Professor Eric A. Hanushek and Dr Rukmini Banerji were awarded the 2021 Yidan Prize, the world’s highest education award, for the contribution to education research and development in recognition of their work of making a significant contribution to the most important part of the education riddle: improving education quality and student outcomes.

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After a difficult sentencing process, conducted by an independent adjudication committee of renowned academic experts, Professor Eric A. Hanushek and Dr Rukmini Banerji were nominated as recipients of the Yidan Prize for Educational Research and the Yidan Education Development 2021. They will be joined by nine Yidan Prize Award winners since its inception in 2016, founded by the Yidan Prize Foundation – a global educational charity that promotes academic progress and change.

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Professor Eric Hanushek, Paul and Jean Hanna Senior Fellow, Hoover Institution of Stanford University, were awarded the 2021 Yidan Prize for Education Research. His work focuses on educational outcomes and the importance of teaching quality and has changed both research and policy globally.

His work has helped shape the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 4 (ensuring inclusive education and equity) by reforming the principles of learning outcomes and has shown how much students learn – not how many years they spend in school – that grows the economy.

With the help of Yidan Prize funding, Professor Hanushek develops a research program in Africa, which supports the analytical capacity to build education.

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With the support of the Yidan Prize, Dr. Banerji plans to strengthen and expand Pratham’s work for young children so that they can build strong foundations at an early age in a child’s life. He believes that this will have a significant impact on the goal of seeing “all children in school and learning well”.

Each recipient will be awarded HK$30 million (approximately US$3.9 million), part of a project fund – which enables a series of new and ongoing educational projects to grow and support millions of students worldwide. Together, beneficiary projects help make the world a better place through education. 

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The Nomination for the 2022 Yidan Prize will begin from October 19, 2021 and continue till March 2022.