The World Education Medals are an initiative founded in 2024 by T4 Education and HP Inc in partnership. They celebrate and recognise leaders that are working to change education. The initiative originated in 2022 with the Africa Education Medal and in 2024 has incorporated two additional awards – the three of them comprising the World Education Medals. The three World Education Medals are:

• Africa Education Medal
• Asia Education Medal
• Latin America Education Medal

The aim of these awards is to bring together on a platform all of those leaders in these three continents who are shaping the future of education. By discovering changemakers and bringing them together on a platfrom to share their perspectives, their different approaches and innovations, we strive to ignite a collective force that is transforming education.

For each Medal, we will name and publicly announce 10 finalists and then we will unveil the name of the winner. The World Education Medals will see three changemakers winning – one per Medal.

Timeline

• Launch & opening of nominations - March 1st 2024
• Nominations deadline - April 30th 2024
• Top 10 finalists public announcement - August 8th 2024
• Winners public announcement - September 5th 2024

Nomination Process

• We will receive all nominations through an online form that can be accessed through our official website.
• We welcome nominations from individuals through a nominator, or by themselves. All submissions will be entered through a single form that is accessible on our website. The form should be completed at once - there is no ‘save as draft’ feature.
• All submissions should be written in English - we won’t consider submissions in languages other than English.
• All submissions should be submitted before the deadline - April 30th 2024. We won’t consider late submissions.

About nominations

• A nomination form represents the action of an external person [nominator] nominating an individual for a Medal [nominee].
• As a nominator, you will have to identify yourself on the nomination form. We accept nominations coming from individuals, who can act either on a personal  basis or on behalf of their organisation supporting this candidate. Additionally, we ask you to provide personal data and contact details of the individual you are nominating (previous notification/permission of that person). It includes a valid email address where we can contact your nominee. All personal data shared will be kept confidential by T4 Education under our Privacy Policy until we obtain the consent of your nominee immediately after your submission via email. At that point, your nominee will be officially in the running for the Medal. Your information will be only kept by T4 Education in connection to this nomination.
• As a nominator, you will act as a supporter of this nomination and we may contact you to verify information if your nomination is successful. 
• You won’t need to prove your relation to your nominee. Anyone can nominate a candidate, as long as you have enough information to fill out the form and their contact details for us to get in touch with the nominee.
• Several nominations from different individuals can be submitted for the same candidate, although the amount of nominations for the same individual has no bearing on the judging process. Similarly, one individual can also nominate multiple candidates, even across different Medals. Each nomination form counts as one nomination (one nominee), we don’t allow multiple nominations on the same form.

About self-nominations

• A self-nomination describes the action of someone applying for a Medal [nominee].
• As a nominee applying, you need to present two supporters that can back your nomination in case we request it. We only request their contact details to get in touch in case your application is successful.
• You can only submit a single application. If you submit more than one application for yourself, we will only consider the last submission and disregard the earlier ones.

Judging Process

The judging process has two phases. First, T4 Education’s team makes an assessment of all nominations across the three Medals to decide the 10 finalists for each Medal. Then, a Global Jury and an Expert Jury, composed of three prominent individuals for each Medal vote for the three winners among the finalists. Each judge has one vote. Whereas the Expert Jury’s vote has only a bearing on one Medal, the Global Jury votes across the three Medals. 

Judging phases

1. Nomination review: T4’s team conducts an initial review of all submitted nominations across the three Medals to ensure they align with our global criteria. This determines the nominees who will proceed to the next stages for each of the three Medals.
2. Selecting finalists: Nominations that pass the initial review are shortlisted for inclusion among the Top 10 finalists. During this phase, we conduct our due diligence which involves a detailed verification process, where we may ask for references and additional evidence supporting their nomination and an invitation to an interview with us. After this, we will define the Top 10 finalists for each of the three Medals, comprising a total of 30 candidates, who will be publicly announced as finalists for the three World Education Medals. 
3. Judging the winners: After the shortlist, the winners are judged. They are determined by the total sum of votes of our Global Jury, and of the respective local Expert Jury for each of the Medals. Our team puts together evaluation packages including the nomination form, extra information and evidence gathered through references and interviews that are sent on to the judges to assess. The sum of all votes will determine the winners of each of the three Medals.

Criteria

Eligibility criteria

The World Education Medals are open to individuals working to improve early childhood, K-12, vocational and university education in Africa, Asia or Latin America who are one of the following:

• Educators or school leaders
• Civil society leaders
• Public servants or government officials
• Political leaders
• Entrepreneurs, business leaders or technologists

They must be working to improve at least one of the following areas in education:

• Improving learning outcomes
• Promoting girls’ education
• Promoting equity and broadening access to education
• Advancing pedagogical or technological innovation
• Building and strengthening educator capacity
• Catalysing civic participation in education
• Championing the rights of education stakeholders

Geographic criteria

We define the three continents based on the methodology  and codification established by the United Nations’ Statistics Division, which can be consulted here.

Judging criteria

All nominees across the three Medals will be judged against three global criteria established by T4 and HP:

Impact: The nominee must demonstrate the concrete difference they have made in improving education. We are looking for evidence that the nominee’s work has led to tangible improvements to the lives and learning of students as well as those in the wider community, or has affected demonstrable change in the education ecosystem on a national or international level. Quantitative evidence is important here, such as how many students reached or measurable improvements to education outcomes, but so is displaying innovation and the overcoming of adversity to achieve these impacts.

Leadership: The nominee must demonstrate their leadership through example. Great changemakers do not act alone. They inspire a movement. Whether it is in one school, one community or across an entire nation, leaders have the ability to make things happen because they are the change they want to see in the world. We are looking for evidence that the nominee has carried others with them in their vision for change, that they have defined a goal for others to strive for, that they have inspired others to take action, and that their own actions have set a positive example that others have followed. 

Advocacy:  The nominee must demonstrate a track record showing how they have advocated for change. The nominee must explain how they have advocated for change, particularly where they are not in a position to enact that change themselves. Change doesn’t just come from the top. Often it is built from the bottom up. And that means people working every day to advocate for their cause. Here we are looking for evidence – ideally already in the public record – that nominees have been prominent advocates for improving education in some way. Whether that is through media articles, books, television or radio appearances, public talks, lobbying or leading a movement, we want to see the steps nominees have gone through to make those in power sit up and take notice of their ideas.

Communication & dissemination

All dissemination efforts in relation to this Contest and its development will be made through T4 Education’s communication channels and amplified by HP and the T4 Community, our partners, and other third parties involved in the Contest.

T4 Education’s main communication language will be English – for dissemination and promotion activities, as well as communications between T4 Education and the participants.

T4 Education’s main channel of communication with participants will be through email.

Terms & Conditions for all participants

By participating in this contest (“Contest”), each Nominator and Nominee accepts and agrees to be bound by the following terms and conditions.

We define “Nominators” as those individuals that submit a nomination form to nominee somebody else to any of the three World Education Medals.

We define “Nominees” as those individuals that are either nominated by someone else, or that have self-nominated for any of the World Education Medals.

Terms & Conditions on application for all nominations

Conditions and Limitations for everyone:

• All Nominators and Nominees must be aged 18+. T4 Education may request documentation to verify this information at its own discretion.
• All nominations must be submitted online and written in English. The forms can be accessed via the website at worldeducationmedal.org. Nominations coming from other sources rather than the official nomination form will not be accepted. All nominations must be written in English. T4 Education will not consider applications written in any other language.
• T4 Education is not responsible for late, lost, uncompleted, or misdirected entries.
• T4 Education will not be obligated to provide feedback to unsuccessful nominations. T4 Education will not notify Nominees whose applications have not been considered for the shortlist. Only the shortlisted candidates will be notified of such and the finalists names will be communicated to all.
• Nominators and Nominees will not be reimbursed for any costs incurred in connection with submitting the nomination.
• Upon submission, Nominators and Nominees grant T4 Education a non-exclusive, irrevocable, royalty-free and worldwide license to use and modify the nomination and the supportive material provided in it, in whole or in part, for commercial and other purposes, without any payment or other consideration, for use in any media now known or hereafter discovered, in perpetuity, to the extent legally permissible.
• By entering this Contest, each Nominator and/or Nominee forever discharges and releases T4 Education from any and all liability, claims, causes of action, suits, and demands of any kind (“Claims”) arising from and in connection with the Contest. The Nominator and/or Nominee also indemnify T4 Education from all Claims arising from third parties in relation to the Nominee’s participation in this Contest or the breach of these Terms and Conditions by the Applicant.
• The Nominee agrees to the use of their name and likeness in publicity without notice or any additional compensation, except where prohibited by law. T4 Education is not obligated to attribute a nomination to the Nominator who submitted it. 
• All Nominees that enter the contest through a third party nomination (i.e. nominated by someone else) need to consent to their nomination in order for T4 Education to process it for the competition. The consent is given and signed via an online email that T4 Education automatically sends to Nominees as soon as a form is submitted with their nomination, to the email address provided by their nominator. Nominees that do not submit the Consent form provided by T4, thus do not confirm their consent, will not be considered for the competition, therefore the nomination will expire once the deadline for nominations closes. T4 Education is not responsible for misdirected communications.
• At T4 Education’s discretion, the Nominee may be required to provide proof of compliance with any of these Terms and Conditions.
• Upon T4 Education’s request at any time, and in order to verify the information submitted, Nominees may have to provide evidence and references to support their nominations, and Nominators may have to give references about their candidate.
• T4 Education reserves the right to contact any of the references whose contact details were provided through the nomination form (only for self-nominations) to verify their nomination. 
• Any personal or organisational information included in the nomination materials collected in connection with this Contest is collected, used, and maintained according to our Privacy Policy: https://t4.education/privacy-policy/

Terms & Conditions on application for finalists

In addition to the Terms and Conditions for all nominations which have been accepted, those candidates that are named as “finalists” agree to the following:

• During the period of two years, the finalists shall not conduct themselves (by act of omission) in such a way to bring education, T4 Education or its partners into disrepute (as may be determined at the sole discretion of T4 Education).
• The finalist acknowledges that T4 Education and HP have the right to publicise and broadcast the finalist’s name, voice, and likeness, the fact that they qualified, and all materials incidental thereto. T4 Education is not obligated to attribute a nomination to the Nominator who submitted it.
• The finalist acknowledges that T4 Education has the right to request visual, written, media or other types of assets to promote their inclusion in the shortlist and understands that, by providing T4 Education with these materials, they grant permission to use them publicly. All assets provided will have the necessary permissions of the people on them, even if these were children, for public use in digital, press, and other channels to promote the initiative and any other activities related to T4 Education. The finalist is responsible for obtaining any necessary permissions in advance. Upon submission of required materials, the finalist authorises T4 Education to use them publicly and grants T4 Education a non-exclusive, irrevocable, royalty-free and worldwide licence to use and modify the materials, in whole or in part, for commercial and other purposes, without any payment or other consideration, for use in any media now known or hereafter discovered, in perpetuity, to the extent legally permissible.
• The finalist commits to collaborate where necessary with T4 Education to ensure the proper development and dissemination of the public announcement of the finalists as stated and requested by them, and any other activities in relation to their inclusion in the shortilst.
• For a period of one year after their inclusion in the shortlist, the finalist must serve as ambassador for T4 Education. Serving as ambassador shall include but not be limited to attending events, promoting activities, disseminating information, speaking to the media and other audiences, undertaking training and other commitments outside of working hours, on weekends and/or on holidays.
• The finalist will provide T4 Education with 14 days prior written notice of any public speaking engagements.
• Inclusion in the shortlist obligates the finalist to: (i) collaborate where requested by T4 and HP, (ii) participate in events, (iii) participate in media engagements, (iv) participate in research programmes, (vi) fully promote T4 Education’s events to their community to ensure maximum participation, (vii) use all media channels, including social media accounts to promote engagements where requested, (viii) disseminate information to their networks, (ix) active participation in the T4 Community and its activities.
• The shortlists once announced are final. In the exceptional cases where finalists withdraw from the contest after the shortlists are announced, due to force majeure circumstances, they will not be removed from the shortlist, but they will not be considered for further stages of the contest.
• Upon T4 Education’s request, finalists will have to provide examples of evidence and letters of reference to support their nomination, and may also have to participate in any multimedia activities to showcase their work. T4 will be responsible for all charges related to the showcasing and promotion of the Contest.

Terms & Conditions for winners

We define ‘Winners’ as those adjudged to have been voted as the recipient of any of the Africa Education Medal, the Asia Education Medal and the Latin America Education Medal in any given year. 

In addition to the Terms and Conditions for all finalists which have been accepted:

• T4 Education awards the winner with the Africa Education Medal, the Asia Education Medal or the Latin America Education Medal accordingly, which is an honorific title, with the purpose of amplifying and giving visibility to the work this individual is carrying out, through various activities, with the final aim of the upliftment of education.
• During the period of a year, the winner shall not conduct themselves (by act of omission) in such a way to bring education or T4 Education or HP Inc into disrepute (as may be determined at the sole discretion of T4 Education).
• The winner must not use this honour, neither directly nor indirectly, for any purpose that may bring the education sector into disrepute (as may be determined at the sole discretion of T4 Education) nor any illegal activity; 
• The winner acknowledges that T4 Education has the right to publicise and broadcast the winner’s name, voice, and likeness, the fact that they won, and all materials incidental thereto.
• Notwithstanding any other provision of these Terms and Conditions, T4 Education reserves the right to require the winner to drop out the title they have been conferred with, if, at any point after the award of the Africa Education Medal, Asia Education Medal or Latin America Education Medal to the winner, it is discovered that: (a) any of the nomination material was false or misleading in any way, (b) the winner was not in fact eligible or (c) that any of these Terms and Conditions have otherwise been breached.
• For a period of three years after the awarding of the title, the winner must serve as ambassador for T4 Education. Serving as ambassador shall include but not be limited to attending events, speaking to the media, undertaking training and other commitments outside of working hours, on weekends and/or on holidays. 
• T4 Education reserves the right to terminate the Contest without awarding the Medal if no eligible winner is found or claims the Medal within the required time.

These Terms and Conditions are subject to modification by T4 Education in its sole discretion and will be binding upon all participants. Any change or modification will be updated on our website, which will apply from the date on which they are published.

This Contest is void where prohibited or restricted by law. Each of these Terms & Conditions is subject to applicable law.

If any Term or Condition or part-Term or Condition is or becomes invalid, illegal or unenforceable, it shall be deemed deleted, however shall not affect the rest of these Terms and Conditions, in its validity and enforceability.

This Contest and these Terms and Conditions shall be governed by the laws of England and Wales, without regard to any conflicts of law principles. Any and all claims or disputes arising out of or in connection with this Contest or these Terms & Conditions shall be subject to non-exclusive jurisdiction of English courts.

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Date of last amendment: January 30th 2024