The Economist Educational Foundation

The Economist Educational Foundation

At a glance

Causes

  • Children / families
  • Education
  • Young people

Other details

Organisation type: 
Charity
Geographical remit: 
National - Britain

Objectives

About us
The Economist Educational Foundation is an independent charity that was set up from inside The Economist newspaper in 2012.

Why we exist
A young person’s socioeconomic background powerfully determines the opportunities they will have in life. Inequality is clear in education, where young people eligible for free school meals are significantly less likely to get good GCSEs or go to university.

The Economist’s journalistic expertise can help to address this. Discussing the news can be a powerful way for young people to develop tools that can change their chances: knowledge of issues affecting their lives, critical thinking skills, literacy and confidence.

Our mission
Our mission is to tackle inequality by giving disadvantaged young people the skills to think for themselves about current affairs.

Our programme
Our programme, the Burnet News Club (BNC), is a network of weekly school news clubs. It develops students’ critical thinking skills through cognitively-challenging topical discussions in class and on a dedicated online learning platform.

Our impact

 

Activities

Our programme, the Burnet News Club (BNC) is a network of school news clubs which develops critical thinking skills and literacy through cognitively-challenging topical discussions. 

We create original multimedia current affairs content for young people which covers the important issues and doesn't dumb them down. Our content combines teaching expertise and journalistic expertise in the format of cohesive schemes of work for delivery by teachers. 

Teachers run weekly discussion-based sessions in school, and between sessions the students use a dedicated online learning platform to discuss the issues with their counterparts in a diverse range of communities all over the UK. They receive online feedback from leading experts on the topics.
 

No current opportunities

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