September was a busy month for Link Education – we presented, published for and co-convened three conferences in three countries.
We joined the first global STEM education conference organised by mEducation Alliance, which focused on ‘Inspiring the next generation of STEM leaders – Everywhere!’, Link Education presented its STEM Induction Project. The project has been piloted in nine Ethiopian secondary schools benefiting 7,044 students of which 3,979 are girls. The project takes an innovative, creative and relevant approach that looks at STEM from a Social Emotional Learning perspective where STEM concepts and activities are used as a way to build confidence through group work and help students recognise how STEM skills and knowledge can solve many problems faced by the communities they live in. Short videos presented at the conference are available on YouTube: (58) 2023 mEducation Alliance Symposium Teasers – YouTube
Link Education was also at the UKFIET conference which focused on education for social and environmental justice. Harold Kuombola, our Country Director from Malawi, presented alongside Judith Herbertson, Head of Girls’ Education for FCDO where he gave an insightful overview of our UKAid funded project. The TEAM Girl Malawi project supports 6,300 marginalised out of school children, 12% of whom have a disability, in a non-formal community-led setting. Harold shared Link’s key drivers on how to achieve sustainable and scalable impact for those most often left behind.
And finally, we contributed to Scotland’s International Development Alliances’ conference ‘All eyes on the SDGs’. You can see our piece on supporting SDG 4 and 5 on pages 43-45 of the report which can be downloaded here. To summarise using the words of the UN’s Secretary General, “The SDGs are not just goals. They carry the hopes, dreams, rights and expectations of everyone.” With only 15% being met as we reach the half-way point, we must do better!
Written by Sam Ross, Link’s International Programme Director