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Session Submission Summary

Demystifying System strengthening: Measuring, embedding, and sustaining education reform at scale

Tue, March 31, 4:30 to 5:45pm, Hilton, Floor: Ballroom Level - Tower 2, Franciscan B

Group Submission Type: Formal Panel Session

Proposal

Education systems are complex and multilayered, comprising of ministries, state agencies, district administrations, and schools. Yet apart from these formal structures and arrangements, education is deeply human-centered, shaped by the interplay of bureaucrats, communities, teachers and informal networks of influence. In low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), these systems serve hundreds of millions of children across diverse and inequitable contexts. While well-designed reforms can produce improvements in foundational literacy and numeracy, sustaining these gains through long-term system strengthening has proven far more difficult. Too often, the urgency of demonstrating short-term outcomes - by governments and non-profits alike - might push the deeper agenda of institutional strengthening into the background. As a result, reforms may dissipate when external funding ends or priorities shift, undermining not only learning but also the broader goals of equity, social cohesion, and resilience that education systems are meant to sustain.
At the heart of this challenge lies a conundrum: despite its prevalence in global policy discourse, “system strengthening” remains poorly defined and inadequately measured. What does it mean for such a complex and multilayered system to be strengthened? Is it when new practices persist beyond a project cycle, when government capacity deepens across levels, or when institutions become adaptive and coherent in aligning toward learning? Pritchett (2015) warns that education systems often lack “coherence for learning” - the alignment of policies, resources, and actors around shared goals. Without this coherence, even well-designed reforms struggle to take root, regardless of their demonstrated impact in controlled settings. The absence of measurement frameworks to capture these deeper institutional shifts compounds the challenge, leaving much system work invisible or mischaracterized.
This panel suggests that much of what is understood and claimed as systems strengthening in learning improvement programs in many countries is in fact enhanced program delivery supported by external resources. Impressive outcome gains may obscure the absence of genuine institutional development, leaving systems as dependent on external support as before. Global research on system reform demonstrates that sustained improvement depends less on adopting isolated practices and more on building institutional capability that continuously adapts and evolves (Mourshed et al., 2010). Yet current approaches often miss this distinction. The blind spots are telling: political salience and leadership continuity might be underemphasized; institutional ownership and capacity-building for state agencies remain emerging areas of practice; middle-tier professional development receives limited focus; data systems expand in scope without being embedded in decision-making; and financing arrangements often but provide less clarity on predictable, long-term resource flows. Without attention to these institutional dimensions, sustainable strengthening remains out of reach.
This panel addresses this challenge through better conceptualization, evidence, implementation, and measurement of systems strengthening. We interrogate this challenge through three interconnected questions:
What constitutes genuine systems strengthening, as distinct from enhanced program delivery enabled by external actors?
How can measurement frameworks capture dimensions of institutional strengthening and sustainable change across system levels, rather than focusing narrowly on learning outcomes?
What strategies can enable systems to deliver learning improvements in the short term while also building lasting capacity to sustain those gains?
The first paper, “Beyond Outcomes: Defining and measuring system strengthening in foundational learning”, focuses on identifying what constitutes genuine systems strengthening, presents a framework of critical dimensions - such as political salience, stability of administrative leadership, institutional ownership, and capacity development - and discusses how indicators can be developed to track system strengthening. The second paper, “Building System Capacity for Foundational Learning: Lessons from Odisha” examines Odisha’s (a state in Eastern India) journey to improve foundational learning by shifting from short-term programmatic gains to sustainable system reform. By expanding measurement beyond student outcomes to include teacher and administrator capacity, and by aligning with the national NIPUN Bharat Mission, Odisha provides insights into how state-led reforms can build resilience and sustain improvements in foundational literacy and numeracy. The third paper, “Measuring Systems Change in Foundational Literacy and Numeracy: Beyond Short-Term Gains Toward Lasting Social Progress”, presents findings on how to measure systemic change. Drawing on a multi-dimensional framework the study tracks whether education systems are genuinely strengthening or simply achieving temporary improvements. The fourth paper, “Institutionalizing the core components of foundational learning programmes in government education systems”, analyzes which programme components are most critical for success when embedded in government systems. By identifying key classroom, pedagogical support, and institutionalization elements that must be retained or adapted to sustain impact, the research highlights how large-scale interventions can be institutionalized without diluting their effectiveness.
By unpacking what system strengthening actually looks like in practice, the panel makes several critical contributions. Conceptually, it clarifies the distinction between program success and genuine strengthening of education systems. Methodologically, it advances frameworks and early formulation of indicators that move beyond learning outcomes to capture sustainable change in institutional capacity. Practically, it offers funders, governments, and practitioners guidance for designing and financing reforms that build government capacity and ownership rather than bypassing them. Most importantly, the panel centers government voice, recognizing that systems strengthening ultimately depends on internal ownership and leadership rather than external validation.
Taken together, these contributions highlight a central challenge for global education: moving from temporary gains to reforms that are durable, equitable, and embedded within public systems. Understanding how to make this shift requires not only conceptual clarity and methodological innovation, but also a dialogue between governments, funders, and practitioners about what has worked, what has not, and what can be sustained at scale.
This panel brings together those diverse perspectives - practitioners, global funders, and government leaders. Rather than applying uniform solutions, it explores context-specific approaches while identifying common principles that enable sustainable strengthening of systems and institutions. In doing so, it seeks to demystify systems strengthening and chart a path beyond short-term gains toward genuine institutional reform that can deliver learning at scale while fostering the equity and social cohesion that strong education systems enable.

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