Question to the Department for International Development:

To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what assessment she has made of the potential merits of using onebillion.org software to teach reading, writing and numeracy to children in developing countries; and whether her Department has allocated funding to provision of teaching using that software in those countries.

We are aware of the learning benefits of using onebillion, as shown by research and as the UK winner of the Global Learning X-Prize. Onebillion’s approach has demonstrated learning benefits for both girls and boys in areas of the world where access to education is limited. DFID has previously funded onebillion through Comic Relief and through an in-kind donation in Malawi.