Secondary EducationWhat does true success look like for a student? This year, at the Global Schools Forum Annual Meet, we began our conversation on secondary education by asking participants to imagine the year 2045. A thriving adult, who was once a student in their programme, sits down to write them a thank-you letter. What is the one thing that letter says?
This simple exercise cut to the core of our purpose. The answers were not about topping exam charts. They were about agency, informed choices, and the resilience to navigate an uncertain world. This set the stage for a deep-dive into three critical themes that emerged as the pillars of holistic success, guided by our collaborators:
- Cultivating Student Agency, explored with Dr. Pratibha Narayanan from Involve Education, who designs programmes to give young people micro-opportunities for leadership and ownership in their schools and communities.
- Navigating Career Pathways, led by Swati Mohan from Antarang Foundation, which bridges the gap between school and work by helping students understand themselves and the world of work to make informed choices.
- Integrating School with Work, informed by Raj Gilda from Lend a Hand India, who shared their work on integrating vocational education with mainstream academics and introducing high school students to local internships.
As the 30+ participants, from across diverse contexts, broke into groups, the room buzzed with focused energy.
Capturing the intangible: what agency means and how to measure it
For the “Agency” group, the challenge was defining the intangible. How do you measure a student’s belief in their own ability to shape their future? While arriving at one definition was a struggle, the group reached a powerful conclusion: agency must be self-reported—it is the student’s own belief that counts. They agreed that young people should be able to experiment (take risks, innovate) and conduct (act). The conversation highlighted a need to crowdsource and share the best survey questions—like “I feel I have the ability to follow a pathway I’m excited about”—so we can all get better at capturing this essential outcome.
Charting informed pathways to success
The “Career Pathways” group defined success as students fluently navigating pathways that are informed, confident, and aligned with their interests. They built a three-part strategy to get there, focusing on:
- Building transferable skills
- Expanding knowledge of the world of work
- Connecting learning to student interest
The discussion challenged the group to consider whether a singular outcome can, or should, define success.
Shifting the narrative on school and work
The third group, on ‘integrating school with work’, identified an urgent need for a narrative shift—away from seeing vocational training as a “second-best” option and towards recognising it as a dynamic, agile path to meaningful work. Key insights included designing for the future with micro-certifications and modular courses. The clear call to action: we must bring industry to the table to ensure skills training is relevant for 2045, not for yesterday’s economy.
A call for a curated commons
A powerful consensus emerged from all three groups. While ideas are plentiful, our time and resources are not. Our community has already built so much; we need not require every organisation to start from scratch.
The most resounding call to action was for a curated, collaborative repository of existing frameworks, survey tools, and case studies. As one participant put it, we must “curate, not just collect.” The goal is not another digital folder, but a vetted, well-organised “commons” where a practitioner can immediately find three proven survey instruments to adapt, saving precious time and accelerating impact.
Building on a foundation of collective dialogue
This session is a vital part of GSF’s ongoing discourse on reimagining secondary education. It builds directly on the insights from our Study Tour in Uganda, the rich learnings from our multi-year Community of Practice (practice brief and podcast series), and the momentum from our convenings—from the inaugural State of Secondary Education Convening in London to our recent gathering on the fringes of the Skoll World Forum in Oxford. We are deeply grateful to every partner and participant who has contributed to these dialogues, helping us strengthen our collective clarity and purpose.
The energy in the room proved that our community is ready to move. The question is no longer if we need to measure holistically, but how we will do it together.
Our commitment is to channel this momentum into action. In the coming months, GSF will work with the community to build the curated repository it has called for.
Do you know of any existing repositories or brilliant, shareable tools that this session demands we build upon? Please let us know.
We will continue to bridge the worlds of education, industry, and policy to ensure that every young person is measured not by a single test score, but by their capacity to learn, lead, and thrive.
(You can write to us at: ajay.pinjani@globalschoolsforum.org)
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