Varkey Foundation

The Varkey Foundation, initially the Varkey GEMS Foundation, is a global charitable foundation focused on improving the standards of education for underprivileged children.[2] It was formed in 2010 by Indian businessman Sunny Varkey, the founder and chairman of GEMS Education, the world's largest operator of kindergarten-to-grade-12 schools.[3] The foundation's main focuses are improving global teacher capacity by training tens of thousands of teachers and principals in developing countries; providing access to education via a variety of programmes and projects; and advocating for change in, and conducting research that can help develop, education policies worldwide.[1][4]

Varkey Foundation
Formation2010
FoundersSunny Varkey
TypeCharitable foundation
PurposeEducation, teacher training
HeadquartersLondon[1]
Area served
Worldwide
Key people
Sunny Varkey, Chairman
Vikas Pota, CEO
Websitevarkeyfoundation.org
Formerly called
Varkey GEMS Foundation

The Varkey Foundation has partnered with a variety of major global organizations including UNESCO, UNICEF, and the Clinton Global Initiative. In 2013 it launched the Global Education and Skills Forum, an annual education summit dedicated to addressing the world's educational needs. After analyzing the public status of teachers worldwide, in 2014 it launched the annual Global Teacher Prize, a $1 million award to an outstanding pioneering teacher who has had a widespread impact. Sunny Varkey who leads the foundation is a "Goodwill Ambassador" of UNESCO.[5]

History

Launch

The foundation was formed by Sunny Varkey in 2010 as the strategic philanthropic arm of GEMS Education, and was initially called the Varkey GEMS Foundation. Its stated intention is to impact 100 impoverished children for every child enrolled at GEMS schools, or 10 million children globally, via projects such as enrollment and education-access initiatives, worldwide teacher-training programs, advocacy campaigns, policy input through strategic partnerships, and physical projects such as building classrooms, schools, and learning centers.[6][7][8] Bill Clinton launched the foundation.[6][9]

Teacher training

Beginning in 2013, the foundation's Teacher Training Programme committed to train 250,000 teachers within 10 years in under-served communities across the world.[10][11] The programme began in Uganda in May 2013, and consists of a low-cost, five-day training which the recipients then cascade by training further teachers in their country.[4][10][12] In its first year the programme trained 6,000 teachers in Uganda,[13] and by mid 2015 it had reached 12,000 teachers.[14] The program is broadening to other developing countries in Africa and elsewhere.[12][13][15]

The teacher training programme moves lessons away from focusing on students' ability to remember and repeat facts; instead, it focuses on encouraging students to apply, analyse, and create based on what they remember. The programme trains teachers to create a culture of personalised learning, with greater student participation, cooperative learning activities, and exploration of ideas. Rather than simply relying on "chalk and talk" methods of standing at the front of the classroom, teachers are taught to interact with students, and to accommodate different learning needs – including those of pupils who learn best through visual, auditory, or kinesthetic methods.[12][16][17][18][19]

Global Education and Skills Forum

In 2013, the foundation launched the annual Global Education and Skills Forum,[20] in partnership with UNESCO and the UAE Ministry of Education.[21] Bill Clinton gave the inaugural keynote address at the 2013 summit.[22]

The annual conference, which meets in Dubai in March each year, focuses on addressing the world’s educational needs, including how to achieve education for the hundreds of millions of uneducated or under-educated children in the developing world. The event is attended by hundreds of delegates from 35 to 50 countries, and speakers and participants include education ministers, current and former heads of state, business leaders, academics, and representatives of governments and NGOs.[12][23][24] The forum also aims to increase the importance of global education issues in the concerns of large-scale philanthropy, international aid, and businesses.[25]

Teacher Status Index

In October 2013, the foundation published the Global Teacher Status Index,[26] a 53-page study on the public and social status of teachers in 21 countries around the world. The Indian subcontinent and sub-Saharan Africa were not included in the survey.[27][28] In-depth opinion polling was done by Populus Ltd, and 1,000 respondents were polled in each country.[29] Half a million data points were collected regarding what the general public thinks about the teaching profession and teachers,[12] and the study examined public attitudes to professional status, trust, pay, and the desirability of teaching as a career.[28]

Teacher status in the public eye was found to be highest in China, Greece, and Turkey, and lowest in Israel and Brazil. The U.S. and UK were in the middle.[29] Only in China were teachers regarded as having the same status as doctors.[12] In the UK and most other countries, teachers were most likely to be compared to social workers,[29][30][31] whereas in the U.S., Brazil, France, and Turkey teachers were regarded as most similar to librarians, and therefore were viewed as less interactive with students.[29][32] Parents in countries with a higher respect for teachers were more likely to encourage their children to become teachers.[29] In many countries – including Japan, Brazil, Germany, France, and Italy – between one third and one half of parents would not encourage their children to enter the teaching profession.[33]

Global Teacher Prize
Main article: Global Teacher Prize

In order to raise the status of teaching, at the second annual Global Education and Skills Forum in March 2014, the foundation launched the Global Teacher Prize, an annual $1 million award to an exceptional teacher who has made an outstanding contribution to the profession.[34]

Business Backs Education

In 2014 the Varkey Foundation, together with UNESCO, co-created Business Backs Education, a global advocacy campaign that encourages businesses, companies, and corporations to support education to the same degree that they support other basic services such as healthcare.[35][36][37] Bill Clinton co-launched the initiative,[37] which was launched in March 2014 at the second annual Global Education and Skills Forum,[38] and BBE held its New York Summit at the September 2014 annual meeting of the Clinton Global Initiative.[39][40]

On the grounds that skills shortages negatively impact companies' ability to prosper and innovate, and inequalities in educational opportunity also weaken the social and political stability needed for businesses to thrive, the BBE campaign recommends that companies worldwide allocate at least 20% of their corporate social responsibility (CSR) spending to educational initiatives by the year 2020.[12][38][40]

In January 2015 the campaign published a report, Business Backs Education,[37] analyzing the charitable education donations of the global top 500 companies, recommending that education be a higher priority for corporate social responsibility spending.[41] The study revealed that the Fortune Global 500 companies spend an average of only 13% of their CSR budget on education-related activities, and less than half of the Fortune Global 500 spend any funds on education-related CSR.[42][43][44]

MGCubed

In Ghana, the Varkey Foundation implements MGCubed – Making Ghana Girls Great[45] – which equips two classrooms in each Ghanaian primary school with a computer, projector, satellite modem, and solar panels, creating an interactive distance-learning platform to deliver both formal in-school teaching and informal after-school training.[46][47][48][49] The project, funded by the UK's Department for International Development (DFID), teaches 8,000 students in 72 Ghanaian schools, and is Sub-Saharan Africa's first interactive distance-learning project.[50] The program, which was founded by GEMS Education Solutions in 2014, aims to prevent dropping out and under-achieving among girls. Students participate more in these classes, in contrast to the standard system of learning by rote, and the video system also cuts down on teacher absenteeism.[51] Each week, the project also brings in a role model – a successful Ghanaian woman – to speak to the students nationwide.[1][52]

Other projects

The Varkey Foundation engages in a variety of projects and programs worldwide. Some of these additional projects include supporting the UNICEF Schools for Asia programme in the Philippines, Papua New Guinea, India, Nepal, and Vietnam;[53][54] supporting the professional development of teachers in Palestine and providing pre-school education in Palestine camps;[55] and establishing Learning Resource Centres in India.[56][57]

The foundation has also rebuilt damaged and destroyed schools in areas including Kenya and Pakistan;[58] provided clean water and toilets in 25 schools in Tanzania; and provided schools meals to improve access to education in India [57][59]

Some of the Varkey Foundation's partners and grantees include UNESCO, UNICEF, the Clinton Global Initiative, Oxfam, Pratham, Dubai Cares, and the Brookings Institution.[60][61][62] The Varkey Foundation also offers strategic input and consultancy to NGO partners, including a special emphasis on campaigning on issues to increase the capacity of education systems in the developing world.[63]

Leadership

Sunny Varkey is the founder and chairman of the Varkey Foundation. The foundation's trustees are Sunny Varkey and his sons Dino and Jay Varkey.[64]

The foundation's chief executive officer is Vikas Pota, who was named a World Economic Forum Young Global Leader in 2013, and was elected to the Fellowship of the Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce in 2014.[65] He is the author of India Inc: How India's Top Ten Entrepreneurs Are Winning Globally.[65] He also serves on several global education panels and advisory boards – including, for UNESCO, the Girls & Female Education Panel, the Teachers Task Force, and the Global Alliance of Corporate Partners for Education.[65]

The global advisory board of the Varkey Foundation includes Andreas Schleicher, director for education and skills and special advisor on education policy to the secretary-general at the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD); Bertie Ahern, former prime minister of Ireland; Aliko Dangote, founder of the Dangote Group; Nizan Guanaes, chairman of Grupo ABC; Lim Hwee Hua, executive director of Tembusu Partners and former Singaporean MP; and V Shankar, chief executive officer of Europe, Middle East, Africa and Americas at Standard Chartered.[66]

References
  1. The Varkey Foundation. British Expertise. Retrieved 2 August 2015.
  2. Abrioux, Marc and Jill Rutherford. Introducing the IB Diploma Programme. Cambridge University Press, 2013. p. 118.
  3. Sunny Varkey – Profile at Forbes. Retrieved 7 May 2015.
  4. Enhancing teacher quality: Low cost, big impact, A Varkey GEMS Foundation initiative. Varkey GEMS Foundation. December 2013.
  5. http://www.unesco.org/new/en/goodwill-ambassadors/sunny-varkey/ Retrieved 30 June 2020.
  6. Hamdan, Sara. "Building an Education Empire". Global Citizen. July/August 2012.
  7. Varkey GEMS Foundation – Projects Archived 9 November 2014 at the Wayback Machine. VarkeyGEMSFoundation.org. Retrieved 7 May 2015.
  8. "Gems launches new education initiative". Trade Arabia. 13 December 2010.
  9. George, Joseph. "Bill Clinton launches Varkey GEMS Foundation". Emirates 24/7. 13 December 2010.
  10. Teacher training: Low-Cost, High-Impact Teacher Training. VarkeyFoundation.org. Retrieved 28 July 2015.
  11. "Dubai Cares partners with Varkey GEMS Foundation to train and develop teachers across the developing world". Zawya. 16 March 2014.
  12. Williams, Stephen. "Vikas Pota: The business of business is education". New African. 25 November 2014.
  13. PLEDGE FROM THE VARKEY GEMS FOUNDATION: GPE Second Replenishment Conference. GlobalPartnership.org. 26 June 2014.
  14. Coughlan, Sean. "The man behind the million-dollar teacher". BBC News. 5 May 2015.
  15. "Program to train 250,000 teachers worldwide over the next 10 years". The Times of India. 18 March 2014.
  16. Stewart, William. "Meet the quiet revolutionaries". TES. 4 April 2014.
  17. MacKinnon, Lachlan. "Teacher Training Programme: My Experience". Varkey Foundation – Blogs. 5 July 2013.
  18. Blog: Teacher Training. VarkeyFoundation.org. Retrieved 21 August 2015.
  19. Teacher Training Programme (video). Varkey GEMS Foundation. 2014.
  20. Global Education & Skills Forum Archived 26 March 2015 at the Library of Congress Web Archives. Retrieved 7 May 2015.
  21. Buller, Alice. "Exclusive Interview: GEMS Chairman Sunny Varkey Talks Profits And Philanthropy". Gulf Business. 3 July 2013.
  22. Prois, Jessica. "Bill Clinton: Educating Underserved Girls Is 'Deeply Human Drama' Of This Century". Huffington Post. 15 March 2013.
  23. Pota, Vikas. "Disruptive Difference: World Education Leaders Unite At Global Education and Skills Forum". Huffington Post. 5 April 2013.
  24. "At Dubai Forum, UNESCO Chief Calls for Scaling Up Efforts to Educate Girls Worldwide". States News Service. 17 March 2014.
  25. Kamenetz, Anya. "$1 Million global education 'Nobel in teaching' announced". Digital/Edu, The Hechinger Report. 17 March 2014.
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  27. Gupta, Amita. Diverse Early Childhood Education Policies and Practices: Voices and Images from Five Countries in Asia. Routledge, 2014. p. 150.
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  29. Dunn, Jeff. "The Global Teacher Status Index Is Now Available". EduDemic. 3 October 2013.
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  31. R.L.W., K.N.C., P.K. "More than an apple a day". The Economist. 18 October 2013.
  32. Khadaroo, Stacy Teicher. "Teacher status around the world: how the US stacks up". Christian Science Monitor. 2 October 2013.
  33. Mascarenhas, Patricia. "We hope to return teaching to its rightful position as a respected profession in society, says Vikas Pota, CEO, Varkey GEMS Foundation". Daily News and Analysis. 28 May 2014.
  34. "Applications open for world’s first one million dollar teacher prize" (press release). EducationandSkillsForum.org. March 2014.
  35. Business Backs Education. GEMSeducation.com. Retrieved 26 April 2015.
  36. Business Backs Education – About the Campaign. BusinessBacksEducation.org. Retrieved 26 April 2015.
  37. Dattani, Pratik; Still, Adam; Pota, Vikas. Business Backs Education: Creating a baseline for Corporate CSR Spend on Global Education Initiatives. Report on Findings. Business Backs Education. UNESCO.org. January 2015. Retrieved 26 April 2015.
  38. Coughlan, Sean. "Businesses urged to donate more to global education". BBC News. 14 March 2014.
  39. BUSINESS BACKS EDUCATION - NEW YORK SUMMIT. BusinessBacksEducation.org. Retrieved 2 August 2015.
  40. 2014 Annual Meeting, Day 3. Clinton Global Initiative. 21–24 September 2014. Reprinted here.
  41. Coughlan, Sean. "Global firms urged to invest in education". BBC News. 14 January 2015.
  42. "New report finds Fortune 500 companies commit a fraction of CSR spend on education". UNESCO. Retrieved 2 August 2015.
  43. Silvera, Ian. "Global Fortune 500 spend 'fraction' of corporate social responsibility budget on education". International Business Times. 14 January 2015.
  44. Varkey, Sunny. "Put education at the top of global agenda". TES. 6 March 2015.
  45. "MGCubed - Delivering quality education to Ghanaian girls". VarkeyFoundation.org. Retrieved 2 August 2015.
  46. Project profiles. Girls' Education Challenge. April 2014. p. 13.
  47. MGCubed – GEMS Education Solutions. International Aid Transparency Initiative. Retrieved 7 May 2015.
  48. "After-School Girls Empowerment and Satellite-Transmitted Classes in Ghana". Innovations for Poverty Action. Retrieved 7 May 2015.
  49. Making Ghanaian Girls Great! (MGCubed) (video). GEMS Education Solutions. 2014.
  50. "DFID gives green light to first interactive distance-learning project". Business & Financial Times. 15 May 2014.
  51. Bramley, Ellie Violet. "Spider-Man and skiing: Ghana's girls test hi-tech distance-learning scheme". The Guardian. 11 July 2014.
  52. "Strength of Ghanaian women". CNN. Edition.CNN.com (video). 6 October 2014.
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  54. "UNICEF - Schools for Asia Initiative". VarkeyFoundation.org. Retrieved 2 August 2015.
  55. "Pre-School Education Programme". VarkeyFoundation.org. Retrieved 2 August 2015.
  56. "Learning Resource Centres". VarkeyFoundation.org. Retrieved 2 August 2015.
  57. "Schools for good". GEMSeducation.com. Retrieved 2 August 2015.
  58. "Rebuilding schools". VarkeyFoundation.org. Retrieved 2 August 2015.
  59. "Providing school meals". VarkeyFoundation.org. Retrieved 2 August 2015.
  60. "Our Partners & Grantees". VarkeyFoundation.org. Retrieved 2 August 2015.
  61. "Amnesty International". VarkeyFoundation.org. Retrieved 2 August 2015.
  62. "VGF joins Brookings Corporate Council". VarkeyFoundation.org. 18 July 2014.
  63. CSR and Events Coordinator - The Varkey GEMS Foundation / Dubai. CSRMiddleEast.org. Retrieved 26 July 2015.
  64. Varkey Foundation – Governance. VarkeyFoundation.org. Retrieved 20 June 2015.
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  66. Varkey Foundation – Global Advisory Board. VarkeyFoundation.org. Retrieved 2 August 2015.
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