What we do

Keys to Effective Learning (Keys) is a one-stop educational services company based In Cairo Egypt. Keys works collaboratively with its clients and stakeholders to achieve their goals and build their capabilities. Our professional development is based on our clients needs, the needs of the learners and through the use of practical scalable techniques. Here are some of the services we offer:

Teacher Training

Keys to Effective Learning (Keys) works with clients and stakeholders to identify their training needs, designs, develops and delivers both face-to-face and blended learning training that prepares Teachers to initiate new curriculum, teach literacy, numeracy, Arabic and social studies using student-centered methodologies in their classrooms. Keys builds pre/post training assessments to monitor participants knowledge acquisition. Keys builds the capacity of Ministries to conduct classroom observations and provide constructive feedback to raise their standards of teaching practice.

Administrators Training

Keys works with their clients to identify current leadership competencies and skills and designs, develops and delivers face-to-face, online training and coaching, for Supervisors and Administrators, aligned with Ministries of Education standards and policies.

Curriculum Development

Recognizing students’ need to be actively engaged in their learning, Keys designs and develops today’s curriculum making the pedagogical shift to student-centered learning, critical thinking and problem solving.

Strategic Planning

Keys works with their clients to ensure their Vision is clearly communicated and understood by all their stakeholders. Our Strategic Planning process helps clients to collaboratively identify and focus on those changes that will have the greatest impact, are sustainable and scalable.

Capacity Building

Keys works with Ministries of Education, curriculum development centers and teacher professional development departments building their capacities to design, develop and deliver student centered curriculum and methodologies in the classroom.

Teachers Standards

Keys works with Ministries of Education to define Teachers Standards that provide a framework of principles that describe the knowledge, skills, and values inherent in the teaching profession. These Standards reflect international best practices.

Assessment

Keys designs, develops and implements assessments of training and classroom practice with an aim to encourage best teacher practices.

Latest projects

TILO (Technology for Improving Learning Outcomes)

The U.S. Agency for International Development and the TILO team worked closely with the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Communication and Information Technology and private sector partners to develop scalable models to integrate the use of education technology into school based reform activities in ways that improve student learning outcomes.

GILO (Girls’ Improved Learning Outcomes)

Girls' Improved Learning Outcomes (GILO) was a three-year project funded by USAID in Egypt that aims to increase the enrollment, attendance, and achievement of girls in select primary, preparatory, and basic education schools in Fayoum, Beni Suef, Minia, and Qena governorates.

EGRA-Arabic (Early Grades Reading Assessment)

The EGRA-a 15-minute oral assessment conducted one-on-one with the pupil to measure proficiency in reading fluency, comprehension, phonemic awareness, letter knowledge, and other foundation skills-was developed by the Research Triangle Institute and applied in several African countries in both English and French, the two official languages in the study sample. Keys worked with Egyptian linguists and educators to pilot the first Arabic adaptation of the Early Grade Reading Assessment (EGRA). Test results were used to identify learning barriers and prepare appropriate trainings to give Egyptian teachers the skills and tools they needed to improve teaching practice and student learning.

YELLA (Youth Enrichment for Leadership, Learning and Action)

The YELLA Program provided preparatory and secondary schools, youth centers, and university career centers - both private and public - a curriculum of leadership learning lessons and resources that built their capacity to deliver youth leadership programming in the future. YELLA empowered the participating students and educators to think about leadership in new ways, to take initiative with responsibility for their own actions, and to actively volunteer in their communities.

ERP (Egypt Education Reform Program)

The mandate of EQUIP1/ERP is to assure quality education for all Egyptian children in schools that are themselves committed to continuous improvement through processes that the schools and communities control. AIR with its partners, Educational Development Center (EDC) and World Education (WE) worked to achieve this aim through a strategy of School Based Reform. School Based Reform (SBR) is a process rooted in recognizing the school as the change agent through which quality education is achieved. A quality education is one that addresses the child’s intellectual, social, psychological and physical development. The primary stakeholders whom an effective SBR approach must address were: teachers, school leadership and governance structures, communities and parents, and the governmental systems which support the schools. Yet, while all of these stakeholders were important and had their roles to play in improving the quality of education and learning outcomes; the reform was driven from the base of the school. ERP/EQUIP1’s approach to School Based Reform would empower school communities to direct their own change process. It would be based on a partnership among the government, schools and civil society; and providing schools with the skills and knowledge they needed to effectively implement the Egyptian standards to achieve accreditation for schools. ERP/EQUIP1 would support schools and communities to make the changes needed to produce positive outcomes in the cognitive, social and behavioral skills of all learners.

Discovery Channel Global Education Partnership

The Partnership began in 1997 as a corporate initiative of Discovery Communications, in line with its mission to help people explore their world and satisfy their curiosity. The Partnership extended these opportunities to people living in underserved areas who would otherwise have little access to educational resources. Discovery Channel Global Education Partnership worked in conjunction with USAID’s Technology for Improved Learning Outcomes Project to bring Discovery digital content to underserved communities using technology provided in existing schools and equipped to meet the area's educational needs. Over a three-year period, the Partnership worked closely with a community to develop a Center and ensure its on-going impact and success.

CARE International in Egypt

CARE Egypt is an international non-profit, non-sectarian development NGO that works with the most marginalized communities in Egypt as part of CARE International. Today, CARE's work is focused primarily on Upper Egypt, where it works closely through a rights-based approach with the poor and marginalized, civil society, and government institutions to improve livelihoods on a sustainable basis. Using community-generated strategies and local resource mobilization, CARE's work encompasses a number of different sectors including Women Rights Water and Sanitation, Education, Good Governance, and Agriculture and Marketing.

Student Leadership Discovery Program

Launched in October 2006, Discovery is an independent, semester-long, extracurricular program of leadership learning activities designed for public university students in Egypt. The Program was administered by the Institute of International Education (IIE) Center for Leadership Excellence based in Cairo in partnership with Keys to Effective Learning and Creative Encounters. The Program’s development and pilot semesters were made possible through a generous grant by the Ford Foundation Regional Office in Cairo. The Program enabled students to assume leadership roles with confidence and act as student role models at the university and community levels and within the national and global arena.

Teach for Tomorrow (T4T)

Keys is currently partnering in the USAID funded Teach for Tomorrow (T4T) Project, a four-year activity, which aims to sustainably improve primary-level teacher practice through effective professional development. Program activities fall under two main components: 1) supporting the enhancement of Egypt’s system for in-service training and continuous teacher professional development in reading, mathematics, and 21st Century Skills including critical thinking and problem-solving among pupils, and 2) professional licensing/certification system strengthening, including the development of a teacher incentivization structure for continuous professional growth. Project support will include the design and delivery of an innovative blended learning system (integration of digital and online media as well as traditional face-to-face teaching) for teacher professional development that will assist teachers to infuse critical thinking, inquiry, and problem solving into their instructional practices.

Capacity Building’ Early Grade Reading and Math, Version 2.0 Curriculum

Keys has built strong relationships with the MoETE over many years and projects/programs. Based on these relationships Keys has been able to introduce, model and promote best practices in teacher training, early grade reading, coaching/mentoring, school leadership. Keys implemented two Short Term Technical Assistance (STTA) programs under USAID funded IIE-STEP to build the capacity of the Ministry of Education to implement teacher training for Version 2.0 grades 1, 2 and 3 teachers in early grade reading, math, multidisciplinary learning. We have provided training in teacher mentorship and support training for Supervisors in monitoring and assessment. Keys has provided school orientation and mobilization of Muderiya Learning Teams to conduct effective training and classroom observations, using a standardized assessment tool to evaluate performance and provide constructive feedback to trainers and teachers. In our third STTA under USAID IIE-Step, Technical Assistance was provided to support the Ministry of Education and Technical Education (MoETE) to plan for and successfully implement the Fixed Amount Reimbursement Implementation Letter (FARIL) to achieve the goals of the Government-to-Government (G2G) partnership. This was achieved by providing the MoETE with essential and adequate technical knowhow and guidance in areas where technical expertise was required. Technical assistance was needed during the initial phase of the FARIL implementation to identify the areas needing support and the exact type of required assistance to support the development and/or strengthening of the different components of the FARIL. Keys also provided the MoETE with assistance to support the implementation of the newly reformed curricula (Education Version 2.0) in KG1 and KG2. This support included the technical assistance, material development and capacity building of approximately 40,000 KG1 and KG2 teachers, 1,000 trainers and 1,000 KG1 and KG2 supervisors.

All Projects