The RISE Education Systems Diagnostic: A Tool for Identifying Strategic Priorities for Education System Reform

Chair

• Yue-Yi Hwa, Research Manager, RISE Programme, Blavatnik School of Government and the University of Oxford

Presenters

• Jason Silberstein, Research Fellow, RISE Programme, Blavatnik School of Government, University of Oxford
• Dante Castillo, Policy and Innovative Practices Director, SUMMA Laboratorio de Investigación e Innovación en Educación para América Latina y el Caribe
• Rafiullah Kakar, Member Social Sector, Planning Commission of Pakistan

Roundtable facilitator

• Luis Crouch, Senior Economist at RTI’s International Development Group and Member of the RISE Research Directorate

Roundtable speakers

• Parthajeet Das, Project Director, Central Square Foundation (India)
• Linda Nakato, Research Associate, Economic Policy Research Centre (Uganda) 
• Gautam Anand, Director of Research, Global School Leaders 
• Brahm Fleisch, Professor of Education Policy, University of the Witwatersrand

The RISE education systems diagnostic is a process that supports government actors in selecting high-level strategic reform priorities to improve learning, based on the latest education systems research. The diagnostic is based on the RISE framework for conceptualising an education system (Pritchett, 2015; Silberstein and Spivack, 2022).

RISE has worked with partners on seven field-based pilots of this diagnostic approach and has internally conducted three additional desk-based exercises that used the diagnostic approach for retrospective analysis of education policies or programmes. Each of the field-based pilots took place in a different country with a different partner organisation, focusing on various levels of the education system. Some pilots were conducted in close collaboration with and on behalf of the national government, others with state or provincial governments, and others focused on district level government with results applied to NGO programmes. 

The webinar will begin with three short presentations. The first presentation will give an overview of the RISE diagnostic approach and an introduction to the new RISE Diagnostic Toolkit. The other two presentations will showcase key findings from the diagnostic pilots conducted in Ecuador by SUMMA and in Balochistan, Pakistan, by Verso Consulting and Juniper Policy Consulting.

Next, there will be a roundtable featuring the other four teams that piloted the RISE education systems diagnostic in 2022: Central Square Foundation, Uganda’s Economic Policy Research Centre, Global School Leaders, and the University of the Witwatersrand. The roundtable will be facilitated by Luis Crouch, and will address questions about the diagnostic approach from both the facilitator and the audience.