Reimagining the future of public education:
Placing wellbeing and holistic development at the heart of learning.
Young people today are growing up in a time of profound global change — with climate change and environmental emergencies, digital disruption, social upheaval, increasing inequities, and economic uncertainty fundamentally reshaping their lives. Yet public education systems remain largely unchanged, often prioritising a narrow set of academic outcomes over the social, emotional, and life skills that young people need to thrive in today’s world.
At Fondation Botnar, we are committed to changing this. We have given new emphasis to the role of education in improving young people’s wellbeing through our recently refined philanthropic strategy, Pathways to Young People’s Wellbeing (2024–2029), with the goal of supporting the transformation of public education systems into thriving learning ecosystems.
In our refined approach, we work with and for young people of all backgrounds to enhance their wellbeing, now and in the future. Transforming public education systems — alongside our priorities in mental health, sustainable city systems, and equitable digital transformations — is one of four interconnected themes where we believe we can contribute to making the greatest impact.
Our approach to reimagining public education draws on our experience of supporting and accompanying various educational interventions in countries such as Colombia, Ecuador, Ghana, Tanzania, Romania, Morocco and Vietnam.
Learning from experience
Through our experience, we have met thousands of teachers, school leaders, and education innovators around the world that are already developing life skills in young people. Yet, they are often underappreciated, underresourced, and disconnected. By supporting and celebrating these pioneers, we believe we can create thriving learning ecosystems that have wellbeing and holistic development at their heart.
What we’ve learned so far:
- Trust matters as much as policy. We need to focus as much on weaving trustful relationships as we do on the technicalities of implementing new policies or programmes.
- Education systems are living systems, not cold machines. They flourish when treated as dynamic, interconnected ecosystems.
- Spaces for collaboration are essential. Thriving learning ecosystems are rooted in creating spaces for students, families, communities, educators, and administrators to come together and listen deeply, learn, and shape their own systems and futures.
A thriving learning ecosystem
For us, a thriving learning ecosystem is a diverse and trustful community, working and learning together with the shared purpose of providing safe and inclusive environments and experiences that enable all young people to learn to thrive together.
Decades of global research and practice in education reform have led us to acknowledge that, alongside literacy and numeracy, education should enable young people to develop the holistic life skills (awareness, empathy, curiosity, critical thinking, agency, resourcefulness, resilience, and so on) that are fundamental to a person caring and acting for the wellbeing of themselves, other people, and planet. Achieving this through education means ensuring that educators have the capacity and motivation to nurture young people’s holistic development, and that education policies and resources are fully aligned with this mission.
Our systems change approach
Systemic change in education is slow and there are no quick fixes. That’s why lasting transformation requires long-term, flexible investment that gives partners the stability and space they need to drive meaningful change. Because no single intervention can shift a system, we support portfolios of interconnected, mutually reinforcing projects that drive change across multiple levels. And since systemic change is always rooted in context, our work begins at the local-level, ensuring that solutions respond to local realities, possibilities, and needs while also offering pathways to national and global change.
Cities as catalysts of change
Today’s global population of young people is the largest in history — and most are set to live in cities by 2050. Our commitment to locally-rooted change processes comes alive in our focus cities, where we have chosen to concentrate our resources on a small number of cities. Here, we work with partners to implement transformation programmes that build on successful initiatives, connect diverse actors, deepen trustful relationships, and weave thriving learning ecosystems. Lessons learnt at the city level can inform national policies and global frameworks, and allow for successful transformation processes to spread to other cities worldwide.
Young people as co-creators
A distinctive part of our approach is embedding the meaningful participation of young people in the process of transformation. Young people should not just be “beneficiaries” of education systems – they should also be co-creators. We want to ensure their voices shape the decisions, policies, and practices that affect their learning and wellbeing. In doing so, we will help build learning ecosystems that are deeply relevant to the lived realities of young people today and in the future.
Collaboration for lasting change
This kind of transformation is necessarily a collective effort. We therefore work with partners, funders, and leaders who are already driving systemic change. We align resources, expertise, and networks to deepen, amplify, and accelerate change. We learn from our shared successes and setbacks and help learnings spread. Ultimately, we want to model processes for creating thriving learning ecosystems that inspire and inform similar efforts around the world. This is our commitment to public education and to young people growing up in this time of profound change.
