SYSTEM REFORM Prepared by A. Selcuk Akgul

ICE BREAKER What is system reform? Successful Cases from the world Failed Cases from the world

SYSTEM REFORM Let’s talk about Finland: (Finnish Lessons, Sahlberg) What are the lessons to be learned? Can it be implemented elsewhere?

CHANGE IN EDUCATION SYSTEMS As in any complex social institution, change that improves education systems requires ‘reculturing’ (Fullan) of organizations and individuals in a dynamic environment — and in planning for the systems’ ongoing dynamic response. Systems, both natural and human, are resilient and self-organizing, and therefore are normally resistant to dramatic change. HOW CAN IT BE ACHIEVED? (Examples from Japan, Finland and Turkey)

Education System Reform and Aid Effectiveness. For effective and durable reform, all specific interventions, policy reforms and project activities — decentralization, service delivery, dialogue, information and analysis, teacher training, workshops, textbooks and testing — must be understood and strategized in the context of longer-term goals and trends.

Education System Reform and Aid Effectiveness CASE STUDIES: 1. articulate what orientations and realities enable the identified goals of sustainable policy and system change, and 2. how external assistance can support such change. At the heart of calls for new approaches and modalities are four core issues: Ownership, impact, sustainability, and scaling up.

DISCUSSION Why are they so important for effective education reform? Ownership Impact Sustainability Scaling up

AID EFFECTIVENESS to STEPPING UP SKILLS Although much of the international focus for the past decade has been on increasing primary school enrollment and completion, Recent academic research emphasizes that The quality of learning within an education system is a more important factor for economic growth than is the quantity or number of years completed within a system.

STEPPING UP SKILLS Roughly half the students in middle-income countries lack the math skills to succeed in further education or work — PISA 2006 Now countries need to ensure that “schooled” youth leave school with useful, robust skills. Whether from inadequate or misused educational investment, poor teaching, or ineffective systems, poor learning wastes both public and private resources.( Stepping up skills, 10) DISCUSSION: HOW CAN WE IMPROVE LEARNING AT SCHOOLS? Everybody can talk about their experiences and the implications of the readings.

Tertiary education: a critical part of a skills building system Tertiary education helps countries become more globally com- petitive by developing a skilled, productive, and flexible labor force and by creating, applying, and spreading new ideas and technologies. Yet in many low- and middle-income countries, tertiary education systems intended to bring about these ben- efits are often dysfunctional, inequitable, and inefficient, gen- erating low-quality learning outcomes. DISCUSSION: What could be the main steps for reforming the higher education system?

STEPPING UP SKILLS Problem: Traditional mindsets stifle creativity and risk- taking FACT: In 1955, Ghana and the Republic of Korea both had a GDP per capita near $300. By 1990, Ghana’s real GDP per capita was the same, but Korea’s had increased to $7,500. A third of Korea’s growth can be attributed to the rapid increase in educational attainment and capital. The remaining two-thirds came from greater productivity in the stock of labor and capital and innovations in the uses and types of capital. How can developing countries make the next big move?

Skills to be an inventor, an innovator, a creator Both creativity and entrepreneurial skills can be incorporated into teaching methodologies at all points of the skill formation process. And education systems can encourage innovation-related specialties, such as math, science, and business and managerial skills. But these strategies will be successful only if education systems improve the quality of the basic math and science skills for the majority of students. Without such a basis, efforts to instill risk- taking and entrepreneurial skills will be wasted. DISCUSSION: How can these be implemented in a context of your choice?