The COVID-19 pandemic has had disastrous implications for global education, affecting more than 1.6 billion learners worldwide. The global response to this challenge was to close educational facilities, implement digital learning services, and provide financial support to students. Early research has highlighted certain problems with this approach: lack of access to digital learning infrastructure; lack of supportive structures to facilitate learning; and inadequate educational resources to deliver effective education. These problems are exacerbated in under-developed countries. Educationalists report considerable inconsistency in foundational knowledge amongst learners; erosion of learner engagement; increased dropout rates; widening gender inequality; and difficulty in assessing student knowledge. This will have considerable economic and social implications for decades to come.

Winning Teams is uniquely positioned to support public and private sector efforts to respond to these challenges. Our innovative approach relies on the following principles: enhancing self-directed learning; leveraging collaborative learning; fostering active student engagement; identifying foundational knowledge gaps; providing continuous assessment; and supporting educationalists. Critically, we rely on the efforts of successful school-leavers who are role models from their own communities, to assist students and to support overwhelmed teaching resources. We create opportunities to increase parent/teacher interaction, foster broader societal interaction with students, reduce gender inequality, and cultivate positive attitudes of self-learning, and life-long learning. Our approach does not rely on digital technology, and it is able to be deployed rapidly, making it particularly effective in under-developed economies.

The result is a highly pragmatic, results-orientated, and cost-effective response to the challenges that have arisen as a result of the pandemic. We have achieved significant success in raising knowledge in the Science, Mathematics, and second-language English subject areas, but the methodology can be used in diverse subject areas. We have a proven track record in educational improvement, and our solution is scalable, having reached more than 2 million students in South Africa over a fifteen-year period.