The education system, central to shaping the future of our societies, sits at the intersection of other societal challenges- climate instability, systemic inequality and many more. And yet, systemic change in education cannot be achieved through isolated efforts or fragmented innovations. It requires something deeper: a collective reimagining of how we see problems, how we show up in systems, and how we act TOGETHER.

This blog is shaped by the insights from the panel discussion – Harnessing Insights: What Fuels Collective Action? at InvokED 4.0, a space for the ecosystem to come together to build a shared vision for education in India

Symphony of Truth, Hope & Collective Action

Alex Beard, Senior Director, Global Learning Lab, Teach For All, drawing from his work with education systems across more than 60 countries, hits the right note while sharing the approach to systemic change. It doesn’t begin with introducing complicated policies or programs, but with a willingness to simply confront uncomfortable truths.

In India and across the Global South, the realities of marginalisation, poverty, under-resourced schools, and social exclusion are not abstract concepts, they are the lived experiences of millions of children and educators. These truths are painful/ hard to face, but when we lean into these truths, not to despair, but to understand, we begin to see something else: hope.

Hope, which is not any passive optimism, but a hope grounded in action. Hope, that emanates from the classrooms where student leaders set up room full of books and possibilities, in schools where leaders build the school’s infrastructure from ruins & villages where women education leaders demand access to quality education for children bringing a revolution in their community. In districts where school leaders, community members, and administrators co-create education change solutions, not because they are mandated to, but because they choose to act with courage and clarity, so that the education that children receive ensures that they are prepared for the future of work and the planet.

Going Exponential, Seeing Before Solving

Too often, the education sector rushes to implement solutions: new curriculum models, teacher training workshops, and digital tools. But without understanding the nuanced, layered nature of the problem- of how poverty, gender, caste, disabilities, and geography intersect- these solutions risk becoming short-lived interventions, despite being well-intentioned. As Polina Nezdiikovska, Lead – Community Development, Centre for Exponential Change (C4EC) says, “…before distributing the ability to solve, we need to foster the ability to see”.

Real systemic change demands humility to seek. It means acknowledging that no single organisation, government department, or civil society actor holds the entire answer. It requires us to listen to those who have long been doing the work, often unseen and unheard. And to ask not “what can I own?” but “what can we build together?”

Relationships as Infrastructure To Systemic Change

In education, we often speak of infrastructure in terms of classrooms, textbooks, or digital access. But there is another kind of infrastructure that is just as vital, and perhaps more enduring: relationships.

Relationships between teachers and families. Between NGOs and government officials. Between student leaders and school administrators. These are not soft, peripheral elements, they are the very foundation upon which collective action stands.

Dr. François Bonnici, Director, Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship, stresses on strengthening these relationships. When these connections deepen, something powerful happens. The silos break. And what emerges is a collaborative spirit, where diverse stakeholders start co-creating a path to achieving the vision, something that we have seen with Shikshagraha- a people’s movement for education equity.

Across classrooms, corridors of government, and communities, people are choosing this path. Educators are coming together to reflect on their practice. Youth forming peer learning circles. Parents and panchayat (village council) members are participating in school development planning. These are not just activities, they are acts of collective courage.

Because the future of education, and indeed, the future of our shared world, is not individual, but collective. And it is being built not through grand gestures, but through everyday actions of care, connection, and co-creation.

Let us weave this future together.

Action by action. Thread by thread. And relationship by relationship.