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One hundred and fifty miles south of Cairo, in a dusty village on the east bank of the Nile, seven-year-old Layla Ibrahim sits in the corner of a one-room schoolhouse. Though she does not realize it, Layla is taking part in a series of extraordinary innovations underway in primary schooling in Egypt, especially in the most resource-poor regions of the country—and especially for girls.

Egypt has made good progress in achieving universal primary education, exceeding 90 percent in parts of the country for boys and girls combined and averaging 72 percent for girls nationally. But in rural and remote regions outside of major cities, particularly in Upper Egypt, female enrollment rates dip as low as 15 percent, and female literacy hovers around 40 percent for the country as a whole.

So Layla is in the corner—one of several interactive learning corners that characterize the multi-grade, community-based "small schools" the Ministry of Education and USAID/Cairo are counting on to help attract and retain primary level students who have been estranged from the mainstream educational system. read more..