Delivering high quality, efficient, equitable and innovative education is a crucial issue for OECD countries. This is not a simple task, especially given the connected trends of decentralisation, more diverse societies and increases in the availability of data which have greatly increased the complexity of the system. Modern education governance now requires engaging diverse actors and stakeholders across multiple levels, and working within a complex and dynamic system. Under the umbrella of the Centre for Educational Research and Innovation (CERI), the Governing Complex Education Systems (GCES) project focused on identifying effective models of governance in modern complex education systems and the corresponding knowledge systems necessary to support them.

Today’s education systems are increasingly complex as a result of multiple layers of governance and a greater number of stakeholders than ever before. Governing these complex systems requires models of governance that are able to balance responsiveness to local diversity with the ability to ensure national objectives. As a result, education systems are looking for examples of good practice and models of effective modern governance that they can adapt to their own needs.