AWARDS & RECOGNITION
From being shortlisted for the World’s Best School Prize to recognition from leading global organisations and media, Rising’s work has been recognised for its impact, innovation and contribution to improving education at scale.
Our work has been recognised by some of the world’s most respected sources.
“Students work through problems, they don’t paste a question and get an answer back. Rori interprets what they wrote and gives feedback, and if they’re stuck, they get a hint first and a chance to try again.”
— Hannah Horne-Robinson, Rori Research and Assessment Manager, October 2026
“This approach meets families where they are, using technology that’s already integrated into their daily lives while superpowering it with AI, and what’s best is that it can sustain the test of time.”
— Shabnam Aggarwal, Chief Technology Officer, Rising Academies, March 2026
“On the implementing side, the government of Ghana has contracted three main service providers to do the work — Street Child UK, Plan International, and Rising Academies, which is partnering with Ghanaian NGO, School for Life.”
— DEVEX, March 2023
“Radio lessons are the most scalable option for distance learning in Liberia, according to George Cowell, managing director of Rising Academies in Liberia. While students in many other countries access remote lessons online, internet connectivity is unavailable for much of Liberia’s rural population.”
— Al Jazeera, April 2020
“My last-but-one stop, Cecelia A Dunbar school in Freeman Reserve, close to Monrovia, is run by Rising Academy...Perhaps I arrive on a good day but, for my money, it is the best of the lot.”
— Financial Times, April 2017
“Two operators come out of the evaluation with their reputations enhanced. One is Rising Academies, which was founded in Sierra Leone in 2014 to teach children during the Ebola crisis.”
— The Economist, January 2020
“The biggest difference [is] in the level of humility and curiosity with which each organization seem to approach its role in the educational ecosystem. Rising asks questions and invites feedback; Bridge seems certain it has the answers.”
— Quartz, January 2018
“But students across Africa who used Rori for two 30-minute sessions a week outscored a control group by a margin roughly equivalent to an extra year of study, according to an eight-month study of 500 students conducted in 2023 by Oxford and J-PAL researchers..”
— Semafor, October 2026
“The work was not only about improving a lesson plan. It was about learning with teachers.”
— Obed Tetteh Nyakotey, Primary Maths Curriculum Lead & Rose Goodhart, Director of Curriculum - Rising Academies, May 2026
“Rising has always been outcome focused. Our first principle is we are obsessed with student learning.”
— Job Matseshe, Regional Director of Programs - West Africa, Rising Academies, January 2026
“It was inspiring to meet teenage children –students of Rising Academies who are sons and daughters of street traders, stone crushers and car drivers – and hear first-hand of their ambitions to be accountants, engineers, doctors and journalists.”
— Nick O’Donohoe, CEO, CDC Group, September 2018
“Rising Academies, a fast-growing education company in Africa, works with the village-based government school to do everything from improving its teaching and learning to implementing more humane disciplinary practices—and now implementing this child-directed learning program.”
— Forbes, February 2023
“Rising Academies is addressing the maths education crisis in sub-Saharan Africa using ‘Rori‘, a chat-based virtual maths tutor that operates on affordable mobile phones in areas with limited connectivity.”
— ICT Works, September 2023