Cambridge Assessment and Cambridge University Press has announced the launch of the Cambridge Partnership for Education, a new unit that will draw on the collective knowledge and global network of the University of Cambridge to support governments, schools, teachers and learners in creating quality public education systems.
As the recent Cambridge report ‘What have we learned about the COVID-19 impact on education so far?’ showed, education systems in all countries were ill-equipped to adapt to a global pandemic, and existing inequalities in public education systems were exposed and increased. In 2020, schools are closed in over 190 countries, affecting over 1.5 billion learners. 24 million children may never return to the classroom.
Countries now need to evaluate whether the solutions put in place during the lockdown have had an impact, assessing what is worked and what has not, in order to start planning more effectively for medium and longer-term solutions.
The pandemic has also caused economic downturns around the world, widening existing inequalities. Half of the global workforce is at risk, leaving many without the skills they will need to return to new jobs. Countries will need to invest in education and skills to rebuild their economies at a time when government spending will be under intense pressure.
The new and expanded offer from the Cambridge Partnership for Education will help governments and non-governmental organisations reimagine and rebuild education systems, from research and planning to implementation and impact evaluation. The Cambridge team brings decades of trusted experience working on education from every angle – curriculum, assessment, learning materials and teacher training – to help Cambridge’s partners reach their goals, speed up progress and achieve value for money.
Although the disruption caused by COVID has brought challenges in education into sharp focus in many areas, Cambridge was already supporting governments to develop their education systems well before the pandemic hit. The move towards competency-based education, new forms of assessment, digital literacy and initiatives to tackle the shortage of trained teachers, among other developments, have seen Cambridge partner with ministries around the world, reaching over 20 million learners worldwide in 2019 alone. The individual teams who will form the new unit have developed strong reputations for delivering excellence for clients across a variety of issues and local contexts. Recent achievements include an in-depth analysis of the national curriculum of Ethiopia, supporting improvements in English teaching with the Malaysia Ministry of Education, supporting the goal of a bilingual population in Panama, and pioneering a new Learning Passport with Microsoft and UNICEF which harnesses the latest technological capabilities to support education for displaced children.
The Partnership will draw on the knowledge and expertise of more than 6,000 employees in 50 offices worldwide, from Cambridge to New Delhi, from Oman to Kenya.
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