Press Releases
Release of Report on the International Education Roundtable
Shaping the future: How good education systems can become great in the next ten years
The key policy challenge for education policy-makers and citizens alike has moved beyond describing and understanding what make for effective schools, to forging an understanding of what factors lead to an effective school system. In short, quality education for all.
In Jul 2009, ministers and senior representatives from seven leading school systems — Australia (Victoria), Canada (Alberta), China, Hong Kong, Singapore, Sweden, and the USA — gathered in Singapore for the inaugural International Education Roundtable (IER) to explore how their largely well-performing education systems could become highly effective (“good to great”). The IER was co-chaired by Dr Ng Eng Hen, Singapore’s Minister for Education, and Sir Michael Barber, head of McKinsey & Company’s global education practice.
The participants first explored what knowledge and skills an educated person would need in the future, before focusing their discussion on two themes that would unleash their potential — the effective harnessing of information and communications technologies (ICT) to improve teaching and learning, and establishing system-wide excellence in teaching and school leadership.
McKinsey & Company undertook to prepare a synthesis of the wide-ranging discussion at the IER, and their report of the Roundtable titled “Shaping the future: How good education systems can become great in the next ten years” is released today.
Building Highly Effective School Systems: Unleashing the Power of Technology and People
Preparing for the Future
Education policy-makers around the world, including in China and Alberta have been canvassing views from a diverse groups of citizens to build a consensus on what skills and knowledge will be needed for the future.
Unleashing the Power of Technology for Learning
While recognising the role of ICT as a transformational force for education, the IER ministers noted that the effective harnessing of ICT needed to start with a clear strategy, in order to coherently guide planning, resource allocation and implementation. The participants noted that ironically, systems which had performed well using traditional methods might face the highest inertia in exploring and fully exploiting the benefits of ICT.
During implementation, in addition to due consideration being accorded to hardware, software, connectivity and maintenance, there should be concerted efforts invested in building capability among teachers and school leaders.
The report cited examples of how online collaboration platforms had been effective in facilitating learning in Sweden and Victoria, while in the UK and USA, for example, online learning had given students unprecedented access to learning materials. Singapore’s Masterplan for ICT in Education was cited as an example of how obstacles could be overcome, by equipping schools with the necessary infrastructure for ICT deployment, and providing all teachers with sufficient training, so as to better prepare them to effectively harness ICT as a pedagogical tool.
Unleashing the Power of People
The IER discussion affirmed the need for excellent teachers and school leaders, given the scale and ambition of reforms within education systems. The report noted the success of systems such as Singapore and the United Kingdom which had expanded their search for talent to fields beyond education, such as experienced professionals from other fields.
To motivate and enable talented teachers and school leaders to give of their best, education systems must also provide high quality, relevant, and job-focused professional development to educators in a setting that promoted collaboration, professional growth and sharing. This would begin with forging a strong consensus about what constituted good teaching practice, and ensuring that it was consistently applied. For example, the National Institute of Education (NIE)’s Centre for Research in Pedagogy and Practice undertakes detailed studies of classroom practices to glean insights, which can then be disseminated for system-wide improvement. Victoria has developed the E5 model (Engage, Explore, Explain, Elaborate, Evaluate) to identify what constitutes effective performance by both teachers and instructional leaders. Hong Kong and New Zealand have each defined competencies and/or classroom indicators of good teaching. In Shanghai, China, all teachers are required to visit and observe at least eight lessons by a colleague each term.
Developing leadership talent is also critical as school leaders have a direct impact on student outcomes and teacher engagement. To this end, Singapore’s Leaders in Education Programme, a rigorous six-month full-time programme, aims to prepare candidates for principalship. This is followed by mentoring from experienced school leaders and informal support from principals in the same cluster of schools.
The IER discussion recognised that performance management was another lever for improving teaching and school leadership system-wide, and stressed the importance of having regular feedback and well-developed appraisal cycles, as seen in Victoria and Singapore. The use of performance-linked compensation may also be considered.
Continuing the Conversation
The IER was a useful springboard for discussion on how education systems can rise to the challenges and seize opportunities for the future, and participants of the 2009 IER agreed to continue this important dialogue through a variety of channels.
Published by McKinsey & Company, the IER report can be found on their website.