Education Reform Commissions
leading to inclusive, equitable systems promoting the overall development of children & youth
This page briefly describes one of the steps that need to be considered when school and other systems are being rebuilt, renewed or transformed.

Education reform commissions are bodies or committees established by governments or educational institutions to evaluate, propose, and implement changes in the education and partner systems. These commissions are typically composed of educators, policymakers, researchers, and other stakeholders in the field of education. Their primary goal is to identify areas for improvement within the education system and other systems as well as develop strategies to address them. This may involve reforms in curriculum, teaching methods, assessment practices, funding mechanisms, governance structures, partnerships with other ministries, services to families and students from other ministries or other aspects of education or social policy. The recommendations made by these commissions can have significant implications for the future direction and quality of education within a particular jurisdiction.

Effective education reform commissions share a number of characteristics and many commissions have had significant impacts within their countries and beyond, Education reform commissions to chart educational reforms can be an important step in most transformative reform initiatives that promote inclusive, equitable education and the overall development of children and youth.

Jurisdictions should consider the why, how and the what of such commissions from the outset.

• the mandate of the education reform commission should explicitly refer to the underlying or overarching goals of inclusion of all students, equitable results, a broad range of education system goals and the promotion of the overall development of children & youth (whole child, every child)
• commissions should explicitly describe the social, economic and political context of their jurisdictions as well as identify the urgent or significant social, technological, economic, environmental, or political events or trends that have prompted the government to create the commission (1). In the 20th century, these included rapid construction of schools as the industrial revolution sent both parents to work, increased need for state planning and large corporations, especially after the world wars, and the ensuing increased birth rates, In the early 21st century, these include the climate crisis, wars and conflicts/national security, knowledge-based/gig/self employment/big data driven industries, social media/self-publishing and artificial intelligence, breakdowns of social cohesion and political systems, local, national and global infectious disease outbreaks/pandemics, reduced or extreme influence of religion in many societies, reduced birth & marriage rates and liberation and reconciliation movements to correct the social injustices of the past. 
• Including a wide variety of experts and stakeholders from within education and other sectors can broaden the scope and impact of the reform commission.
• Commissions should identify and promote educational strategies and pedagogy that will better meet the needs of students in the next several decades. In the later part of the 20th century, these included requiring and supporting all students to attend school, providing free public education, governments taking control of education from churches and most local communities, modernizing and standardizing curricula and teacher qualifications, adopting the theories of educational researchers such as Dewey and Friere, adding vocational and employment to the social and basic literacy functions of schooling, supporting at risk students, rapid expansion of post-secondary education and its influence on secondary schooling and others. In the early part of the 21st century, these educational changes will likely include a student centered focus, offering a broad range of learning opportunities in core curricula, extended educational activities and alternative forms of schooling (including remote and online learning), revising traditional curricula and teaching/learning strategies to implement statements of generic student competencies and student agency, increasing benefits, career planning and professional motivation of classroom teachers in response to low teacher morale and teacher retention rates, diversifying the education workforce (including the professionals in schools employed by other ministries & agencies, ongoing need for well-defined scope and sequence learning in subject curricula and textbooks while expanding the use of inter-disciplinary, experiential, individualized and online learning, delegating educational authority to indigenous and minority cultural communities
• The systems effectiveness criteria and/or purposes of schooling to be used by  Education Reform Commissions should be broad and balanced. Academic success in a few selected subjects such as math, reading and science as well as participation and graduation rates are important but not sufficient. Student skills, knowledge, and attitudes in development areas such as the arts, music, health & life skills, social justice, civics and citizenship, the environment, human rights, and other fields of human endeavour should also be assessed using a variety of sources. These include reviews of the existing data on child/youth safety, health & development, access & participation in early childhood, school & post-secondary education/training, surveys of student, parents and teacher satisfaction and views and a formal report with accompanying studies and specific reports on selected topics.
• System success in the transformation of lives of marginalized students, the well-being of students and staff, community and agency involvement and engagement in schools and several other criteria should be identified as targets for reform.
• Commission reports should describe the consultations and surveys undertaken in their work and how the points raised are being/have been considered in their report (s).
• Commission recommendations should be supported by research evidence as well as reports on related local pilot projects ensuring the relevance of the research and programs to the local context.
• Commission recommendations should prioritize reforms that are sustainable in the long term, considering factors such as funding sources, capacity-building efforts, and institutional support structures.

Planning for pitfalls can help to ensure the impact of education reform commissions. These include:

• commissions should be established, structured and perceived to be above the interests and immediate concerns of the governments that create them. (They are often designated as “royal” or are created by the head of state to denote this significance and independence.)
• ensuring that local agencies, employees view the education reform commission as being non-partisan and long-term in its considerations
• establishing realistic yet tight timelines for the duration of the commission so that their report is seen to respond to the urgent problems or significant disconnect between the education system and their respective societies
• requiring the commissions to include a plan and a timetable for implementation for its recommendations(1)
• encouraging opposition parties and advocacy groups to submit briefs and/or evidence to the commission
• ensuring the engagement of and cooperation among senior officials within the ministries both before and after the commission issues its report

Examples of education reform commissions promoting inclusion, equity and the overall development of children include:

• UNESCO's International Commission on the Futures of Education was established by UNESCO in 2019 to reimagine how knowledge and learning can shape the future of humanity and the planet. The initiative incorporates extensive public and expert engagement and aims to catalyze a global debate on how  education needs to be rethought in a world of  increasing complexity, uncertainty, and fragility. The 2021 report (ii)  described several future pathways for transforming school systems and reducing entrenched inequalities.

• The education division of India's Planning Commission played "an important role in two periods: first in the 1950s and 1960s in influencing the educational architecture that developed post- Independence and then in the 1990s with the strong support it gave to proposals for greater private investment in education" (i) . The PC Education Division had to perform the following functions: (i). Formation of long-term, medium-term and annual plans for the Central and the State/Union Territories levels, (2) Coordination of the education plans of the States/Union Territories and the central agencies including the University Grants Commission and the National Council of Education Research and Training as well as of the national-educational plan with the development plans in other sectors, (3) maintain educational statistics and undertake/promote/support research studies and surveys, (4) Collaborate with and/or advise/assist the concerned Government Departments, international organizations and other agencies, (5) Examine resource mobilization and low cost strategies/alternatives and (6) Review of Committees and Commissions, Central Advisory Boards and Annual/five-year plans.
• Manitoba

Closing Comments and Reflection

A brief examination of such commissions[i] done in preparing this joint educator  statement suggests that they should be established, structured, and perceived to be above the interests and immediate concerns of the governments that create them. Further, the mixed history and challenges associated with such commissions, it is suggested here that UN agencies, researchers and organizations collaborate to develop evidence-based and practical guidance on the formation and operation of education commissions for countries to use as they begin the transformation of their school systems.

End Notes

(1) Wilson, Roger (2017) "Education Commissions and Their Visions: Charting the Way Forward," Colleagues: Vol. 14: Iss. 1, Article 15

(1) Ginsberg, R., & Wimpelberg, R. K. (1987). Educational Change by Commission: Attempting “Trickle down” Reform. Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, 9(4), 344–360. doi.org/10.2307/1163773
(ii) The international commission on the futures of education (2021) Reimagining our futures together.  A new social contract for education, Paris, UNESCO

(iii) Ratna M. Sudarshan (2020) The Planning Commission and Education in  Santosh Mehrotra & Sylvie Guichard (eds) Planning in the 20th Century and Beyond India's Planning Commission and the NITI Aayog, Chapter 5,
    Cambridge University Press

[i] A 2017 review of American education commissions (with a Canadian example) has identified the tendency of many such inquiries “to envision a system out of sync with public expectations or societal needs” as an understandable phenomenon given that they are usually created to address the real or perceived inadequacies of the status quo. The same review underlines the need to understand the social, economic and political context of each commission. Countries should identify commissions that have had a significant impact on their or similar countries. For example, the US 1983 commission report, A Nation at Risk, had a huge impact on American education., the 1950 Planning Commission of India led to the creation of most of that country’s education infrastructure and several commissions in Kenya have led education reform. However, the Kenya and other commissions have often been criticized and ineffective. An early (1987) review of education commissions in the US found that they were often long in duration, general in their recommendations, paid little attention to implementation and were largely ineffective. It is clear, however, from this brief discussion that such commissions should be established, structured and perceived to be above the interests and immediate concerns of the governments that create them. (They are often designated as “royal” or as created by the head of state to denote this significance and independence. Given this mixed history found in this brief look and the obvious need that transforming schools should be preceded in each jurisdiction by an independent investigation and report, it is suggested here that UN agencies and organizations collaborate to develop evidence-based and practical guidance on the formation and operation of education commissions for countries to use as they begin the transformation of their school systems.

 
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Transformation Steps

Web links to the brief descriptions of  the many Transformation Elements  listed in the drop-down menu below will be active when one page summary has been prepared
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-  Establish strategic principles of reform
-  Secure contributions of other ministries
-  Use existing events/processes in reform
-  Inter-ministry talks on school as a hub
-  Mar the wider stakeholder community
-  Preliminary or post-TES consultation
-  Create reform web site/platform
-  Identify how education reform supports national development plan/policy
-  Use regular inter-ministry meetings
-  Regular meetings with school staff reps
-  Anticipate major bottlenecks
-  Build administrator skills manage change
-  Use educators as action researchers
-  Build on successful local initiatives
-  Intersectoral monitor/resource matrix
-  Use existing monitoring mechanisms
-  Conduct local qualitative studies
-  Use global monitoring mechanisms
-  Use an  education reform commission
-  Review data, reports surveys on children
-  Consult with reps of all employees
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There are many items on this list on the right hand side of this page which describe, in detail, how the many elements that may need to be modified to create, support and sustain change. We have created these detailed lists because we think it is easier to work on small, specific changes rather than being faced with broad, general statements about transforming systems. If you would like to join the volunteer members of the Global Network of Deans of Education in reviewing, commenting on or preparing a one page summary on one or more of these elements, please complete the response form found at the bottom of this web page introducing this section.