Leading digital transformation in education: Lessons from the Digital Education Leadership Programme
Cambridge, UNICEF and the Global Partnership for Education (GPE) came together to strengthen the capacity of education policymakers and practitioners responsible for leading digital change in their systems. By combining expertise, networks and practical experience, the partnership aimed to help leaders do more with limited resources and make better-informed decisions about long-term investment and reform.
Turning digital ambitions into action
Many governments have prioritised the use of digital technology to accelerate the delivery of national education goals. Yet education leaders face a common challenge: turning ambition into sustainable change.
Governments are making important decisions about artificial intelligence (AI), digital content and teacher development, school connectivity, and datasets.,. They are also working within increasingly tight budgets and complex policy environments. Success depends on more than technology. It requires strong leadership, coordinated planning and a clear understanding of how different parts of the education system work together.
The Digital Education Leadership Programme (DELP) was created to help address this challenge. Cambridge, UNICEF and the Global Partnership for Education (GPE) came together to strengthen the capacity of education policymakers and practitioners responsible for leading digital change in their systems. By combining expertise, networks and practical experience, the partnership aimed to help leaders do more with limited resources and make better-informed decisions about long-term investment and reform.
As one delegate from Laos described it, “DELP is a capacity-building masterclass for educational governance.”
The programme brought together over 40 senior ministry officials and UNICEF staff from 17 countries. Together, they explored how to plan, implement and sustain digital education initiatives that support equity, quality and inclusion.
How DELP helped leaders apply learning
The Six Pillars Framework, created by the public and private sector partners of the Digital Transformation Collaborative and published by UNESCO, UNICEF, GPE, and the International Telecommunications Union (ITU), served as the programme's anchor. It helped bring the partner organisations together around a shared approach and gave delegates a practical framework they could use in their own work.
The programme combined self-paced learning, expert sessions, workshops and practical activities across seven modules:
- technology in education system transformation
- coordination and leadership
- culture and capacity
- content and solutions
- data, AI and evidence
- connectivity and infrastructure
- cost and sustainability.
Each module encouraged delegates to apply learning directly to their own context.
Instead of completing a theoretical assignment, delegates developed a capstone project linked to real challenges within their education systems. This ensured that learning remained practical and relevant throughout the programme.
Learning from experts and peers
Alongside peer learning, delegates engaged with leading experts from government, academia, international development and the EdTech sector. Speakers included Mike Trucano (the World Bank and Brookings Institution), The Hon. Conrad Sackey, Minister of Basic and Senior Education, Sierra Leone, Dr Kevin Martin, Managing Director of the Digital Education Futures Initiative at Hughes Hall, University of Cambridge, Dr Madiha Khan, Director of Research at Educate Ventures Research, Gouri Gupta, Director of EdTech at Central Square Foundation, Paul Atherton, Founder and CEO of Fab-AI, Chris Fabian, UNICEF’s Digital Inclusion Lead and Co-Founder and Co-Lead of Giga and Verna Lalbeharie, Research Director and Executive Director of EdTech Hub.
Through webinars, case studies and discussions, delegates explored practical lessons on leadership, systems change, teacher development, AI, evidence-informed decision-making, connectivity and sustainability. These sessions grounded the programme in real-world experience and helped participants connect global insights with the challenges and opportunities facing their own education systems.
What we learned
Several themes emerged consistently across surveys, workshops, peer discussions and delegate reflections.
Digital change is a systems challenge
Delegates repeatedly described a shift in how they viewed digital education.
One attendee from the Ministry of Education in Rwanda said:
"We are doing a lot of things, but we didn't know how they were strategized ... The module work has really helped us to reshape this."
The course strengthened delegates’ understanding that leadership, governance, teacher development, infrastructure, financing, content and data must work together to support effective digital education.
Rwanda: Creating a shared language for reform
Rwanda provides one of the clearest examples of DELP's influence on leadership thinking. The team described the programme's value in simple terms in their presentation:
The biggest value of DELP was not one tool. It was a shared systems language for national reform.
The team’s applied work during the programme focused on bringing existing efforts together through a national Foundational Learning Digital Quality Package. This would combine content, teacher support, data, infrastructure and sustainability within a single model.
As they concluded:
We learned that technology improves education only when leadership, teacher capacity, content, data, infrastructure, and sustainability move together around learning priorities.
Teachers are central to success
A common discussion across the programme focused on the gap between technology investment and teacher readiness.
In forum discussions and reflective activities, delegates from countries including Egypt, Rwanda, El Salvador, Pakistan and Malaysia highlighted a shared challenge: infrastructure is often expanding faster than teacher confidence and support systems.
Delegates consistently stressed that meaningful change depends on helping teachers develop the skills, confidence and support they need to use digital tools effectively. A delegate from UNICEF Zimbabwe said:
"We still have the issue of teacher capacities and attitudes towards digital and blended learning. With regular capacity-building, we are getting there."
Data and AI require strong leadership
Throughout the programme, delegates explored questions around data privacy, ethics, learning analytics and AI readiness. Discussions often returned to the need for strong governance and policy frameworks alongside technical capability. In El Salvador, participants highlighted the need for "strong cross-directorate governance" to ensure AI and learning analytics could be implemented effectively and equitably.
Sustainability matters from the start
Many delegates reported that the programme helped them think differently about long-term sustainability.
Rather than focusing on initial technology investments alone, delegates considered issues such as maintenance, financing, total cost of ownership, cybersecurity and ongoing capacity building. These themes appeared consistently throughout workshops and capstone activities.
Peer learning creates practical solutions
One of the programme's most valued features was the opportunity to learn alongside colleagues facing similar challenges.
Delegates shared experiences from different contexts, compared approaches and adapted ideas for their own systems. Many reported that hearing how others had tackled similar issues helped them test assumptions and identify practical next steps.
What made DELP successful?
Several factors helped make DELP a valuable experience for delegates and supported the application of learning beyond the programme itself.
A shared framework for thinking differently
The Six Pillars Framework gave delegates a common language for discussing digital transformation and analysing challenges within their own contexts. Across the capstone projects, delegates consistently used the framework to identify connections between leadership, teacher development, content, data, infrastructure and sustainability. Several delegates described the framework as a tool that helps leaders move beyond technology deployment and focus on sustainable, equitable and system-wide change.
Echoing themes that emerged throughout the programme, Sierra Leone's Minister of Basic and Senior Secondary Education, Conrad Sackey, noted as a guest speaker that:
"Digital transformation is ultimately a leadership challenge before it is a technical one. It is most effective when it's embedded in institutions, policies and budgets, rather than treated as a series of isolated projects."
Lesotho and El Salvador: A new way of thinking
Not every outcome was reflected immediately in policy development.
For some delegates, the programme's greatest value was helping them reframe how they approached digital change. Colleagues from Lesotho and El Salvador spoke about the importance of systems thinking and the benefits of using a structured framework to understand complex challenges.
These experiences show that building leadership capacity is often a crucial first step towards long-term change.
"DELP is a 'mind-opener' that explicitly defines and proposes actionable insights, bringing to light the interdependencies across six pillars of transformation."
- Kapari Justice Mosothoane, Ministry of Education and Training, Lesotho
Learning through application
The capstone project was a key strength of the programme. Rather than working through hypothetical scenarios, delegates applied learning directly to real challenges in their own education systems. Across the cohort, capstones focused on practical reforms including national digital education frameworks, teacher development, data governance, AI readiness, sustainability planning and system coordination.
This emphasis on application helped delegates move from individual projects and pilot initiatives towards more coherent, system-level approaches to change.
Pakistan: Applying learning through policy engagement
In Pakistan, delegates applied DELP learning to support the development of a Punjab Digital Education Framework aligned with wider education reforms and PESP 2025–30.
Using the Six Pillars Framework, the team identified opportunities to strengthen coordination, teacher development, data use and sustainability across the system. Their proposed framework aims to bring these priorities together within a single approach to planning and implementation.
"As a result of this programme, I advocated with the government for a Punjab Digital Education Framework aligned with PESP 2025–30, using the Six Pillars Framework as a guide."
- Sehr Raza Jafri, UNICEF Pakistan
Learning from experts and peers
Delegates valued the opportunity to learn from both international experts and one another. The programme brought together policymakers, ministry officials and UNICEF colleagues from diverse contexts, creating space to share challenges, test ideas and learn from different approaches.
"By engaging with global peers and experts, I am gaining deeper insights into how countries successfully translate policy into practice."
- Eric Balangtaa, UNICEF Ghana
"What made it valuable for me was the mix of strong case studies and learning alongside leaders from other countries... I'd describe it as less about tools and more about how you actually lead and coordinate change across a system."
- Delegate from Malaysia
Flexible delivery
The blend of self-paced learning, live workshops, peer discussions and practical assignments enabled busy education leaders to engage with the programme alongside their day-to-day responsibilities. Delegates repeatedly highlighted the value of combining structured content with opportunities for discussion, reflection and collaboration.
Strong outcomes
The programme retained 86% of delegates throughout delivery and certified 35 delegates. Ninety-five per cent of survey respondents said they would be very likely to recommend DELP to a colleague. Delegates also reported increased confidence, knowledge and awareness across all areas of digital transformation leadership.
Perhaps most importantly, the capstones demonstrate that learning did not end with the programme. Delegates left with concrete plans to influence policy, strengthen implementation, improve teacher support, build evidence systems and develop more sustainable approaches to digital education in their own contexts.
Looking ahead
The challenges facing education systems continue to evolve. Leaders must navigate rapid technological change while ensuring that investment delivers meaningful outcomes for learners and teachers.
Ukraine: Using systems thinking to shape strategy
Ukraine shows how DELP helped leaders apply systems thinking to long-term national reform.
The Six Pillars Framework informed the Digital Transformation Strategy for Education and Science to 2030 and guided its implementation. By examining governance, data, capacity, infrastructure and sustainability as part of a connected system, the team identified concrete actions that are already influencing policy development and funding discussions.
"This learning is directly shaping our current work on Ukraine's draft Digital Transformation Strategy for Education and Science to 2030."
- Tetiana Dalievska, Ministry of Education, Ukraine
DELP showed that successful digital transformation depends on leadership as much as technology. By bringing together policymakers, practitioners and experts from across 17 countries, the programme helped delegates develop the confidence, frameworks and networks needed to turn ambition into action.
The programme's lasting impact will be measured not only by what delegates learned, but by the decisions, strategies and reforms they continue to shape in their own education systems.
