Across the world, many education systems continue to rely on familiar models of learning—standardised structures, age-based progression, and an emphasis on efficiency and control. These patterns extend beyond classrooms, shaping policies, institutions, funding logics, and societal expectations of success.
While education reform is widely discussed, deeper systemic change remains difficult. Research and lived experience increasingly point to gaps between how learning is organised and what supports children’s engagement, wellbeing, and development—particularly for those who experience exclusion or misalignment with dominant norms.
This co-creative session invites participants to examine education as a system—one that is shaped as much by history, power, and adult assumptions as by evidence on how learning happens. Together, we will explore:
Why large-scale education systems remain remarkably stable, even in the face of innovation and reform
How institutional priorities such as standardisation, scalability, and risk management shape learning experiences
The tension between system efficiency and learning processes grounded in play, exploration, relationship, and learning from error
How our own experiences within education systems influence what we reproduce, resist, or imagine as possible
This session centres reflection as a lever for systems change—recognising that transforming education requires not only new models and policies, but a willingness to unlearn.
Kavita Anand
Founder Director
Adhyayan Quality Education Services pvt. ltd. and Adhyayan Quality Education Foundation
