A systemic Approach to Policy Reform through Knowledge and Innovation Exchange: The Case of the Maldives

Group Submission Type: Formal Panel Session

Proposal

Education systems worldwide are working towards providing better access, equity, and quality to children in their countries. The Global Partnership for Education (GPE) Knowledge, Innovation, and Exchange Hub in the regions of Europe, Middle East and North Africa, Asia, and the Pacific (KIX-EMAP) has identified, however, that countries in the EMAP region face a critical challenge in strengthening their education systems. Often, innovations or pilot projects only address one or two components of a certain sub-system, resulting in dysfunctionalities and eventually leading to the abandonment of the reform. The systemic or transformative approach is urgently needed over the project approach (historically known as patchwork reform) that dominates international collaboration programs. To address this issue, the KIX-EMAP Hub provides for a diverse set of activities aimed at strengthening education systems, through a demand-driven approach led by the local government and active country representatives. The Hub operates in a manner that simulates the features of a systemic approach, namely externalization where the system’s observation of the difference between itself and other systems takes place through the exchange activities where “they construct other national systems as reference societies at particular moments to suggest that lessons should be drawn from these systems” (Steiner-Khamsi, 2023). Moreover, the innovations taking place within a subregion could be regarded as “reference societies” for policy borrowing within a comparable context. (Steiner-Khamsi, 2023).

Hence, the current panel will highlight the different activities of the KIX-EMAP Hub in a country like the Maldives, involving the three communities of evidence-based policy and planning (Policy researchers, policy brokers and advisors, and policymakers) and how these diverse groups move towards one unified goal. The panel will also reveal the lessons learned for the Maldives education system, what shortcomings persist and what are potential avenues for addressing them in the future.

Since the systemic approach is multidimensional in nature, the panel presentations will address several aspects of the KIX EMAP approach and its outputs, outcomes, and impact on the Maldives education system. The issue of policy formulation is a critical aspect of policy reform, for this purpose, multiple strategies could be utilized, among which is the use of geospatial data to make informed decisions that promote equity and inclusion in the education system:
The most important goal of school mapping is to rationalize school resources by using geographical units of analysis. Homogeneous zones are identified, schooling problems and needs are analysed in each area, and proposals are made for rationalization and reorganization in each mapping area. (Mendelsohn, 1996)
In KIX-EMAP learning cycle 2, decision-makers identified, through the use of geospatial data, patterns, and disparities in resource allocation, access to services, and social and economic opportunities. The analysis conducted by the Maldives experts resulted in policy options being adopted by the government for more equitable access to education.

The following presentation will investigate curriculum reform, moving past identifying skills by refocusing research and policy efforts on better aligning standardized assessments to include 21st-century skills, evaluating the level of implementation of 21st-century skills in the classroom, and building expertise in the pedagogies that support their inclusion (Kennedy & Sundberg, 2020). A sustained focus on pedagogy, curriculum, and skill acquisition is critical to developing 21st-century teaching skills (Martinez, 2022). Hence, one presentation will focus on the aspect of curriculum reform integrating 21st-century skills into the curriculum that was led by a case study developed upon the completion of KIX EMAP learning cycle 3 and then followed by a KIX EMAP rapid customized country support to the comprehensive curriculum reform.

Policy reform plans without a relevant teacher capacity-strengthening component won’t guarantee efficient implementation. Continuous teacher professional development mechanism is a prerequisite for successful policy adoption and integration and that enhances teachers’ professionalism. The final presentation proposes a TPD framework for teachers to continually involve in their own learning enabling them to build a professional learning community through their participation in the TPD process based on a knowledge report produced by a national team upon the completion of KIX EMAP learning cycle 5 on TPD (Adam, 2023).

In summary, the panel exemplifies how diverse sets of activities like knowledge production, piloting innovative ideas, and exchanging experiences with other countries and with different stakeholders within the same country are guided by the same vision of strengthening education systems and making a difference on the ground through a systemic approach. Common pitfalls and lessons learned are also a source of inspiration, learning, and continuous improvement for other countries in the region and beyond.

Sub Unit

• South Asia SIG

Organizer

• Rasha Sharaf, NORRAG & KIX EAP Hub

Chair

• Maria Margarita Lopez Castano, IDRC

Individual Presentations

• Systemic Approach to Policy Reform on the Regional and Local Levels - Rasha Sharaf, NORRAG & KIX EAP Hub; Visal Moosa

• School planning with equal access in mind and geospatial data software in hand: Learning Cycle 2 and the Outcome Case - Ahmed Mohamed, The Maldives National University

• Teacher Voice and Choice in Professional Learning: A Framework for Continuous Teacher Professional Development in the Maldives - Aminath Shafiya Shafiya, IUM

Discussant

• Ian Macpherson, Global Partnership for Education