O T H E R S C H O O L U P D AT E S
2015 Hult Prize challenge: Early Childhood Education in the
Urban Slum
• Almost 70 million children across the world are prevented from going to
school each day—53% are girls.
The internal competitions for the 2015 Hult Prize, an intiative founded
by Hult 2010 alumnus Ahmad Ashkar, kicked off in December, and this
year’s challenge will be Early Childhood Education in the Urban Slum, as
selected by former U.S. President Bill Clinton at last year’s Clinton Global
Initiative (CGI) Annual Meeting, in New York City. The challenge specifically asks teams to build sustainable and accessible social enterprises to
address the early childhood education gap in kids aged zero to six years
old. Key highlights associated with this year’s education challenge:
• Less than one percent of what the world spends every year on
weapons is needed to put every child into school.
Former U.S. President Bill Clinton
Ahmad Askhar, CEO & Founder of Hult Prize
• By the age of three, there is a 30 million-word gap between children
from the wealthiest and poorest families.
• One of the most significant economic impacts of attending an early
childhood program is the long-term reduction of crime costs.
• Global achievement gaps of five- and six-year-olds can be eliminated
through an intensive two-year early childhood program, targeted at
one- to three-year-olds.
• The U.S. lags behind almost every other country when it comes to
preschool, including Mexico, Chile, and Russia.
• 112 million children from age zero to six live in slums and do not get a
proper education.
The Hult Prize initiative is the world’s largest crowdsourcing platform for
social good, and the winner receives USD 1 million in seed capital to
realize their social enterprise. For more information on the 2015
challenge, and the timeline, visit: hultprize.org
Previous Hult Prize winners cheer their success
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