Like organisations, every education system has a technical core made up of its purpose and technical practices and surrounded by support functions. While most interventions focus on technical practices (such as teacher training) or support functions (such as expanding EMIS systems or procuring more inputs), purpose receives little attention. We argue it is a critical missing link.

In this presentation I propose a conceptual framework for understanding drivers of education system performance and use it to argue that consensus-based commitment to the purpose of learning is a critical missing link to addressing the learning crisis. I then apply the conceptual framework to examples of successful system improvements. Finally, I propose efforts that can facilitate commitment to the purpose of learning.

A related discussion is available in this blog on aligning education systems.