Announcing the Winner of the Global Schools Prize 2026

Announced as the winner of the inaugural Global Schools Prize at the Education World Forum in London by award-winning filmmaker, campaigner, and fundraiser Richard Curtis, receiving $500,000 to scale its impact.  

The Alsama Project is one of Lebanon’s only education providers to have maintained daily teaching throughout the 2024 and 2026 conflicts, operating education centres in refugee camps serving more than 1,100 displaced teenagers excluded from traditional schooling.  

Around 90% of Alsama students arrive illiterate and innumerate, with most learning to read, write, and count within six months. 

Lebanon’s Alsama Project, a refugee-led education organisation transforming the lives of displaced Syrian and Palestinian teenagers excluded from traditional schooling, has been named the winner of the inaugural Global Schools Prize, an initiative of the Varkey Foundation celebrating the world’s most innovative and impactful schools reimagining education for the future. 

Founded in 2020 to empower 40 teenagers in Beirut’s Shatila refugee camp, Alsama Project has since grown into a pioneering education organisation serving more than 1,100 displaced young people. Where many refugee education programmes focus on younger children, Alsama focuses on adolescents – who are often overlooked and trapped in ill-suited systems. 

Selected from nearly 3,000 applications and nominations across 113 countries, Alsama was announced as the winner of the Global Schools Prize 2026 at the Education World Forum in London, receiving $500,000 to scale its impact globally. It was announced as the winner by celebrated film writer, director, charity fundraiser and campaigner, Richard Curtis. 

Sunny Varkey, Founder of the Varkey Foundation, the Global Schools Prize, and GEMS Education, said:    

“Huge congratulations to Alsama Project. Your extraordinary achievement demonstrates the transformative power of schools – innovation against the odds, courage under crisis, and an unshakeable belief in every child’s potential. Your work has created life-changing opportunities for teenagers excluded from education, while strengthening entire communities. By recognising your achievement, we hope to inspire a global movement to scale the best ideas in education, so we can reimagine learning for a world in constant change.” 

Earlier this month, Alsama was also named the winner of the Overcoming Adversity category in the Global Schools Prize, earning $50,000 and securing a place among the Top 10 finalists. 

Alsama, which means ‘sky’ in Arabic, is driven by the communities it serves: 72% of staff are refugees, 96% come from refugee or local communities, and most senior leaders have refugee backgrounds. It operates four education centres in Shatila and Bourj al-Barajneh Refugee Camps in Beirut – which are each home to 40,000 refugees from Syria and Palestine – and one centre in Homs, Syria. In Lebanon, 85% of Syrian refugees cannot attend school, and fewer than 2% of Syrian displaced youth finish secondary education. In Syria, 8,000 schools have been destroyed by conflict. 

Against this backdrop, Alsama has developed an accelerated education model specifically designed for teenagers whose learning has been disrupted by war, displacement, and poverty. Ninety percent of students arrive unable to read, write, or perform basic numeracy. Through Alsama’s curriculum, students learn to read, write, and count within six months and can progress to university in only six years – half the length of a traditional education pathway. Its curriculum is tailored to students’ real-life contexts, enabling them to learn from their own experiences. For example, beginners learn Arabic reading by reading road signs or numeracy by planning a weekly grocery budget at the market. Alsama’s first cohort will graduate in July, and students have secured scholarships to the University of Cambridge, the University of Leicester, and Arizona State University. 

Each Alsama education centre also includes trauma-informed safeguarding and psychosocial support, with full-time psychologists, dedicated centre supervisors, and weekly awareness classes covering students’ rights, healthy relationships, gender equality, and personal safety. The organisation also works directly with families and communities to intervene when children are at risk of early marriage, child labour, or abuse. 

As a result, Alsama has helped prevent 256 girls from early marriage, kept 278 boys out of child labour, supported 66 students experiencing domestic or sexual abuse, and reached hundreds of parents through community awareness programmes that have helped shift attitudes around education, gender equality, and child protection. Ninety-eight percent of students report feeling safe at school, an extraordinary figure in communities where violence, instability, and trauma are daily realities.  

In 2024, and again earlier this year, as bombs fell across Beirut, many of Alsama’s students fled to Syria and were displaced. And yet, it was one of Lebanon’s only education providers to continue teaching uninterrupted. Teachers moved immediately to online learning, emergency fundraising provided SIM cards so students could stay connected, and temporary classrooms were established in displacement shelters.   

A defining part of Alsama’s model is cricket, which has become a powerful tool for leadership, wellbeing, and social change. Across more than 20 cricket hubs, boys and girls train together, building teamwork, discipline, and confidence. Half of Alsama’s cricket coaches are girls, challenging gender norms and creating visible leadership role models for younger students. Older students are employed as junior coaches, librarians, and teachers, giving them safe income opportunities that reduce the economic pressures that can force children into labour or push girls toward early marriage.  

Alsama now plans to use the prize funds to open a second accelerated learning centre in Homs, Syria. Classes will include Arabic, English, maths, science, IT, financial literacy, professionalism, and rights-based awareness sessions, as well as yoga and cricket. 

The other Top 10 finalists, who won their respective categories, were:

AI Transformation: IIS Ettore Majorana, Italy 

Arts, Culture, and Creativity: Freedom International Schools, Kenya 

Character and Values: Escuela de Talentos Guanajuato Azteca, Mexico 

Global Citizenship and Peacebuilding: LEAD 359, US 

Health and Wellbeing: IES Carmen de Burgos Seguí, Spain 

SEND and Inclusive Education: Suubi Community Primary & Secondary Schools, Uganda 

STEM Education: Neeson Cripps Academy, Cambodia 

Sustainability: Institución Educativa Comercial de Envigado, Colombia 

Teacher Development: Reach Academy Feltham, UK 

Every shortlisted school received a Global Schools Prize Badge, symbolising world-class impact and achievement in their respective category. 

The Global Schools Prize joins the Global Teacher Prize and Global Student Prize, completing a powerful trilogy that celebrates educators, learners, and now schools as institutions of innovation and change. Together, the three prizes spark a 360-degree conversation about what it takes to deliver the best possible education, equipping children to face the future with confidence – while rethinking the future of learning for generations to come. ​ 

Interested schools were able to apply for the Global Schools Prize at www.globalteacherprize.org/global-schools-prize before the closing date.  

The Varkey Foundation believes every child deserves a vibrant, stimulating learning environment that awakens and supports their full potential. The foundation believes nothing is more important to achieving this than the passion and quality of teachers. They support global teaching capacity and seed excellence and innovation in the next generation of educators. They also founded the GEMS Education Global Teacher Prize to shine a spotlight on the incredible work teachers do all over the world.