Education innovation firm Elimu-Soko, supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, has announced a new funding opportunity aimed at transforming foundational literacy teaching in African public schools.
Through its Teaching Innovation Lab (TIL), the organization is offering grants of up to $150,000 to innovators and organizations developing low-cost, scalable solutions to strengthen teacher professional development (TPD). The funding call is open to applicants operating in Ghana, Nigeria, Senegal, Côte d’Ivoire, Ethiopia, Tanzania, Kenya, South Africa, and Mozambique.
Selected pilots will run for six to 12 months and are expected to reach at least 200 teachers, with larger cohorts encouraged to enable comparative testing across cost, scalability, and learning outcomes.
Tackling the Sustainability Challenge in Teacher Training.
Elimu-Soko says many of Africa’s most effective teacher development programmes remain heavily dependent on donor funding, often at costs governments cannot sustain long term. This reliance has limited the ability of public education systems to scale proven interventions, leaving many teachers without consistent coaching, instructional guidance, or classroom resources.
“Most successful TPD programmes have been funded by external donors at costs that exceed what governments can sustain,” the organization said. “As a result, education systems are often forced to trade off programme reach for quality.”
The Teaching Innovation Lab aims to test whether new models can shift that balance delivering measurable improvements in teaching quality while remaining financially viable for public systems.
Why Teacher Quality Matters.
The funding call is anchored in strong evidence that teacher quality is the most important school-based factor influencing student learning outcomes. Research from low- and middle-income countries shows that structured pedagogy programmes combining detailed lesson plans, quality materials, and continuous coaching produce some of the strongest learning gains in education.
Kenya’s Tusome literacy programme, for example, reached nearly 7 million learners across close to 24,000 primary schools and delivered significant improvements in reading outcomes. Similarly, a global meta-analysis found that instructional coaching improves teaching quality and sustains gains over time.
Despite this evidence, many African education systems continue to struggle with limited daily instructional support, weak coaching capacity, fragmented professional development structures, and underuse of classroom data.
What the Teaching Innovation Lab Is Looking For.
Elimu-Soko is seeking solutions that strengthen existing teacher development systems within government education structures, particularly for foundational literacy and numeracy. Applicants are expected to clearly define the classroom problem being addressed, explain how the intervention will improve teaching or learning outcomes, outline implementation and measurement plans, and demonstrate a credible pathway for integration into government systems.
“We seek solutions that strengthen existing TPD structures within government education systems while remaining financially viable at scale,” the organization said.
Key Dates and Application Timeline.
The deadline for submitting expressions of interest is January 30, 2026. Shortlisted applicants will be invited to submit full proposals by February 27, 2026, with final funding decisions expected in March 2026.
For African founders, edtech startups, NGOs, and education innovators, the funding call presents both capital and an opportunity to validate whether classroom-level innovations can improve learning outcomes at scale without placing unsustainable financial burdens on public education systems.
As governments across the continent grapple with learning poverty and teacher shortages, initiatives like Elimu-Soko’s Teaching Innovation Lab signal a growing push toward solutions that are not only effective but also scalable, affordable, and system-ready.
