Commonwealth

Education Good
Practice Awards 2018
 Good Practice Awards 2018 \ 3

Call for nominations and submissions

Nominations and submissions are invited for the Commonwealth
Education Good Practice Awards 2018.
Awards will be presented to winners at the 20th Conference of
Commonwealth Education Ministers in 2018.
Awarded and commended examples will be promoted on the
Commonwealth website and/or other media.

We strongly invite you to provide a 3 to 4-minute video

using a smartphone or similar device presenting your
initiative (no professional productions please!).

The Commonwealth Education Good Practice Awards showcase the

innovative and successful education and learning initiatives that are
being conducted in Commonwealth countries.
By recognising excellence and innovation, we hope to support member
countries in their endeavours, highlight the great work of education
professionals and signal the key role of education and learning in
achieving the Sustainable Development Goals.
We are particularly interested in highlighting initiatives that remove
barriers and facilitate access to quality education and learning and build
resilience, especially for disadvantaged groups.
There are five categories for 2018; please ensure your initiative falls
under one of them. Three to five winners will be selected across the
five categories.
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Category 1: Eliminating gender disparities in education,

especially for girls and women.
Advancing education and learning for girls and women.
Fostering empowerment and eliminating gender based violence
through education.

Category 2: Delivering quality education and learning in

difficult circumstances.
Delivering education in difficult environments and providing
education and learning against all odds. Reconfiguring the financing
of education for people living in difficult situations.

Category 3: Education and learning to improve

employment opportunities for young people.
Education initiatives that provide learning and training experiences
that increase employment opportunities for young people.
These can include science, technology, engineering and
mathematics (STEM) initiatives.

Category 4: Education as a powerful response to

climate change.
Equipping learners for the inevitable changes in the climate
(adaptation) while encouraging a greater understanding of and
responsibility for the environmental consequences of human
actions (mitigation). 

Category 5: Education and pathways to peace.

Educating for peace, preventing conflict and promoting a culture of
peace and good citizenship through education. Building a fair and
inclusive Commonwealth that embraces diversity.
 Good Practice Awards 2018 \ 5

Who can enter the Good Practice Awards?

Any organisation, whether public or private, including Commonwealth

ministries of education, educational institutions and civil society
organisations advising in or delivering education and learning in
Commonwealth countries can nominate themselves or be nominated.
The formal and non-formal education sectors span from early
childhood education to adult education, including primary, secondary
and tertiary education, technical and vocational education and training,
and skills development.
Good Practice Awards nominations and submissions for individuals
will not be accepted.

There are five categories for 2018, please ensure your

initiative falls under one of them. If your initiative falls under
more than one category, please complete a separate entry
form for each category.

What makes good practice?

A good practice submission must be a policy, programme, project
or strategy that has made a positive difference to learners, whether
children, young people or adults, or to the education system of a
Commonwealth member country in respect of one or more of the five
categories for 2018.
6 \ Commonwealth Education

What is the entry process?

Organisations are asked to complete all sections of the application
form, available on www.thecommonwealth.org/education.
We strongly invite you to provide a 3 to 4-minute video using a
smartphone or similar device presenting your initiative (no professional
productions please!). Although not part of the selection criteria,
the video that is submitted may be included on the Commonwealth
Secretariat website and/or other media. You may also wish to upload
additional material to support your application (for example links to
websites, news articles, video/audio content).
Submissions must be sent by email and/or post to:
The Co-ordinator
Commonwealth Education Good Practice Awards
Health and Education Unit
Commonwealth Secretariat
Marlborough House, Pall Mall
London SW1Y 5HX
United Kingdom
Email: educationawards@commonwealth.int
The Commonwealth Secretariat reserves the right to reproduce,
without limitation, submitted materials including the good practice
description and any attachments, for distribution to member
countries, partner organisations, Commonwealth newsletters and in
communication with the general public (printed and electronic).
Deadline: 15 March 2017

• Submissions and nominations received after this date will not

be considered.
• Commonwealth small states are particularly encouraged to
submit applications.
 Good Practice Awards 2018 \ 7

Criteria for the Good Practice Awards

Entries will be judged using the following criteria:
• Relevance: Contextual, socio-cultural and economically
appropriate responses to the challenge of education delivery in a
specific country.
• Innovative: Displaying innovation in its approach, methods
or outcomes.
• Measurable Impact: Evidence that it has been independently
evaluated and its impact assessed e.g. through qualitative and
quantitative indicators.
• Sustainability: Demonstrates its capacity or potential in
delivering sustainable benefits for society, and in making
substantial contribution to the education sector.
• Efficiency and Effectiveness: Demonstrates efficient and cost
effective use of resources in its implementation.
• Knowledge Exchange and Participation: How it contributes
to knowledge exchange, successfully communicates its
objectives, approaches and findings to stakeholders, and
encourages community and civil society participation,
ownership or contribution.
• Replication: The extent to which the initiative is replicable
in other Commonwealth countries and can advance good
practice within the sector and/or influence policy agendas
promoting good practice
Reminder: Entries should be clear and comprehensive, and should
clearly describe how good educational and learning policies or
practices have been implemented and what has been achieved.
8 \ Commonwealth Education

Guidance notes for completing the application form

The numbers below correspond to the questions on the
application form.
1. The country must be a member of the Commonwealth.
13. ‘The Beneficiary’ refers to individuals who have directly benefited
from the good practice.
14. ‘People participating’ means the individuals who have been
involved in running and delivering the good practice.
15. The good practice must fit into one of the award’s five
categories. The categories are:
Category 1: Eliminating gender disparities in education,
especially for girls and women.
Category 2: Delivering quality education and learning in
difficult circumstances.
Category 3: Education and learning to improve employment
opportunities for young people.
Category 4: Education as a powerful response to climate change.
Category 5: Education and pathways to peace.
16. The Executive Summary should be a brief description of the good
practice. Please include simple statements about its aims and
objectives, and tell us what actually happens in the good practice.
17. The Description could cover, but not be limited to:
–– The context of the good practice.
–– How the good practice was designed.
–– Who was involved in designing it.
–– Who was involved in implementing it.
–– A detailed description of the good practice itself.
–– Who benefits from it, and how they benefit.
–– The cost of the good practice, and where the money
came from.
 Good Practice Awards 2018 \ 9

18. The following criteria should be adhered to carefully in

submissions as they provide the basis for selection. You need not
answer every question in each criterion. However, try to give as
much evidence as you can to support your application.
Please note that entries should be clear and comprehensive and
should clearly describe how good educational and learning policies
or practices have been implemented and what has been achieved.
Please be clear about the good practice, remembering that others
will not know the details of your organisation, how the education
system works in your country, or the details about its culture.
–– Relevance: Contextual, socio-cultural and economically
appropriate responses to the challenge of education delivery
in a specific country.
Consider how appropriate and suitable the submission is to
the context of the country?
What specific education issue is the good practice
addressing or has the good practice addressed?
How does it take into account socio-cultural and economical
factors and constraints?
Does the submission reflect why it is a suitable response to
the realities and environment in which it operates?
10 \ Commonwealth Education

–– Innovative: It displays innovation in its approach, methods or

outcomes.
What are the innovative factors of the good practice?
How does it differ from existing practices?
What is its added value?
–– Measurable Impact: Evidence that it has been independently
evaluated and its impact assessed e.g. through qualitative
and quantitative indicators.
What positive impact has the good practice made to the lives
of people?
What impact has the good practice had on the organisation
or the education sector?
Is there data that shows the value and benefit of the good
practice?
 Good Practice Awards 2018 \ 11

How many persons/students/teachers/schools/community

members etc. has the good practice positively impacted?
What do beneficiaries of the good practice say about it?
What are the main conclusions and/or recommendations of
evaluation reports of the good practice?
–– Sustainability: Demonstrates its capacity or potential in
delivering sustainable benefits for society, and in making
substantial contribution to the education sector.
Will the good practice be here today and gone tomorrow?
Will the good practice be in operation in three to five years,
for example? If so, how would it have changed/evolved?
Is the positive impact of the good practice sustainable over a
period of time?
How will the sustainability of the good practice be ensured?
–– Efficiency and Effectiveness: Demonstrates efficient and
cost effective use of resources in its implementation.
In what ways has the initiative saved on costs or built in
efficiencies?
Have cost-saving measures been implemented in any way?
How creatively and effectively have resources been used, so
as to minimise cost and optimise results?
Can the good practice be repeated at a lower cost?
–– Knowledge Exchange and Participation: How it contributes
to knowledge exchange, successfully communicates its
objectives, approaches and findings to stakeholders, and
encourages community and civil society participation,
ownership or contribution.
12 \ Commonwealth Education

Has there been any contribution and/or participation by the

community where the good practice is located? If yes, how
has the community been engaged? If no, how could the good
practice improve engagement with the community? And are
there plans to engage the community in the future?
How effectively have the good practice’s objectives,
approaches and findings been communicated to
stakeholders? What has been their response?
What mechanism is used to engage with the stakeholders?
Are the stakeholders involved in making specific
contributions to the initiative? How often and through
which mechanism?
–– Replication: The extent to which the initiative is replicable
in other Commonwealth countries and can advance good
practice within the sector and/or influence policy agendas
promoting good practice.
Does the good practice lend itself to transfer to another
country in another cultural context?
Can the essentials of the good practice be repeated?
Has any aspect of the good practice been copied, replicated
or identified for replication by another organisation, ministry
or country? If not, what issues/elements of the good practice
can be easily replicated in other countries?
What are the cost and resource implications?
 Good Practice Awards 2018 \ 13

History of the Good Practice Awards

In 2006, the Commonwealth Secretariat introduced the Good Practice
Awards to identify, highlight, and share positive and promising practices
in education throughout the Commonwealth. The Good Practice
Awards have been held triennially since 2009 to coincide with the
Conference of Commonwealth Education Ministers.
The fourth round of the awards was presented at the 19th Conference
of Commonwealth Education Ministers in The Bahamas in June
2015. A total of 89 applications from 20 countries from across the
Commonwealth were received and initiatives addressed issues
including numeracy and literacy, conflict, access to education, teacher
training, inclusive education, dropout rates and student assessment.
14 \ Commonwealth Education

Good Practice Awards 2015 Finalists

Brunei Darussalam
Young Creative Thinkers

Cyprus
Developing Positive & Accepting Attitudes towards Others
Give Peace a Chance

India
Design for Change
Jodo Gyan – Connecting Knowledge Through an Innovative
Teaching Approach to Maths in Foundational Classes

New Zealand
Hobsonville Point Schools Public-Private Partnership (PPP)

Rwanda
Parents, Step In!
Supporting Teachers’ English through Mentoring

Singapore
Holistic Assessment to Support Student Learning and
Development in All Singapore Primary Schools

South Africa
Taking Quality Education to where it matters
through Webcasting
For more information, contact:
The Co-ordinator
Commonwealth Education
Good Practice Awards
Health and Education Unit
Commonwealth Secretariat
Marlborough House
Pall Mall, London SW1Y 5HX
United Kingdom

Email: educationawards@commonwealth.int
P14836

thecommonwealth.org/education