Turning education systems into learning systems

Overwhelming global evidence and statistics show that schooling does not equate to learning. Despite spending of billions of dollars globally, education systems are not producing desired and essential student learning outcomes. The international education community is in agreement that after a focus on enrolling children in school and improving attendance, a renewed focus is required on student learning. Global education systems and policies need to be aligned towards student learning. This is to ensure that students across the world leave education systems with not only basic foundational literacy and numeracy skills, but the knowledge the curriculum is meant to teach. To achieve this objective, education systems must become ‘learning systems’ in two ways: Firstly, the system must have a rigorous focus on student learning - also referred to as learning outcomes, student knowledge and skill attainment, or student outcomes. This paper discusses how education systems, policies, and reforms can be aligned to achieve this, as student learning may not always take the main priority in policy or reform agenda. Secondly, a system must build an understanding of what works to produce student results and how to deliver that to students at scale. This background paper was prepared for the Save Our Future white paper 'Averting an Education Catastrophe for the World’s Children'.