Submitted
Equitable Classrooms

PiXL International

Team Leader
Charlotte Beckett
Solution Overview
Solution Name:
PiXL International
One-line solution summary:
Supporting under-resourced schools to help students graduate with qualifications that enable success.
Pitch your solution.

The project seeks to improve the life chances of students in under-resourced primary and secondary schools by supporting education systems to tackle academic underperformance.

 This is achieved with PiXL strategies, tools and resources, including:

  • intensive teacher training on using assessment data in the classroom; 
  • technology for teachers to help them input and track student data and plan targeted interventions; 
  • the digital provision of national learning materials and past exam papers; 
  • rigorous analysis of academic performance data to help schools set and work towards goals; and 
  • access to an international network of schools and leaders willing to share best practices and champion each other's successes.

The key objective is to help students get the best exam results they are capable of achieving.  This helps primary students enrol in and be better prepared for secondary education; and secondary students enrol in advanced and higher education.

Film your elevator pitch.
What specific problem are you solving?

Students in under-resourced schools have reduced life chances due to lower than average exam results at the end of primary and lower secondary education. Academic underperformance prevents many students from progressing to the next stage of education, or on to employment or vocational training. 

Globally, 1 in 10 children do not complete primary school (World Bank). In low and middle-income countries, more than 60% of primary age children fail to achieve a minimum proficiency in mathematics and reading, and only 1 in 3 children will complete secondary school (UNESCO).

Causes of student underperformance are rooted in poverty and include: 

  1. Undiagnosed gaps in learning from absence due to disease, child labour, rural geographical barriers, menstruation, marriage, and pregnancy; and a lack of catch up education; 
  2. A lack of training programs for school staff, resulting in limited improvement planning and data management; low teacher motivation; and a prevalence of common societal attitudes to girls’ abilities and education; and
  3. A lack of critical inputs, particularly learning materials and enough quality teachers.
What is your solution?

PiXL International is a community of schools designed to equip leaders so they can support their teams and improve academic performance of all students. 

PiXL schools meet at regular regional conferences to receive training on PiXL methods; share strategies and resources; provide feedback to the community; and celebrate school success stories. Schools also receive individual laser-focussed support when interventions are required.

PiXL’s proven methodologies are transferrable across schools, curriculums, cultures and countries. We provide intensive training on how to set important goals; track and use student data and assessment data in the classroom; professionally predict grades; and plan targeted interventions, along 8 key Steps to Success: 

  1. Dream big
  2. Know your students
  3. Plan ahead
  4. Spot challenging topics
  5. Take action
  6. Test, test, test
  7. Motivate students
  8. Celebrate success. 

Training helps schools improve student academic performance; creates shared accountability and capability across school leadership teams; improves capacity to oversee outcomes orientated improvement; and increases teacher motivation.

Our new technology is the PiXL App which allows teachers to track student progress and have instant access to teaching and training materials. It is our key digital tool for sharing strategy manuals, data analysis and exam preparation resources with schools.

Who does your solution serve, and in what ways will the solution impact their lives?

PiXL International works with communities when invited by regional education officers. In Tanzania where we predominantly work, PiXL International’s community includes 1,367 primary and secondary schools across 5 regions. Since 2012 more than 1.5 million adolescents in Tanzania have failed to access secondary education due to their primary school exam results. The Tanzanian government acknowledges that outcomes in education remain at a low level, with an obvious gap between the number of girls and boys accessing and progressing with their education (National Five Year Development Plan for Tanzania). For example in a key district we work in, Morogoro Rural District, there are 14 primary schools with zero passes for girls in the Primary School Leavers' Examination (5 of these schools have no passes for boys as well).

It was the end of 2019 when we were invited to work with Morogoro Region. 88% of Morogoro’s 2.2 million population live rurally in low-income settings where students are critically underserved. Schools in this region have a 6:1 student to textbook ratio, and teacher ratio of 42:1 (UNICEF 2018 Out-of-School Children Report, Tanzania). There are limited provisions for students with disabilities, a lack of access to high quality digital learning materials and resources for teachers, and sometimes limited internet access. Morogoro Rural District is the lowest performing district in Tanzania for exam performance, placed at 186th out of 186 districts in the national rankings. Here the primary pass rate was 54% and the secondary pass rate was 63% in 2019. Rural students are particularly at risk of lower academic performance because of geographical barriers and other poverty-led causes of absence, such as child labour at harvest time.

When we are invited to work in a school region, it is essential we work collaboratively with the Education Department for the region. We begin by having consultations with regional education officers to understand their needs and wants. PiXL International is driven by Human Centered Design and our strategies and methods are uniquely tailored to each region. In Morogoro, we trained local Ward Education Officers to act as PiXL Associates and serve local networks of schools. We also set out to partner with key established providers in each region. In Morogoro we partnered with ETETA, a sustainable ICT program of teachers who create learning videos on YouTube tailored to the Tanzanian curriculum.

With the relationship established at regional level, we run introductory conferences to engage school leaders and District Education Officers (DEOs) in setting wildly important goals for their school and region. Attendance at PiXL conferences allows attendees to find out about PiXL strategies and give feedback on adapting them to local contexts.

Once schools are onboard, we work continuously as a community to achieve set goals. First, we analyse exam results to identify low performing schools and beneficiaries. The PiXL App technology ensures every student is visible, flagging under-performers (and non-attendance) by default, and helping DEOs conduct community mapping where low school attendance is apparent and interventions are required.

Crucially, our strategy then involves student engagement. Students provide feedback on the process from the outset, which starts as they are informed of the school’s goals for the year, and when they receive a predicted grade and a target grade from each subject teacher. Teacher and student sit down one-on-one so that students can agree upon or challenge target grades allocated to them, and the proposed process to attain them. Teachers discuss student feedback with the school’s appointed PiXL Raising Standards Leader who meets with a local PiXL Associate. As students are involved in the improvement process and as teachers celebrate big and small achievements with them, it gives students confidence and drives ambition, which along with key learning interventions enables exam results to improve.

Finally, we work with teachers on best ways to integrate use of PiXL learning materials, practice test questions and the PiXL App into daily teaching practices. Via the App and on USB drive teachers have the syllabus, textbooks, past examination papers, examination answers and feedback reports, practice questions, ETETA learning videos and more. Teachers can also collect badges on the App as students progress, and send feedback and questions to PiXL.

Morogoro was a success story for us last year, despite Tanzanian schools being closed for 3 months during the pandemic. Using PiXL strategies in 2020, Morogoro region moved up from 16th to 8th place out of 31 regions in the national ranking for students’ performance in their Primary School Leavers Exams. PiXL schools achieved a magnificent improvement in their average pass rate from 78.5% in 2019 to 87.2% in 2020. The excellent results achieved by the schools means that 5603 more students in this region passed their exams and so were able to go on to access secondary education.

Which dimension of the Challenge does your solution most closely address?
  • Support teachers to adapt their pedagogy, facilitate personalized instruction, and communicate with students and their families in remote and hybrid settings.
Explain how the problem you are addressing, the solution you have designed, and the population you are serving align with the Challenge.

PiXL International is driven to create a community of schools and classrooms that support all boys and girls to achieve equal standards of excellence. We succeed because we make the journey personal for school leaders, teachers, and students no matter who or where they are, which fosters motivation and ambition in schools and empowers students to succeed. 

We challenge schools and students to set wildly important goals; use positive language and celebrate successes; and critically harness the power of data to ensure accountability and the successful planning of purposeful, personalised and targeted interventions.

In what city, town, or region is your solution team headquartered?
London, UK
What is your solution’s stage of development?
  • Growth: An organization with an established product, service, or business model rolled out in one or, ideally, several communities, which is poised for further growth.
Explain why you selected this stage of development for your solution.

PiXL International is at growth stage at service level, and pilot stage with the PiXL App.

PiXL International has been established since 2014, when we started working with 3 schools in Tanzania to help their students improve their academic performance. Seven years later we work with 487 secondary schools and 880 primary schools across 5 regions in Tanzania; 296 secondary schools across 6 regions of Brazil; 6 secondary schools in Ghana; 20 in South Africa and 14 in Uganda. In total we serve almost half a million students. Although we are lean to run, we are not yet sustainable to be at scale stage. We hope to achieve sustainability via our PiXL App, which was launched in 2020 and we are piloting with 237 school leaders in Morogoro, Tanzania.

Who is the Team Lead for your solution?
Martin Rainsford
More About Your Solution
About Your Team
Your Business Model & Partnerships
Partnership & Prize Funding Opportunities
Solution Team:
Charlotte Beckett
Charlotte Beckett
Head of Operations