The CIES 2025 conference in Chicago, USA, between March 22-26, 2025, on “Envisioning Education in a Digital Society” provides an opportunity to share on the integration and use of digital technologies into education.

Technological advancements in AI and connectivity are reshaping education, affecting GPE partner countries. Yet while digital technologies offer connectivity, access to resources, and creativity, they also present ethical concerns, privacy issues, and the risk of a new digital divide.

Growing concerns around data justice and AI call for fair and ethical treatment of data, ensuring AI systems are focused on representative data to avoid perpetuating inequalities. There are also risks associated with the hyper-connectedness of 21^st-century learners, such as excessive screen time and online exploitation. Policies need to address these and other digitalization challenges and ensure equitable access.

This year’s CIES conference encourages a critical examination of digital technologies in education, addressing AI challenges, and envisioning a future where technology enhances learning for all.

GPE KIX is involved in 12 panels and GPE staff will participate in the 6 sessions below (all times are local time in Chicago, USA):

March 24, 2025

Integrating African indigenous practices and digital tools in early childhood education: Evidence-based approaches and knowledge synthesis

• Time: 14:45–16:00
• Location: Palmer House, Floor: 7^th Floor, Burnham 5
• Chair: Ramya Vivekanandan, Quality of Education Team Lead, GPE, with panelists from Kyambogo University (Uganda), African Population and Health Research Council, Africa Early Childhood Network and the LEGO Foundation.
• Overview: This panel uses findings from the GPE KIX early learning knowledge synthesis and three ECE projects in Africa to illustrate how indigenous knowledge, digital tools, and evidence-based practices can be effectively integrated to address local educational needs and strengthen education systems. The session draws on qualitative and quantitative data from ongoing intervention studies, community-based models, and play-based pedagogies to showcase innovative strategies for reclaiming and mainstreaming indigenous practices in early childhood education.

March 26, 2025

Mobilizing demand-driven evidence in low- and middle-income countries to improve policy and policy implementation in a digital society: Learning across major global initiatives

• Time: 09:45-11:00
• Location: Palmer House, 3^rd Floor, Crystal Room
• Chair: Ian Macpherson, GPE, with panelists from KIX EMAP Hub, FCDO’s What Works Hub for Global Education, Aga Khan Foundation Schools 2030, and APPRENDRE (AFD).
• Overview: This roundtable invites donors to reflect on the unique opportunities and responsibilities they, and the research they support, have to engage with policy makers and other research users and understand the demand for evidence, advance the generation and use of evidence in the education sector, coordinate research agendas and support intercountry learning. The roundtable will highlight global initiatives that support demand-driven research, learning between countries, and capacity building of government and non-government policy stakeholders in low- and middle-income countries.

Digitalization of the governance and management of education systems: Opportunities and challenges

• Time: 11:15–12:30
• Location: Palmer House, 7^th floor, LaSalle 5
• Chair: IDRC KIX, with Evans Attis, Education Economist at GPE, and panelists from UNICEF Innocenti, University of Oslo, and Educate!
• Overview: This session will cover evidence on how governments are making the shift from static and limited data systems to more dynamic and granular ones. Presenters will discuss the challenges and opportunities of digitalization of governance and management of education systems (use of digital platforms), and analyze how digitization is impacting the organizational cultures in ministries of education and systems actors and stakeholders.

Advocating for quality education for all in a digitalizing world: Exploring enablers and obstacles for civil society’s engagement in education policy making through Education Out Loud

• Time: 13:15-14:30
• Location: Palmer House, Crystal Room
• Chair: Tanvir Muntasim, Senior Education Specialist, Lead of Education Out Loud at GPE, with panelists from the Institute of Development Studies (IDS), National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER), Right to Education Initiative and the University of Minnesota.
• Overview: The session will address critical issues and perspectives relating to civil society’s involvement in education policy dialogues, including learnings on how civil society organizations may best maneuver and adapt strategies to influence education policies that aim to respond to complex challenges associated with new technology as well as other urgent issues.

Enhancing transparency and quality in educational assessments: The role of the international education community

• Time: 13:15-14:30
• Location: Palmer House, Floor: 7^th Floor, Dearborn 2
• Chair: BMGF, with presentation by Ramya Vivekanandan, GPE, and panelists from the World Bank, USAID and the University of Cape Town.
• Overview: The international education and donor community play a critical role in shaping the landscape of educational assessments, particularly in low- and middle-income countries. However, the current environment is fraught with challenges, including information asymmetries around the technical content of assessments, cost barriers, a proliferation of various assessment tools with blurred purposes, and inadequate support for education stakeholders in improving the measurement of learning outcomes. These issues often result in a reliance on international providers, which can disadvantage national entities and undermine the development of locally relevant assessment systems. This panel aims to explore how the international education and donor community can foster more transparent, effective, and equitable approaches to the design, funding and execution of national educational assessments. The GPE presentation (“A partnership approach to more and better learning data”) will focus on work supporting learning assessment systems and provide an update on a new vehicle for incentivizing progress towards being able to report to UIS on SDG 4.1.1a via top-up triggers.

Data-driven decision making through systems integration, utilization and digitalization: The remarkable case study of The Gambia

• Time: 14:45-16:00
• Location: Palmer House, 3^rd Floor, Salon 2
• Chair: Ian Macpherson, GPE KIX Team Lead, with discussant Luis Crouch, (GPE consultant, and presenter Evans Atis; other participants include UNESCO Institute of Statistics, IDRC KIX, and University of Oslo.
• Overview: This panel will focus on the education management information system (EMIS) in The Gambia. Within 10 years, it has moved from a paper-based system of disparate data to incredibly well-organized, clean data of key indicators and unified school codes captured in a single, consolidated, accessible database. The seismic shift was the result of visionary leadership within the Ministry of Education to create a culture of data-driven decision-making that was supported by a range of donors, including GPE. GPE’s support has been multifaceted and combined funding and partnership with applied research and capacity strengthening. Driven by the government, the EMIS story of The Gambia is remarkable and instructive about data-driven decision-making in the digital age.