Smarter education governance

As educational systems have decentralised, they are increasingly looking for ways to balance responsiveness to local diversity with achieving national goals. They must do so as efficiently as possible, given limited financial resources and the confines and pressures of time-sensitive political cycles. This chapter explores the five elements of modern governance for complex systems, which together operate to create a smart state, capable of solving modern governance challenges. They five elements are: a focus on process rather than structures, adaptability and flexibility, stakeholder involvement and capacity building, a whole of system approach, and the harnessing of evidence and research to inform policy and practice. The chapter links these five elements to the lessons learned from the GCES case studies and trust briefs, bridging theory and practice with real world examples from OECD education systems.