so the programme and its impacts are improved.
- Engage partners in monitoring visits to garner support: Inviting government education officials and partners to participate in school visits and assessments helps build trust, strengthens advocacy, and secures buy-in, allowing policymakers to see impact firsthand.
What challenges do out-of-school children face in Liberia?
As a post-conflict country, Liberia’s education system continues to grapple with deep disparities in access, quality, and inclusion, particularly for the most marginalised children. Over 300,000 primary-aged learners are not in school, with those from low-income households or rural and remote areas more likely to be excluded. 1 Low learning levels are themselves a major driver of drop-out and low enrolment; parents and students realise that children in school are learning very little and therefore make the decision to pursue alternative pathways (Kaffenberger et al., 2021). Gender norms and financial barriers also impact both girls’ and boys’ access, creating obstacles such as gender-based violence or expectations regarding motherhood and domestic work for girls, or income-generating activities for boys. 2 Unsafe or inadequate learning environments also contribute to poor attendance, retention, and limited learning outcomes, increasing the risk of dropout, while children with disabilities are often excluded altogether (Republic of Liberia Ministry of Education, 2022).
Recognising these deep-rooted equity challenges, the government of Liberia is prioritising efforts to bring more children into school at the right age, improve retention, and ensure all learners—regardless of background—acquire the foundational and life skills needed to thrive. As part of this effort, Liberia’s Education Sector Plan highlights efforts to expand access to quality alternative education options, including Accelerated Learning Programmes (ALPs), to reach out-of-school children and help them re-enter formal education (Republic of Liberia Ministry of Education, 2022). One such ALP is being implemented by Luminos Fund, in close partnership with the government.
What does the Luminos programme look like?
The 10-month Luminos accelerated learning programme is designed for out-of-school children aged 8–14, equipping them with foundational skills so they can transition to the government school system. The programme is implemented in collaboration with the Ministry of Education, with a curriculum aligned to Liberia’s national standards to ensure that children can transition into government schools at the right grade level while strengthening government ownership of accelerated learning approaches. Delivery is also implemented in partnership with a select group of community-based organisations, each of which manage a cluster of classrooms (Simpson, 2021).
Luminos teaching methods use a phonics-based approach to reading and an approach to mathematics that builds conceptual understanding. Learning is supported through a gradual release approach which starts with explicit instruction (‘I do’) and then gradually moving to more independent and interactive activities (‘we do’ and ‘you do’). This approach ensures learners are given the information they need and then given ample opportunity to build confidence through practice and application. Facilitators, recruited from the same communities as learners and with at least a secondary education, receive around 25 days of intensive annual training, supported by continuous classroom-based coaching and structured lesson plans. While some commentators worry that structured pedagogy could encourage an overly teacher-led approach, the Luminos programme is designed to counteract the tendency towards rote learning that is common in Liberia. Instead, the Luminos approach integrates interactive activities, stories, and play to ensure structured pedagogy fosters joyful and engaging classrooms (Rauchwerk, 2017). Facilitators are also closely supported, with hands-on opportunities to practice interactive instructional approaches, while robust monitoring and evaluation systems ensure effective teaching and learning remains a core focus of the programme (Newman, 2025).
This focus on teaching and learning is combined with a broader set of supports, including partnerships with parents and community-based organisations, the provision of daily school meals, and the creation of safe and inclusive environments. Together, these elements form what Luminos describes as the Luminos Method: a holistic model that combines rigorous pedagogy with community engagement and wraparound supports to help out-of-school children transition to and succeed in government schools. 3
What evidence of impact is there of the Luminos programme?
Since 2016, Luminos’s accelerated learning programme in Liberia has reached nearly 44,000 out-of-school learners. 4 A randomised control trial (RCT) evaluating the programme found that, despite starting at lower learning levels than their peers in government schools, Luminos learners were able to read more than four times as many words per minute and complete twice as many addition and subtraction problems as children in the out-of-school control group after participating in the 10-month programme. Similar impacts were seen regardless of learners’ gender, age, or prior educational experience and learning levels, meaning all learners benefited equally (McManus et al., 2024).
Likewise, an endline evaluation of a prior cohort demonstrated strong results in both academic and social-emotional learning, with a high rate of transition to government schools (Luminos Fund, 2022). In literacy, learners gained an average of 28 correct words per minute (CWPM) in oral reading fluency, with girls slightly outperforming boys (29 CWPM vs. 26 CWPM). Numeracy outcomes were also positive, with average improvements of 28 percentage points in addition and 20 points in subtraction. Boys made larger gains than girls across most numeracy tasks, except for two subtasks where girls performed better. Social-emotional learning was measured using the International Social and Emotional Learning Assessment (ISELA) tool, which showed substantial gains in self-concept. Girls’ scores increased by 32 percentage points, compared to a 19-point increase for boys, suggesting the programme may have had a particularly strong impact on girls’ confidence and self-perception. Importantly, the programme also achieved a strong transition outcome, with over 90% of learners advancing into government schools.
An RCT looking at students who graduated from the Luminos Liberia programme showed that they continued to outperform their peers even one year after transitioning into government schools, while research from Luminos’s programme in Ethiopia points to even longer-term success of programme graduates. A six-year longitudinal student found that 75% of former Luminos students were still in school (Akyeampong et al., 2018).
How to ensure education interventions put learning at the centre for out-of-school children?
The Luminos approach is grounded in both programmatic experience and a growing body of global evidence on what drives learning outcomes and strengths education systems in low-resource settings (see, for example, Pritchett et al., 2022; UNICEF et al., 2024; and the Science of Teaching). Below we describe three key elements of what has made Luminos work to advance learning for out-of-school children in Liberia and other contexts where Luminos operates.
Joyful learning as the “north star”
For Luminos, enrolment is only the starting point. Getting children into classrooms is critical, but it does not guarantee that they will learn. Treating joyful learning as its “north star,” Luminos uses a range of tools to measure whether children are acquiring foundational skills. These include internationally recognised instruments such as the Early Grade Reading Assessment (EGRA), Early Grade Mathematics Assessment (EGMA), and ISELA, as well as quick teacher-led assessments that allow facilitators to see progress more frequently and adjust instruction on the spot. Using these tools effectively requires investment in people as much as instruments. Enumerators and staff from the local communities are carefully trained to apply assessments consistently and sensitively, recognising the cultural and linguistic realities of the children they work with.
Over time, Luminos has also invested in more rigorous evaluation methods, including RCTs. While expensive, organisations that are confident in their positive impact can invest in RCTs to produce powerful evidence of impact. This evidence is critical for policymakers and donors who are rightly sceptical given that many education interventions have not had significant impact on learning outcomes despite their best intentions (e.g., a study found that most major education programmes did not have evidence of a single programme that had improved literacy levels at scale; Stern et al 2023). This balance—combining frequent, context-sensitive monitoring with periodic large-scale evaluation—ensures that efforts don’t only open doors to the classroom but also keep learners progressing in the development of key skills.
Avoiding being “data rich and information poor”
Collecting learning data is not an end in itself. Too often, education systems and programmes accumulate mountains of assessment results without translating them into better decision-making. Luminos has worked deliberately to avoid this trap by building a culture where evidence is continuously fed back into programme design and delivery.
The process begins with dedicated time for reflection. After each assessment cycle, staff carve out space to analyse results, discuss trends, and consider what they mean for programme improvement. This reflection is not reserved for technical experts or headquarters staff; facilitators, supervisors, and community-level actors are included in the discussion. The goal is not just to know whether students are learning, but to understand why they are progressing—or struggling—and what can be done differently. Results are shared with supervisors and facilitators through weekly WhatsApp or Zoom calls where data is discussed, with summaries also shared during trainings, to inform changes in classroom practices and ensure learners continue to grow. This iterative process transforms monitoring from a compliance exercise into a learning tool. Programme managers refine the intervention design, facilitators improve their teaching, and children benefit from instruction that is better tailored to their needs.
Seeing is believing
Luminos has learned that evidence must not remain confined to reports and spreadsheets. To build trust and political will, governments and donors need to see the impact firsthand. Many government authorities assume that if children are enrolled, they must be learning. It is understandably difficult for a government to acknowledge that students sitting in their schools are not acquiring basic skills. To break through this assumption, Luminos frequently invites leaders on monitoring visits to observe classroom practices. Comparing learners in government schools with those in accelerated classes often provides a striking contrast that government stakeholders and other partners can see for their own eyes. Donors also respond more strongly when results are made tangible—seeing learners confidently read aloud or solve a problem is far more compelling than hearing numbers in a briefing.
Importantly, these monitoring visits require safeguarding considerations, to ensure adults know how to ethically interact with young people, and all learners are protected. But when they happen, they can be transformative. In contexts where the programme has gained the most traction, it is often because officials have personally witnessed both the challenges and the progress made possible through accelerated learning.
Lessons for similar contexts:
Ensure joyful learning is the “north star” that is driving activity. Too many education programmes assume that learning is happening because children are in classrooms, but a wealth of evidence shows that this is not the case. In most low-income countries, learning is not happening or is happening far too slowly for children to reach their potential. Therefore, we recommend explicitly setting joyful learning as the top priority for AEPs and making all decisions based on whether they further this aim. This could involve embedding ongoing formative assessments and teacher-led evaluations, while building up to more robust (and costly) approaches such as RCTs.
Use monitoring and evaluation as the engine to achieve joyful learning: Effective AEPs - like other effective education programmes - not only track access and enrolment but also whether children are acquiring foundational skills. This does not require investing in costly randomised control trials right away. Starting small and scaling evaluation efforts over time allows programmes to keep learning gains at the forefront without overwhelming systems or budgets. Collecting data is only part of the solution - the analysis and communication of results are critical to ensure organisational learning occurs and to inform programme adaptation, improving both the design and outcomes. The data should be used at programme level but also fed back to teachers along with tailored advice on how to improve instruction.
Engage governments and partners directly in monitoring efforts to build support: Inviting governments and partners to participate in monitoring visits gives them the opportunity to see both the needs and the impact for themselves. When governments observe progress first-hand - whether a child in an accelerated education programme is reading confidently, or facilitators are adopting new classroom practices - it reinforces belief in the model and builds political will to sustain and scale it. Equally important, when leaders witness the reality of low learning outcomes, they better understand why an intervention - and its rigorous evaluation - is essential.