From commitments to results: what FLEX2026 taught us about delivering foundational learning at scale 

By Claude Fotso, Researcher, eBASE Africa

In mid July 2026, education ministers, researchers, and implementers from across the continent gathered in Lilongwe, Malawi, for the third edition of the Africa Foundational Learning Exchange, FLEX2026. eBASE Africa was there, representing our work in Cameroon, and we came away with a clearer picture of where the continent’s foundational learning agenda is heading, and where organisations like ours fit into it. 

This year’s theme, “From commitments to results: delivering foundational learning at scale,” was not just a slogan. It was a genuine shift in tone from previous editions. Where FLEX2024 in Kigali was about making bold commitments, FLEX2026 was about being held to them. 

A platform built for accountability, not applause 

FLEX is not a typical conference. It is a government-led, peer-to-peer platform where ministers and senior officials from across Africa come together to take stock of their own progress, in front of each other. This year’s edition brought together delegations from more than 40 African countries, alongside continental partners including the African Union Commission, ADEA, the World Bank, UNICEF, the Gates Foundation, and the Hempel Foundation. 

The heart of the three days was a structured accounting exercise. Countries reported back against the five commitments made in Kigali in 2024, covering cross-country collaboration, scaling evidence-based approaches, strengthening data and accountability systems, efficient use of resources, and better coordination among partners. Some countries had clear, measurable progress to show. Others were candid about where implementation had stalled. That honesty, in a room full of peers, is what makes FLEX different from most education conferences. 

The conference closed with 42 African governments recommitting to end learning poverty by 2035, pledging increased domestic education financing, stronger accountability systems, and a renewed push to bring artificial intelligence tools into classrooms in a way that supports, rather than replaces, good teaching.  

Success stories worth learning from one of the most valuable parts of FLEX is simply hearing what is working, country by country. A few stories stood out.  

In Kenya, one of the biggest achievements has been building the infrastructure to understand what is happening in classrooms. The introduction of the Kenya Early Years Assessment, administered by the Kenya National Examinations Council at Grade Three, has given the country a reliable yardstick for measuring literacy and numeracy in the early years. What is especially encouraging is what that data has started to reveal about girls. National assessments coordinated by Usawa Agenda have consistently found girls outperforming boys in reading, including on Grade Three-level texts, a pattern echoed across several other countries in the region. It is a reminder that closing the gender gap in African education is not only about getting girls into classrooms. In several places, it is increasingly about making sure boys do not fall behind once they are there.

One of the clearest examples of evidence informing national policy came from Senegal. The Ndaw Wune programme, meaning "Success for All" in Wolof, targets the lowest-performing Grade Two and Three learners with structured, after-school lessons delivered in the languages children already speak. An independent evaluation found strong, measurable gains in reading and mathematics, and the model has since fed directly into Remédiation Harmonisée, a national remediation effort now running in government classrooms as part of the official school day. It is a clear example of a pilot that earned its way into national policy through evidence, not enthusiasm alone.

Research on mother tongue instruction has been translated into national policy in Ghana. Building on years of evidence showing that children learn to read faster and more confidently in a language they already understand, the government has made local language instruction compulsory at the basic school level. It is an ambitious policy, and translating textbooks and training teachers across the country's many languages will take time and sustained investment. But it reflects exactly the political will FLEX consistently points to as the difference between good intentions and real reform.

Few interventions demonstrate the power of scaling as clearly as Nigeria's experience with Teaching at the Right Level (TaRL). Since piloting the approach in 2019, the country has expanded TaRL across multiple states, with learning gains that stand among the strongest recorded for any education intervention globally—improvements of well over ten percentage points in reading and mathematics for participating children. It is one of the clearest answers on the continent to the question every ministry is asking: once you know a child cannot yet read or count, what do you do about it?

Long-term commitment has been the defining feature of Zambia's Catch-Up programme. The country's adaptation of Teaching at the Right Level began as a small pilot in just two provinces in 2016. It now reaches every province and more than a million learners each year, delivered almost entirely by government teachers rather than external staff. A national randomised evaluation published this year found the programme's gains rank among the strongest recorded for any large-scale education reform worldwide, making it a rare example of a foundational learning pilot that successfully completed the journey from small trial to national system.

Rather than treating remediation as a temporary intervention, Rwanda has embedded it within its education system. Faced with a persistent gap between near-universal enrolment and actual reading proficiency, the country has built a national remedial learning programme into basic education alongside clear benchmarks for what every child should know by the end of Primary Three. It offers a useful model for countries grappling with the same uncomfortable gap between children being in school and children actually learning.

Perhaps no country illustrates the value of preparedness better than Sierra Leone. Its Interactive Radio Teaching Programme, first developed during the 2014–2016 Ebola outbreak, meant the country was ready to keep children learning the moment COVID-19 forced schools to close in 2020, while many other education systems were caught off guard. It is a reminder that the strongest foundational learning systems are not only those with sound pedagogy on paper, but those that have already been tested by crisis and adapted

Claude Fotso at FLEX2026

Where the work is still hardest  

FLEX2026 was equally honest about where progress remains fragile, and two conversations stayed with us.  

Sudan’s education system is facing one of the most severe crises anywhere in the world. More than three years of conflict have left millions of children out of school, with large numbers of school buildings damaged, destroyed, or repurposed as shelters. Recovery efforts are underway, but the scale of disruption is a stark reminder that foundational learning gains, however strong, remain fragile wherever conflict and displacement take hold. It is also a reminder of why organisations working in fragile and crisis-affected regions, including our own work in Cameroon’s Northwest Region, need to keep building models that hold up when systems are under strain, not only when conditions are stable.  

Nigeria’s own progress is being held back by a problem that has nothing to do with curriculum or materials: teacher motivation. Even where good programmes exist, low and often irregular pay for teachers continues to undermine morale and retention, particularly outside the country’s major cities. Ministries can supply the best evidence-based lesson plans in the world. Still, if the person delivering them in the classroom is underpaid, under-supported, and uncertain about their next salary, implementation quality suffers. It was a useful reminder that foundational learning reform is not only a pedagogical challenge. It is also a public sector management challenge.  

What the sector was saying  

FLEX2026 generated a genuine wave of reflection across LinkedIn during and after the conference, and a few voices captured the mood well. 

Benjamin Piper of the Gates Foundation, who has supported FLEX since its first edition in 2023, wrote that this year felt different, not because the challenges facing African education have become smaller, but because of real shifts underway. Among his five takeaways, he noted that FLEX has matured into a platform for accountability and action, where ministers now openly share both progress and setbacks, and that governments themselves are increasingly leading the agenda as external funding becomes more constrained. 

That sentiment was echoed by others who attended. John Rendel reflected that what stood out most across the three days was the shared commitment to government leadership, while representatives from the PAL Network described being glad to stand alongside governments, researchers, and civil society partners working toward the same goal. Taken together, the online reaction matched what those of us in the room felt directly: that FLEX2026 marked a genuine shift from talking about foundational learning to being measured on it. 

What comes next?

FLEX will move to Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire for its next edition in 2028, hosted in ADEA’s home country. That is likely to bring a stronger francophone Africa focus to the conversation, and an opportunity for organisations working across both English- and French-speaking contexts to play a more visible role. 

For eBASE, the task ahead is straightforward to describe and harder to execute. Keep doing the work that FLEX2026 confirmed matters most, coaching over one-off training, data that reaches classrooms, and evidence that can stand up to scrutiny, while making sure that work is visible to the platforms and partners shaping the continent’s next chapter on foundational learning. 

The commitments have been made. The evidence is clear. What remains is delivery, and that is exactly the work we intend to keep showing up for.