What is SCALE?
SCALE (Scaling Access and Learning in Education) is a UK government-funded programme running from 2024 to 2028.
Through SCALE, we provide targeted, timely expertise to ministries of education to help them improve foundational learning, and reach more disadvantaged children, especially girls.
Delivered across multiple low- and middle-income countries, SCALE supports the design of smarter programmes with clear pathways for scaling. It also strengthens implementation so that investments increase influence over international education finance, whilst supporting the mobilisation of domestic resources.
SCALE is delivered in three components:
- Component 1: Technical Assistance – engaging the right experts at the right time to scope enabling environments, identify opportunities, and adapt evidence-based interventions.
- Component 2: Innovative Partnerships (IPs) – providing funding for these partnerships to test, learn, and refine high-potential reforms.
- Component 3: Strategic Partnerships – aiming to build influence through strategic donor relationships and collaboration with multilateral organisations – such as the World Bank, Global Partnership for Education, and Prevail – to facilitate the scaling of successful initiatives.
What does SCALE aim to achieve?
Many countries are currently grappling with a significant learning crisis. Although access to education has grown considerably, this progress has not translated into improved learning outcomes. In low- and middle-income nations, learning poverty has risen sharply, with an estimated 70% of ten-year-olds unable to comprehend a simple written text. This issue is particularly pronounced in sub-Saharan Africa.
Traditional technical assistance has not consistently resulted in system-level improvements, and there are limited examples of cost-effective education interventions being successfully scaled and embedded in national systems. SCALE was established to address this problem and enable partner governments to design, enhance, and expand cost-effective education solutions.
EDT's role on SCALE
EDT leads the design and delivery of SCALE’s technical assistance (Component 1), translating strategic priorities into support tailored to a country’s needs and context. We ensure that all assistance is grounded in robust evidence, is shaped through inclusive stakeholder participation, and systematically integrates gender equality, disability, and social inclusion (GEDSI) considerations. This enables ministries of education to make informed decisions and progress effectively along the scaling pathway.
The technical assistance we provide through SCALE is swift and catalytic, in line with FCDO’s emerging guidance on smarter technical assistance. We do not focus on addressing every challenge, but rather on filling critical strategic gaps in analysis and process. Through this approach, we can ensure that domestically financed reforms are more precisely targeted, better sequenced, and more likely to lead to sustained improvements in teaching and learning outcomes.
Our work on SCALE is demonstrating that deliberate, targeted technical assistance can make a huge impact.
Following significant reductions in international aid since April 2025, SCALE has played a critical role in ensuring that foundational learning reforms did not stall. Our technical assistance model has shown that small, well-targeted investments in analysis, coordination, and design can unlock significantly greater system value.
Malawi
SCALE technical assistance directly informed government decision-making, contributing to the allocation of USD 2 million to scale a national remediation programme.
Sudan
SCALE technical assistance has helped strengthen and organise non-formal education (NFE) in a highly fragile context. This has included creating learner profiles to identify out-of-school children and understand barriers to learning, such as disability and trauma, as well as reviewing and aligning NFE programmes. These changes are helping to provide more consistent, evidence-based support for learners affected by crisis.
Mozambique
Gender considerations were successfully mainstreamed into the GPE grant and national operational plan, addressing a critical gap in prior system planning.
Frequently asked questions
Where is SCALE delivered?
Our assignments on SCALE have been concentrated in sub-Saharan Africa, with projects implemented in Ethiopia, Ghana, Malawi, Mozambique, Nigeria, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, Somalia, Sudan, Uganda, and Zambia. In addition, SCALE technical assistance has been delivered or is being scoped in South Asia and the Middle East, specifically in Nepal, Lebanon, Palestine, and Jordan. Our teams have also undertaken one assignment in Central Asia, covering Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, and Turkmenistan, as well as one assignment involving global analytical work.
What thematic areas does SCALE cover?
Our SCALE assignments cover a wide range of thematic areas, including:
- curriculum reform
- early childhood education
- middle-tier leadership
- non-formal education
- policy reform
- violence against children.
Let’s work together
Interested in partnering with us on this programme or in similar work?
Contact Dr Clare Buntic, Lead Adviser, System Strengthening and Scaling
Clare has deep experience driving education reform across sub-Saharan Africa. She works with governments to expand equitable learning through catalytic technical assistance, stronger, system-embedded teacher and school leader development, as well as adaptive, outcomes-focused implementation.