From top left clockwise: Anna Maria Raad, Gideon Olanrewaju, Abdul Hamid Haider, Fadia Hamdi and Sara and Vahakn Papazian
Doha, Qatar: Six innovative projects addressing global educational challenges have been shortlisted by the World Innovation Summit for Education (WISE) for the WISE Prize 2025, as the global education community prepares for the 12th edition of WISE Summit.
The WISE Prize finalists described their vision towards improving education opportunities around the world as a dream come true and vowed to make more positive contribution to education and society.
The WISE Prize aims to highlight projects that have demonstrated impact in various communities and have the potential to set international standards and best practices worldwide, highlighting the summit’s ambition and reach.
During a media day held yesterday, speaking to The Peninsula, the WISE Prize 2025 finalists expressed optimism in engaging in productive projects that will not only benefit the continent they represent but the world at large.
Executive Director of the Board of Trustees, Kühne Foundation, Dr. Jörg Dräger said “The metrics we picked was both innovation and ability to scale. We had six very impressive finalists, very different ones, and also the maturity at which they could prove their impact. I really appreciate that this is now a forward-looking prize, and that good ideas are awarded with future potential rather than lifetime achievements. I hope for the next years that that methodology will carry through.”
Executive Director of the Board of Trustees, Kühne Foundation, Dr. Jörg Dräger.
“The interesting thing is when you look at the six, most of them or all of them work rather on the outside of the education system. They're not within school, but rather, for training or for out-of-school or after-school activities. It is interesting to see that those who are innovative often come from the outside and move into the education system rather than innovations from within the education system”
One of the finalists from Queen Rania Foundation for Education and Development, Fadia Hamdi said “Iqrali means read to me, which literally is children asking their parents to read to them from birth. We’re very happy to be one of these finalists and to see other initiatives in education being supported throughout their development journey.”
Queen Rania Foundation for Education and Development, Fadia Hamdi and Sara.
“Whether funding or building partnerships, mentorship, it all really added to our enthusiasm and ability to move forward with our program.”
Chief Executive Director of Aid for Rural Education Access Initiatives, Gideon Olanrewaju said, “It’s really exciting to actually be part of the final six of the WISE Prize 2025, because over time we have established that WISE Prize for Education is one of the biggest recognitions when it comes to innovation in education.”
“For our work to be acknowledged on such a global stage is a huge prestige not only to myself, but to the team at home in Nigeria, who are doing incredible work in ensuring that we can provide quality foundational learning programming for disadvantaged populations, particularly refugee learners,” he added.
Chief Executive Director of Aid for Rural Education Access Initiatives, Gideon Olanrewaju.
Olanrewaju explained that his project, FastTrack Plus, has worked in Nigeria over the last five years and has expanded into Democratic Republic of Congo. The pilot study of the project showed a significant impact as there was about 69% improvement in literacy and numeracy outcomes for 1037 children.
He pointed out that the support of WISE has allowed improvement on the instructional languages used with 5 languages in total – French, Swahili Yoruba, Hausa and Igbo.
Founder and President of Darsel, AbdulHamid Haidar noted that the WISE Prize process has been transformational and through the process, Darsel developed a new chatbot for students to support numeracy learning in partnership with the Ministry of Education in Jordan.
Haidar highlighted the new platform his team developed has now been regarded as a core part of education strategy and will continue to develop and grow its impact after the WISE Prize.
Founder and President of Darsel, AbdulHamid Haidar.
He expressed his gratitude in working with Qatar Foundation to develop a promising solution specifically for numeracy.
On his part, Director of Product Engineering at Tumo Path, Vahakn Papazian said “If we win, we will be able to expand the co-learner platform all over the world and reach underprivileged communities because there is going to be a worldwide shortage of 44 million teachers in 2030.”
Director of Product Engineering at Tumo Path, Vahakn Papazian.
“This has given us an opportunity to focus and bring the idea of Tumo and the co-learner platform that we've been developing to the international stage, learn from others and to be able to showcase it with the top minds in education.” he added.
Anna Maria Raad with the project ApprendoLab said, “We developed a new application to help teachers support their students in the classrooms with real tools, ideas, and strategies. We are working in seven different countries around Latin America with almost 4,000 teachers that are using our platform.”
“We took this as a challenge that really gives us the opportunity to raise the bar, to make better solutions and be focused on the impact that we can have with teachers.” she added.
Anna Maria Raad (ApprendoLab).
A defining moment of the summit will be the announcement of the 2025 WISE Prize for Education winner.
This year’s finalists represent work in areas such as Arabic language access, education in conflict zones, neurodiversity, and systemic reform.
The finalists will have a prominent presence throughout the summit, while the winner will be revealed at the closing plenary on November 25.
Since its founding in 2009 by Qatar Foundation, WISE has evolved into a global platform for innovation and collaboration in education. Through its biennial summit, research programs, and partnerships, WISE continues to champion education as a force for human progress, one that connects technology with compassion, and transformation with purpose.
