Why This Matters
An Outdated System
The education system, as we know it, was designed during and for the Industrial Revolution to fill factories. Even today, education is often seen as a pipeline from the classroom to the labor market. Think Equal is a global initiative delivering “the missing dimension” of social-emotional learning (SEL) as the core purpose of early-years education, during which neuroscience shows that 90 percent of brain development occurs. Together with global experts, Think Equal has designed a comprehensive and holistic program to equip preschool children with what is their inalienable right: the foundation for positive life outcomes.
A Preventative Response
Think Equal addresses the root causes of human rights violations by breaking cycles of violence, negative stereotypes, and discrimination through a preventive intervention. It uses SEL to teach values and prosocial competencies that foster empathy, self-esteem, emotion regulation, peaceful conflict resolution, inclusion, and respect for the dignity, value, and equality of others.
Our Approach
Built for Sustainability and Scale
At its core, the Think Equal methodology is designed for sustainability and scale. Think Equal strives to strengthen government systems and build the capacity of national ministries of education so that the program can be owned and delivered independently over time. This includes the progressive transfer of the program license and methodology to the ministry, ensuring long-term ownership and continuity. We work within existing education ecosystems, partnering with governments, local organizations, and civil society to align with national priorities and ensure programs are locally led and sustainable.
A Co-Funding Model with Governments
Our mission is to upskill ministries of education by providing them, evenhandedly, with the tools needed to achieve prosocial transformation in every child. Designed to be replicable through prescriptive lesson plans, the program can be taught universally to all children. The offer we make to governments is that we will provide 30 to 50 percent of the funding required for every child across their country to learn Think Equal, as long as they embed the program in the national curriculum and ECD timetable, making it effectively mandatory for every child.
Engaging School Leaders and Teachers
School leaders are empowered to develop a strong sense of ownership of the program, aligned with their responsibility to the community of staff, parents, and children. At the school level, we engage teachers and early-years practitioners, equipping them with the confidence, skills, and support to teach this new subject. After all, they hold one of the most important responsibilities in the world: building the character of the next generation and determining our future.
Supporting Teachers Through Training
Teachers are supported through a blended professional development model combining in-person workshops, additional digital learning where feasible, and ongoing coaching. The prescriptive structure of the lesson plans ensures that teachers continue to train as they deliver the program in the classroom—this effectively enables us to keep costs low with an initial two-day training.
Extending Learning to the Home
We also ensure that parents are engaged in the learning so that it extends beyond the classroom through Home Kits. This creates a seamless link between school and home, helping families nurture their children’s social and emotional development. Feedback from parents has been deeply encouraging—many share how using the Home Kits transformed their own habits while enabling their children to develop new skills at home.
Impact and Results
Evidence from Randomized Controlled Trials
Think Equal has conducted three Randomized Controlled Trials (RCTs) that show statistically significant improvements in children’s social and emotional skills, alongside benefits for teacher practice and well-being. Conducted across three diverse countries (Botswana, Colombia, and Australia), the RCTs—led by Yale University and Innovations for Poverty Action (IPA)—showed marked decreases in anxiety, anger, aggression, withdrawal, and overall emotional dysregulation. Simultaneously, increases were found in prosocial behaviors such as gender equality, sharing, and empathy, as well as in emotional literacy and regulation. Improved well-being was also noted among teachers. These findings are underpinned by six decades of longitudinal research demonstrating broader societal returns of early-years SEL initiatives: academic improvement (up to 18 percent percent increase), higher employability and prosperity (up to a 25 percent increase in income), improved mental health, and reduced incarceration rates (up to 88 percent decrease).
Recognition and Impact at Scale
Think Equal’s impact over its nine years of existence has been substantial, measured largely in system change across 14 countries and also acknowledged through accolades and awards. Think Equal has received the WISE Award for education innovation and the HundrED Education Innovation Award. The program was also recognized as a best practice by the UN Transforming Education Summit 2022. Its founder, Leslee Udwin, was awarded the Anna Lindh Human Rights Prize and the UN Women for Peace Award. Will Kennedy, of the UN Global Partnerships Office, said this about Think Equal: “Every once in a while, one comes across a nonprofit leader and campaign that can actually change the world for the better and at a scale that is required in a generation. The vision, work, and traction that Leslee Udwin and the Think Equal campaign is getting is one of those exceptional outliers that everyone everywhere should get behind.”
Lessons for the ECD Community
Challenging Convention to Achieve Scale
The evidence from our ambitious work over the past nine years shows that some long-standing notions and beliefs in the education development field can be challenged. In a world engulfed by the scale of polycrises we face, we must adopt new approaches and mindsets to scale our work. Think Equal’s journey has shown that thinking outside the box and setting high ambitions yield real results.
To name just one example, across the Greater Manchester (GM) region in the UK, virtually all (92 percent) four-year-olds are now being taught Think Equal. This is particularly meaningful in a context where schools and teachers have considerable autonomy over the programs and approaches they choose to use, making this level of adoption a strong reflection of educator trust and engagement. Remarkably, funding for the program in GM has been provided by the UK’s National Health Service and the Police Violence Reduction Unit.
Quotes from the Field
A Mother’s Perspective, Somalia
“I wanted my son, Ahmed, to be strong. I thought strength meant being loud, never backing down. Think Equal taught him—and me—that true strength is empathy, controlling anger, and solving problems. His teacher showed me his ‘Kindness Chart.’ Now, he helps his younger sisters without being asked. He mediates disputes in the street. This program is building a new generation of leaders—not with weapons, but with wisdom and respect. It’s an investment in Somalia’s true security.”
— Mother of a six-year-old boy in Dhusamareeb district, Somalia
A Director’s Observation, Canada
“There was a boy with social-emotional concerns who struggled with not wanting to share, other children not wanting to play with him, and hurting others. Since the Think Equal Project, this child is now sharing with the other children and using his words to express his feelings instead of his hands. Also, the other children want to play with him. Just a few minutes ago, I went into the room to drop off the new Think Equal lesson plans, and I observed him playing a memory game with four other children. I stayed off to the side to listen to the conversation they were having. I heard him say to the child who wasn’t making a match, ‘Don’t be sad; you can do it!’ Then he put one arm around the child and gave him a hug. It warmed my heart.”
— Gayle MacDonald, Director of Sugar Plum Tree Day Care Centre, Peace River, Alberta, Canada
A Ministry Official’s Endorsement, Kenya
“I am truly delighted by the Think Equal program. It is highly appropriate for shaping the character of young generations and helping them understand and appreciate emotions. I believe the program is scientifically grounded and thoughtfully designed. Social and emotional learning nurtures positive traits while helping children manage less constructive tendencies, encouraging them to develop in a healthy and balanced way. The delivery of the program was superb—participant-centered, engaging, and thought-provoking. I commend your excellent work and look forward to continued collaboration in the future.”
— Ibrahim Suraw Adnan, Director of Administration for Education, Mandera County, Kenya
Looking Ahead
A Call for Collective Action
Achieving equitable early childhood development requires social and emotional learning to be recognized as a foundational component of every child’s early-years experience—alongside health, nutrition, literacy, and numeracy. No single organization can achieve this systemic change alone.
Priority Areas for Partnership
We welcome collaboration across the ECDAN network to help make this vision a reality. We are keen to work with governments as well as strategic and implementing partners—indeed, this is the only way we work—to integrate evidence-based SEL into national curricula and existing early childhood programs. We aim to partner with researchers and evaluators to strengthen the global evidence base for early childhood SEL and demonstrate its impact on foundational literacy and numeracy. Finally, we seek to align with advocates, donors, and multilateral organizations to elevate SEL as an essential pillar of quality early childhood education and development.
Together, we have an opportunity not only to improve children’s readiness for school, but also to help shape a generation equipped with the empathy, resilience, and critical thinking needed to build more peaceful and equitable societies.
About Think Equal
Think Equal is both a movement to achieve overdue systemic change in education and an educational program for children ages three to six that teaches social and emotional learning (SEL) for well-being, psychosocial support, and social justice. It is also a compelling preventive response to discrimination, inequality, and violence. A global education initiative, Think Equal was founded in 2016 to champion and realize the right of every child to receive structured, evidence-based social and emotional learning. Grounded in neuroscientific evidence identifying early childhood as a critical window for brain development, Think Equal prepares children both for their academic journey and for long-term positive life outcomes. To date, Think Equal has reached more than 892,000 children across 39 countries in 59 languages.