Abu Dhabi – Wednesday, 12 August 2026
The General Secretariat of the Khalifa Award for Education, one of the institutions under the Erth Zayed Philanthropies, expressed its pride in the strong participation witnessed during the previous cycle from leading international institutions and researchers specialising in early childhood development in the Khalifa International Award for Early Learning.
The General Secretariat noted that Sabre Education, from the United Kingdom, won the Best Programs, Curricula, and Teaching Methodologies and Practices category. The achievement reflects the Award’s vision and mission of creating a positive humanitarian impact globally by highlighting outstanding scientific and practical approaches to early childhood care and by promoting educational environments that support children’s healthy, educational and social development, while also enabling the early identification of their talents so that relevant entities can nurture them in the future.
Humaid Al Houti, Secretary General of the Khalifa Award for Education, emphasised the importance of the Khalifa International Award for Early Learning and its role in highlighting leading scientific and practical practices in the care and education of young children worldwide.
He noted that Sabre Education’s win reflects the success of its distinguished educational programme for children based on play-based learning. According to the organisation’s studies, the programme has established a pioneering educational model for children and is being scaled nationally to reach more than 30,000 kindergarten teachers in Ghana’s public education system, enabling each teacher to create vibrant, child-centred classrooms.
There are also significant opportunities to expand the programme within Ghana’s private sector, which accounts for 44% of early childhood education provision, as well as internationally through technical support for governments and non-governmental organisations seeking to strengthen early learning.
For her part, Susan Place Everhart, Chief Executive Officer of Sabre Education, expressed the organisation’s pride in winning the Khalifa International Award for Early Learning. She said Sabre Education is an international non-governmental organisation that works in partnership with governments to provide strong early childhood education for children in Ghana and across sub-Saharan Africa, implementing play-based learning at scale.
She explained that Sabre Education’s programme for training kindergarten teachers in play-based learning seeks to address poor learning outcomes in Ghana, where 62% of children still lack foundational literacy skills by the end of Primary 2. The programme uses a training-of-trainers model to strengthen the education system’s capacity to support kindergarten teachers in implementing a play-based curriculum.
The programme also trains officials from the Ghana Education Service at regional and local levels to train and support teachers. It equips school leaders with the skills required to mentor and support staff, while embedding play-based teaching, gender equality and inclusive learning. This helps children develop strong literacy, numeracy and psychosocial skills.
Susan Place Everhart noted that the programme’s results are not only transforming children’s futures but are also strengthening the status of kindergarten education in Ghana, shifting it from a less-valued professional field towards recognition as a critical stage in a child’s education. The programme directly addresses one of the major causes of weak educational outcomes — the shortage of qualified kindergarten teachers — and has helped transform classrooms from environments centred on memorisation and rote learning into vibrant spaces rich in play, exploration and creativity.
Susan Place Everhart said: “The programme’s impact extends well beyond its direct beneficiaries. Its success has led the Government of Ghana to involve Sabre Education in the development of key early childhood education policies and initiatives.”
She added that the organisation’s training approach contributed to the development of an in-service training manual for kindergarten teachers, which was adopted in 2023 as a national standard for kindergarten teacher training in Ghana.