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Partnering with purpose to tackle the biggest challenges in:
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We believe that effective reform depends on practical delivery. Success requires clear prioritisation, focus on high-impact areas, and resource alignment. Sustained impact comes from building system capacity, enabling governments to lead implementation and improve learning outcomes for all – including the most disadvantaged.
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Challenge #1
Why do so many attempts at school reform at scale fail?
This is a complex and wide-ranging question; but edt’s experience highlights a number of consistent, practical lessons that can help shape effective reform in practice. These are central to both embedding reforms successfully, and – crucially – to improving outcomes for all learners, including those who are typically least well served by the system.
First, the success of education reforms depends not just on whether they are designed well in theory, but whether they can be effectively delivered in practice. The challenge for governments is turning clear policy ambition into changes that systems can actually implement at scale. At edt, our work focuses on this transition. For example, on the UK government’s SCALE programme, for which we lead the technical assistance component, we have not simply helped governments to agree priorities, but have gone on to help them make practical choices on sequencing, financing, and delivery – enabling reforms to be embedded at scale.
Reforms also lose impact when too many priorities compete for limited attention and capacity. We work with governments and partners – for example, through the Gates Foundation-funded Engeza programme – to focus effort and align delivery on a small number of learning-critical challenges that improve outcomes across the learner population, including among those with additional needs. This kind of clarity helps ensure that investment and capacity are directed where they can make the greatest difference to teaching and learning outcomes, rather than being dispersed across multiple initiatives.
What is more, sustaining reform requires systems to lead and adapt implementation over time. This may require capacity building within the system. We have extensive experience working with governments and partners to effectively build local capacity in order to effect meaningful, lasting change. In Sierra Leone, for instance, edt’s work through the Secondary School Education Improvement Programme (SSEIP) has focused on strengthening ministries’ capacity to diagnose challenges, plan responses, and manage delivery themselves.
Challenge #2
How can education ministers respond to the pressure on budgets for national school reform?
When budgets tighten, we believe the core challenge is not whether to act, but how to protect what matters most.
Our experience shows that progress is more likely when governments concentrate effort on a small number of high-impact reforms and embed them within existing planning and budgeting processes, rather than launching new initiatives. Through our work on the UK government’s SCALE programme, this approach has enabled continued progress on foundational learning even in periods of reduced funding.
We also believe that impact can often be achieved through targeted improvements to what systems already deliver. Through the Gates Foundation-funded Engeza programme, we have supported governments to strengthen curriculum, teaching and assessment, improving the quality of learning at scale without significant additional costs. In Nigeria alone, such work has indirectly reached around 950,000 learners by improving the quality of what is already delivered, rather than funding additional delivery costs.
Meanwhile, we cannot overstate the importance of building system capability and reducing long-term dependency on external support. In Sierra Leone, our work on the Secondary School Education Improvement Plan (SSEIP) focused on building the ministry’s own capacity for data-driven planning, coordination, and implementation. By shifting reform from being externally driven to being system-led, the risk that progress stalls when funding or partner presence decreases is mitigated.
Finally, constrained budgets make it more important – not less – to ensure money is tied to learning impact. Through TEACH Zimbabwe, edt has supported reforms that used inspection and professional development to strengthen teaching practice, rather than investing primarily in new structures or compliance processes. By reorienting accountability towards classroom improvement, limited resources were used to drive change where it matters most for all learners.
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Let's work together
What's the biggest challenge you're facing?
Across contexts, the message is consistent: constrained budgets require sharper prioritisation, stronger system capability, and a clear focus on learning outcomes. Get in touch to explore how these approaches could support your system to deliver more impact with the resources available.
Contact Sabine Nguini, Education Technical Director
Sabine leads our team of in-house experts, providing technical assistance to support government-led reform initiatives. With extensive experience partnering with ministries of education, her work focuses on helping governments translate strategy into sustainable impact across education systems.
Email: snguini@edt.org
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Contact Dr Clare Buntic, Lead Adviser for System Strengthening
Clare has deep experience driving education reform across sub-Saharan Africa. She works with governments to expand equitable learning through catalytic technical assistance, stronger, system-embedded teacher and school leader development, as well as adaptive, outcomes-focused implementation.