problem and solution in education

Four of the biggest problems facing education—and four trends that could make a difference

Eduardo velez bustillo, harry a. patrinos.

In 2022, we published, Lessons for the education sector from the COVID-19 pandemic , which was a follow up to,  Four Education Trends that Countries Everywhere Should Know About , which summarized views of education experts around the world on how to handle the most pressing issues facing the education sector then. We focused on neuroscience, the role of the private sector, education technology, inequality, and pedagogy.

Unfortunately, we think the four biggest problems facing education today in developing countries are the same ones we have identified in the last decades .

1. The learning crisis was made worse by COVID-19 school closures

Low quality instruction is a major constraint and prior to COVID-19, the learning poverty rate in low- and middle-income countries was 57% (6 out of 10 children could not read and understand basic texts by age 10). More dramatic is the case of Sub-Saharan Africa with a rate even higher at 86%. Several analyses show that the impact of the pandemic on student learning was significant, leaving students in low- and middle-income countries way behind in mathematics, reading and other subjects.  Some argue that learning poverty may be close to 70% after the pandemic , with a substantial long-term negative effect in future earnings. This generation could lose around $21 trillion in future salaries, with the vulnerable students affected the most.

2. Countries are not paying enough attention to early childhood care and education (ECCE)

At the pre-school level about two-thirds of countries do not have a proper legal framework to provide free and compulsory pre-primary education. According to UNESCO, only a minority of countries, mostly high-income, were making timely progress towards SDG4 benchmarks on early childhood indicators prior to the onset of COVID-19. And remember that ECCE is not only preparation for primary school. It can be the foundation for emotional wellbeing and learning throughout life; one of the best investments a country can make.

3. There is an inadequate supply of high-quality teachers

Low quality teaching is a huge problem and getting worse in many low- and middle-income countries.  In Sub-Saharan Africa, for example, the percentage of trained teachers fell from 84% in 2000 to 69% in 2019 . In addition, in many countries teachers are formally trained and as such qualified, but do not have the minimum pedagogical training. Globally, teachers for science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) subjects are the biggest shortfalls.

4. Decision-makers are not implementing evidence-based or pro-equity policies that guarantee solid foundations

It is difficult to understand the continued focus on non-evidence-based policies when there is so much that we know now about what works. Two factors contribute to this problem. One is the short tenure that top officials have when leading education systems. Examples of countries where ministers last less than one year on average are plentiful. The second and more worrisome deals with the fact that there is little attention given to empirical evidence when designing education policies.

To help improve on these four fronts, we see four supporting trends:

1. Neuroscience should be integrated into education policies

Policies considering neuroscience can help ensure that students get proper attention early to support brain development in the first 2-3 years of life. It can also help ensure that children learn to read at the proper age so that they will be able to acquire foundational skills to learn during the primary education cycle and from there on. Inputs like micronutrients, early child stimulation for gross and fine motor skills, speech and language and playing with other children before the age of three are cost-effective ways to get proper development. Early grade reading, using the pedagogical suggestion by the Early Grade Reading Assessment model, has improved learning outcomes in many low- and middle-income countries. We now have the tools to incorporate these advances into the teaching and learning system with AI , ChatGPT , MOOCs and online tutoring.

2. Reversing learning losses at home and at school

There is a real need to address the remaining and lingering losses due to school closures because of COVID-19.  Most students living in households with incomes under the poverty line in the developing world, roughly the bottom 80% in low-income countries and the bottom 50% in middle-income countries, do not have the minimum conditions to learn at home . These students do not have access to the internet, and, often, their parents or guardians do not have the necessary schooling level or the time to help them in their learning process. Connectivity for poor households is a priority. But learning continuity also requires the presence of an adult as a facilitator—a parent, guardian, instructor, or community worker assisting the student during the learning process while schools are closed or e-learning is used.

To recover from the negative impact of the pandemic, the school system will need to develop at the student level: (i) active and reflective learning; (ii) analytical and applied skills; (iii) strong self-esteem; (iv) attitudes supportive of cooperation and solidarity; and (v) a good knowledge of the curriculum areas. At the teacher (instructor, facilitator, parent) level, the system should aim to develop a new disposition toward the role of teacher as a guide and facilitator. And finally, the system also needs to increase parental involvement in the education of their children and be active part in the solution of the children’s problems. The Escuela Nueva Learning Circles or the Pratham Teaching at the Right Level (TaRL) are models that can be used.

3. Use of evidence to improve teaching and learning

We now know more about what works at scale to address the learning crisis. To help countries improve teaching and learning and make teaching an attractive profession, based on available empirical world-wide evidence , we need to improve its status, compensation policies and career progression structures; ensure pre-service education includes a strong practicum component so teachers are well equipped to transition and perform effectively in the classroom; and provide high-quality in-service professional development to ensure they keep teaching in an effective way. We also have the tools to address learning issues cost-effectively. The returns to schooling are high and increasing post-pandemic. But we also have the cost-benefit tools to make good decisions, and these suggest that structured pedagogy, teaching according to learning levels (with and without technology use) are proven effective and cost-effective .

4. The role of the private sector

When properly regulated the private sector can be an effective education provider, and it can help address the specific needs of countries. Most of the pedagogical models that have received international recognition come from the private sector. For example, the recipients of the Yidan Prize on education development are from the non-state sector experiences (Escuela Nueva, BRAC, edX, Pratham, CAMFED and New Education Initiative). In the context of the Artificial Intelligence movement, most of the tools that will revolutionize teaching and learning come from the private sector (i.e., big data, machine learning, electronic pedagogies like OER-Open Educational Resources, MOOCs, etc.). Around the world education technology start-ups are developing AI tools that may have a good potential to help improve quality of education .

After decades asking the same questions on how to improve the education systems of countries, we, finally, are finding answers that are very promising.  Governments need to be aware of this fact.

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Teaching problem solving.

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Tips and Techniques

Expert vs. novice problem solvers, communicate.

• Have students  identify specific problems, difficulties, or confusions . Don’t waste time working through problems that students already understand.
• If students are unable to articulate their concerns, determine where they are having trouble by  asking them to identify the specific concepts or principles associated with the problem.
• In a one-on-one tutoring session, ask the student to  work his/her problem out loud . This slows down the thinking process, making it more accurate and allowing you to access understanding.
• When working with larger groups you can ask students to provide a written “two-column solution.” Have students write up their solution to a problem by putting all their calculations in one column and all of their reasoning (in complete sentences) in the other column. This helps them to think critically about their own problem solving and helps you to more easily identify where they may be having problems. Two-Column Solution (Math) Two-Column Solution (Physics)

Encourage Independence

• Model the problem solving process rather than just giving students the answer. As you work through the problem, consider how a novice might struggle with the concepts and make your thinking clear
• Have students work through problems on their own. Ask directing questions or give helpful suggestions, but  provide only minimal assistance and only when needed to overcome obstacles.
• Don’t fear  group work ! Students can frequently help each other, and talking about a problem helps them think more critically about the steps needed to solve the problem. Additionally, group work helps students realize that problems often have multiple solution strategies, some that might be more effective than others

Be sensitive

• Frequently, when working problems, students are unsure of themselves. This lack of confidence may hamper their learning. It is important to recognize this when students come to us for help, and to give each student some feeling of mastery. Do this by providing  positive reinforcement to let students know when they have mastered a new concept or skill.

Encourage Thoroughness and Patience

• Try to communicate that  the process is more important than the answer so that the student learns that it is OK to not have an instant solution. This is learned through your acceptance of his/her pace of doing things, through your refusal to let anxiety pressure you into giving the right answer, and through your example of problem solving through a step-by step process.

Experts (teachers) in a particular field are often so fluent in solving problems from that field that they can find it difficult to articulate the problem solving principles and strategies they use to novices (students) in their field because these principles and strategies are second nature to the expert. To teach students problem solving skills,  a teacher should be aware of principles and strategies of good problem solving in his or her discipline .

The mathematician George Polya captured the problem solving principles and strategies he used in his discipline in the book  How to Solve It: A New Aspect of Mathematical Method (Princeton University Press, 1957). The book includes  a summary of Polya’s problem solving heuristic as well as advice on the teaching of problem solving.

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Teaching problem solving

Strategies for teaching problem solving apply across disciplines and instructional contexts. First, introduce the problem and explain how people in your discipline generally make sense of the given information. Then, explain how to apply these approaches to solve the problem.

Introducing the problem

Explaining how people in your discipline understand and interpret these types of problems can help students develop the skills they need to understand the problem (and find a solution). After introducing how you would go about solving a problem, you could then ask students to:

• frame the problem in their own words
• define key terms and concepts
• determine statements that accurately represent the givens of a problem
• identify analogous problems
• determine what information is needed to solve the problem

Working on solutions

In the solution phase, one develops and then implements a coherent plan for solving the problem. As you help students with this phase, you might ask them to:

• identify the general model or procedure they have in mind for solving the problem
• set sub-goals for solving the problem
• identify necessary operations and steps
• draw conclusions
• carry out necessary operations

You can help students tackle a problem effectively by asking them to:

• systematically explain each step and its rationale
• explain how they would approach solving the problem
• help you solve the problem by posing questions at key points in the process
• work together in small groups (3 to 5 students) to solve the problem and then have the solution presented to the rest of the class (either by you or by a student in the group)

In all cases, the more you get the students to articulate their own understandings of the problem and potential solutions, the more you can help them develop their expertise in approaching problems in your discipline.

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Article contents

Problem solving.

• Richard E. Mayer Richard E. Mayer University of California, Santa Barbara
• https://doi.org/10.1093/acrefore/9780190264093.013.860
• Published online: 30 October 2019

Problem solving refers to cognitive processing directed at achieving a goal when the problem solver does not initially know a solution method. A problem exists when someone has a goal but does not know how to achieve it. Problems can be classified as routine or non-routine, and as well-defined or ill-defined. The major cognitive processes in problem solving are representing, planning, executing, and monitoring. The major kinds of knowledge required for problem solving are facts, concepts, procedures, strategies, and beliefs. The theoretical approaches that have developed over the history of research on problem are associationism, Gestalt, and information processing. Each of these approaches involves fundamental issues in problem solving such as the nature of transfer, insight, and goal-directed heuristics, respectively. Some current research topics in problem solving include decision making, intelligence and creativity, teaching of thinking skills, expert problem solving, analogical reasoning, mathematical and scientific thinking, everyday thinking, and the cognitive neuroscience of problem solving. Common theme concerns the domain specificity of problem solving and a focus on problem solving in authentic contexts.

• problem solving
• decision making
• intelligence
• expert problem solving
• analogical reasoning
• mathematical thinking
• scientific thinking
• everyday thinking

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The global education challenge: Scaling up to tackle the learning crisis

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Alice albright alice albright chief executive officer - global partnership for education.

July 25, 2019

The following is one of eight briefs commissioned for the 16th annual Brookings Blum Roundtable, “2020 and beyond: Maintaining the bipartisan narrative on US global development.”

Addressing today’s massive global education crisis requires some disruption and the development of a new 21st-century aid delivery model built on a strong operational public-private partnership and results-based financing model that rewards political leadership and progress on overcoming priority obstacles to equitable access and learning in least developed countries (LDCs) and lower-middle-income countries (LMICs). Success will also require a more efficient and unified global education architecture. More money alone will not fix the problem. Addressing this global challenge requires new champions at the highest level and new approaches.

Key data points

In an era when youth are the fastest-growing segment of the population in many parts of the world, new data from the UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS) reveals that an estimated 263 million children and young people are out of school, overwhelmingly in LDCs and LMICs. 1 On current trends, the International Commission on Financing Education Opportunity reported in 2016 that, a far larger number—825 million young people—will not have the basic literacy, numeracy, and digital skills to compete for the jobs of 2030. 2 Absent a significant political and financial investment in their education, beginning with basic education, there is a serious risk that this youth “bulge” will drive instability and constrain economic growth.

Despite progress in gender parity, it will take about 100 years to reach true gender equality at secondary school level in LDCs and LMICs. Lack of education and related employment opportunities in these countries presents national, regional, and global security risks.

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Among global education’s most urgent challenges is a severe lack of trained teachers, particularly female teachers. An additional 9 million trained teachers are needed in sub-Saharan Africa by 2030.

Refugees and internally displaced people, now numbering over 70 million, constitute a global crisis. Two-thirds of the people in this group are women and children; host countries, many fragile themselves, struggle to provide access to education to such people.

Highlighted below are actions and reforms that could lead the way toward solving the crisis:

• Leadership to jump-start transformation. The next U.S. administration should convene a high-level White House conference of sovereign donors, developing country leaders, key multilateral organizations, private sector and major philanthropists/foundations, and civil society to jump-start and energize a new, 10-year global response to this challenge. A key goal of this decadelong effort should be to transform education systems in the world’s poorest countries, particularly for girls and women, within a generation. That implies advancing much faster than the 100-plus years required if current programs and commitments remain as is.
• A whole-of-government leadership response. Such transformation of currently weak education systems in scores of countries over a generation will require sustained top-level political leadership, accompanied by substantial new donor and developing country investments. To ensure sustained attention for this initiative over multiple years, the U.S. administration will need to designate senior officials in the State Department, USAID, the National Security Council, the Office of Management and Budget, and elsewhere to form a whole-of-government leadership response that can energize other governments and actors.
• Teacher training and deployment at scale. A key component of a new global highest-level effort, based on securing progress against the Sustainable Development Goals and the Addis 2030 Framework, should be the training and deployment of 9 million new qualified teachers, particularly female teachers, in sub-Saharan Africa where they are most needed. Over 90 percent of the Global Partnership for Education’s education sector implementation grants have included investments in teacher development and training and 76 percent in the provision of learning materials.
• Foster positive disruption by engaging community level non-state actors who are providing education services in marginal areas where national systems do not reach the population. Related to this, increased financial and technical support to national governments are required to strengthen their non-state actor regulatory frameworks. Such frameworks must ensure that any non-state actors operate without discrimination and prioritize access for the most marginalized. The ideological divide on this issue—featuring a strong resistance by defenders of public education to tap into the capacities and networks of non-state actors—must be resolved if we are to achieve a rapid breakthrough.
• Confirm the appropriate roles for technology in equitably advancing access and quality of education, including in the initial and ongoing training of teachers and administrators, delivery of distance education to marginalized communities and assessment of learning, strengthening of basic systems, and increased efficiency of systems. This is not primarily about how various gadgets can help advance education goals.
• Commodity component. Availability of appropriate learning materials for every child sitting in a classroom—right level, right language, and right subject matter. Lack of books and other learning materials is a persistent problem throughout education systems—from early grades through to teaching colleges. Teachers need books and other materials to do their jobs. Consider how the USAID-hosted Global Book Alliance, working to address costs and supply chain issues, distribution challenges, and more can be strengthened and supported to produce the model(s) that can overcome these challenges.

Annual high-level stock take at the G-7. The next U.S. administration can work with G-7 partners to secure agreement on an annual stocktaking of progress against this new global education agenda at the upcoming G-7 summits. This also will help ensure sustained focus and pressure to deliver especially on equity and inclusion. Global Partnership for Education’s participation at the G-7 Gender Equality Advisory Council is helping ensure that momentum is maintained to mobilize the necessary political leadership and expertise at country level to rapidly step up progress in gender equality, in and through education. 3 Also consider a role for the G-20, given participation by some developing country partners.

Related Content

Jenny Perlman Robinson, Molly Curtiss Wyss

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May 17, 2019

Ramya Vivekanandan

February 14, 2019

• “263 Million Children and Youth Are Out of School.” UNESCO UIS. July 15, 2016. http://uis.unesco.org/en/news/263-million-children-and-youth-are-out-school.
• “The Learning Generation: Investing in education for a changing world.” The International Commission on Financing Global Education Opportunity. 2016. https://report.educationcommission.org/downloads/.
• “Influencing the most powerful nations to invest in the power of girls.” Global Partnership for Education. March 12, 2019. https://www.globalpartnership.org/blog/influencing-most-powerful-nations-invest-power-girls.

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What Students Are Saying About How to Improve American Education

An international exam shows that American 15-year-olds are stagnant in reading and math. Teenagers told us what’s working and what’s not in the American education system.

By The Learning Network

Earlier this month, the Program for International Student Assessment announced that the performance of American teenagers in reading and math has been stagnant since 2000 . Other recent studies revealed that two-thirds of American children were not proficient readers , and that the achievement gap in reading between high and low performers is widening.

We asked students to weigh in on these findings and to tell us their suggestions for how they would improve the American education system.

Our prompt received nearly 300 comments. This was clearly a subject that many teenagers were passionate about. They offered a variety of suggestions on how they felt schools could be improved to better teach and prepare students for life after graduation.

While we usually highlight three of our most popular writing prompts in our Current Events Conversation , this week we are only rounding up comments for this one prompt so we can honor the many students who wrote in.

Please note: Student comments have been lightly edited for length, but otherwise appear as they were originally submitted.

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7 big problems–and solutions–in education

Solving these problems could be a key step to boosting innovation

Education has 99 problems, but the desire to solve those problems isn’t one. But because we can’t cover 99 problems in one story, we’ll focus on seven, which the League of Innovative Schools identified as critical to educational innovation.

While these aren’t the only challenges that education faces today, these seven problems are often identified as roadblocks that prevent schools and districts from embracing innovation.

Problem No. 1: There exist a handful of obstacles that prevent a more competency-based education system

( Next page: Problems and solutions )

Today’s education system includes ingrained practices, including policy and decades-old methods, that prevent schools from moving to competency-based models.

Solutions to this problem include:

• Creating and making available educational resources on competency-based learning. These resources might be best practices, rubrics or tools, or research.
• Convening a coalition of League of Innovative Schools districts that are working to build successful competency-based models.
• Creating a technical solution for flexible tracking of competencies and credits.

Problem No. 2: Leadership doesn’t always support second-order change, and those in potential leadership roles, such as teachers and librarians, aren’t always empowered to help effect change.

• Promoting League of Innovative Schools efforts to enable second-order change leadership
• Creating a framework, to be used in professional development, that would target and explain second-order change leadership discussions
• Schedule panel discussions about second-order change leadership

Problem No. 3: Communities and cultures are resistant to change, including technology-based change

• Identifying new and engaging ways to share cutting-edge and tech-savvy best practices with school and district stakeholders and community members
• Involve business leaders in technology-rich schools and create school-business partnerships
• Look to influential organizations to spearhead national ed-tech awareness campaigns

Problem No. 4: Education budgets aren’t always flexible enough to support the cost, sustainability, or scalability of innovations

• Build relationships with local businesses and career academies, and create incentives for companies to hire students, in order to create a revenue stream for schools
• Look to competitive pricing and creative solutions
• Leaders must not be afraid to take risks and support the changes needed to bring about this kind of budgeting

Problem No. 5: Professional development in the U.S. is stale and outdated

• Identifying best practices from other industries or sectors, and learn more about adult learning
• Create a community for teachers to access immediate help
• Personalize professional development
• Create and strengthen K-12 and higher education partnerships
• Create alternative modes of certification and reward forward-thinking practices

Problem No. 6: School districts do not have evidence-based processes to evaluate, select, and monitor digital content inclusive of aligned formative assessments

• Creating a marketplace or database to help educators identify and evaluate, as well as take ownership of, digital content
• Involve students in digital content evaluation
• Identify schools or districts to test digital content evaluation and storage systems

Problem No. 7: Current and traditional instructional methods leave students less engaged and less inclined to take ownership of their learning

• Creating working groups, within education organizations, with the aim of advancing authentic student learning
• Leverage the internet to create online tools and resources that offer innovative teaching strategies to help engage students
• Help teachers understand and practice authentic teaching and learning to help students master skills and standards

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5 Big Challenges Facing K-12 Education Today—And Ideas for Tackling Them

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Big Ideas is Education Week’s annual special report that brings the expertise of our newsroom to bear on the challenges educators are facing in classrooms, schools, and districts.

In the report , EdWeek reporters ask hard questions about K-12 education’s biggest issues and offer insights based on their extensive coverage and expertise.

The goal is to question the status quo and explore opportunities to help build a better, more just learning environment for all students.

In the 2023 edition , our newsroom sought to dig deeper into new and persistent challenges. Our reporters consider some of the big questions facing the field: Why is teacher pay so stubbornly stalled? What should reading instruction look like? How do we integrate—or even think about—AI? What does it mean for parents to be involved in the decisionmaking around classroom curriculum? And, perhaps the most existential, what does it mean for schools to be “public”?

The reported essays below tackle these vexing and pressing questions. We hope they offer fodder for robust discussions.

To see how your fellow educator peers are feeling about a number of these issues, we invite you to explore the EdWeek Research Center’s survey of more than 1,000 teachers and school and district leaders .

Please connect with us on social media by using #K12BigIdeas or by emailing [email protected].

1. What Does It Actually Mean for Schools to Be Public?

Over years of covering school finance, Mark Lieberman keep running up against one nagging question: Does the way we pay for public schools inherently contradict what we understand the goal of public education to be? Read more →

2. Public Schools Rely on Underpaid Female Labor. It’s Not Sustainable

School districts are still operating largely as if the labor market for women hasn’t changed in the last half century, writes Alyson Klein. Read more →

3. Parents’ Rights Groups Have Mobilized. What Does It Mean for Students?

Libby Stanford has been covering the parents’ rights groups that have led the charge to limit teaching about race, sexuality, and gender. In her essay, she explores what happens to students who miss out on that instruction. Read more→

4. To Move Past the Reading Wars, We Must Understand Where They Started

When it comes to reading instruction, we keep having the same fights over and over again, writes Sarah Schwartz. That’s because, she says, we have a fundamental divide about what reading is and how to study it. Read more→

5. No, AI Won’t Destroy Education. But We Should Be Skeptical

Lauraine Langreo makes the case for using AI to benefit teaching and learning while being aware of its potential downsides. Read more→

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Recognizing and Overcoming Inequity in Education

About the author, sylvia schmelkes.

Sylvia Schmelkes is Provost of the Universidad Iberoamericana in Mexico City.

22 January 2020 Introduction

I nequity is perhaps the most serious problem in education worldwide. It has multiple causes, and its consequences include differences in access to schooling, retention and, more importantly, learning. Globally, these differences correlate with the level of development of various countries and regions. In individual States, access to school is tied to, among other things, students' overall well-being, their social origins and cultural backgrounds, the language their families speak, whether or not they work outside of the home and, in some countries, their sex. Although the world has made progress in both absolute and relative numbers of enrolled students, the differences between the richest and the poorest, as well as those living in rural and urban areas, have not diminished. 1

These correlations do not occur naturally. They are the result of the lack of policies that consider equity in education as a principal vehicle for achieving more just societies. The pandemic has exacerbated these differences mainly due to the fact that technology, which is the means of access to distance schooling, presents one more layer of inequality, among many others.

The dimension of educational inequity

Around the world, 258 million, or 17 per cent of the world’s children, adolescents and youth, are out of school. The proportion is much larger in developing countries: 31 per cent in sub-Saharan Africa and 21 per cent in Central Asia, vs. 3 per cent in Europe and North America. 2  Learning, which is the purpose of schooling, fares even worse. For example, it would take 15-year-old Brazilian students 75 years, at their current rate of improvement, to reach wealthier countries’ average scores in math, and more than 260 years in reading. 3 Within countries, learning results, as measured through standardized tests, are almost always much lower for those living in poverty. In Mexico, for example, 80 per cent of indigenous children at the end of primary school don’t achieve basic levels in reading and math, scoring far below the average for primary school students. 4

The causes of educational inequity

There are many explanations for educational inequity. In my view, the most important ones are the following:

• Equity and equality are not the same thing. Equality means providing the same resources to everyone. Equity signifies giving more to those most in need. Countries with greater inequity in education results are also those in which governments distribute resources according to the political pressure they experience in providing education. Such pressures come from families in which the parents attended school, that reside in urban areas, belong to cultural majorities and who have a clear appreciation of the benefits of education. Much less pressure comes from rural areas and indigenous populations, or from impoverished urban areas. In these countries, fewer resources, including infrastructure, equipment, teachers, supervision and funding, are allocated to the disadvantaged, the poor and cultural minorities.
• Teachers are key agents for learning. Their training is crucial.  When insufficient priority is given to either initial or in-service teacher training, or to both, one can expect learning deficits. Teachers in poorer areas tend to have less training and to receive less in-service support.
• Most countries are very diverse. When a curriculum is overloaded and is the same for everyone, some students, generally those from rural areas, cultural minorities or living in poverty find little meaning in what is taught. When the language of instruction is different from their native tongue, students learn much less and drop out of school earlier.
• Disadvantaged students frequently encounter unfriendly or overtly offensive attitudes from both teachers and classmates. Such attitudes are derived from prejudices, stereotypes, outright racism and sexism. Students in hostile environments are affected in their disposition to learn, and many drop out early.

It doesn’t have to be like this

When left to inertial decision-making, education systems seem to be doomed to reproduce social and economic inequity. The commitment of both governments and societies to equity in education is both necessary and possible. There are several examples of more equitable educational systems in the world, and there are many subnational examples of successful policies fostering equity in education.

Why is equity in education important?

Education is a basic human right. More than that, it is an enabling right in the sense that, when respected, allows for the fulfillment of other human rights. Education has proven to affect general well-being, productivity, social capital, responsible citizenship and sustainable behaviour. Its equitable distribution allows for the creation of permeable societies and equity. The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development includes Sustainable Development Goal 4, which aims to ensure “inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all”. One hundred eighty-four countries are committed to achieving this goal over the next decade. 5  The process of walking this road together has begun and requires impetus to continue, especially now that we must face the devastating consequences of a long-lasting pandemic. Further progress is crucial for humanity.

Notes  1 United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization , Inclusive Education. All Means All , Global Education Monitoring Report 2020 (Paris, 2020), p.8. Available at https://en.unesco.org/gem-report/report/2020/inclusion . 2 Ibid., p. 4, 7. 3 World Bank Group, World Development Report 2018: Learning to Realize Education's Promise (Washington, DC, 2018), p. 3. Available at https://www.worldbank.org/en/publication/wdr2018 .  4 Instituto Nacional para la Evaluación de la Educación, "La educación obligatoria en México", Informe 2018 (Ciudad de México, 2018), p. 72. Available online at https://www.inee.edu.mx/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/P1I243.pdf . 5 United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization , “Incheon Declaration and Framework for Action for the implementation of Sustainable Development Goal 4” (2015), p. 23. Available at  https://iite.unesco.org/publications/education-2030-incheon-declaration-framework-action-towards-inclusive-equitable-quality-education-lifelong-learning/   The UN Chronicle  is not an official record. It is privileged to host senior United Nations officials as well as distinguished contributors from outside the United Nations system whose views are not necessarily those of the United Nations. Similarly, the boundaries and names shown, and the designations used, in maps or articles do not necessarily imply endorsement or acceptance by the United Nations.   

Improving Diagnosis for Patient Safety: A Global Imperative for Health Systems

States are increasingly recognizing the importance of ensuring access to safe diagnostic tools and services, towards avoiding preventable harm and achieving positive patient outcomes.

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The role of international policing is closely aligned with the principles of justice, peace, democracy and human rights, and is integral to the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

Voices for Peace: The Crucial Role of Victims of Terrorism as Peace Advocates and Educators

In the face of unimaginable pain and trauma, victims and survivors of terrorism emerge as strong advocates for community resilience, solidarity and peaceful coexistence.

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The Education Crisis: Being in School Is Not the Same as Learning

First grade students in Pakistan’s Balochistan Province are learning the alphabet through child-friendly flash cards. Their learning materials help educators teach through interactive and engaging activities and are provided free of charge through a student’s first learning backpack. © World Bank 

THE NAME OF THE DOG IS PUPPY. This seems like a simple sentence. But did you know that in Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda, three out of four third grade students do not understand it? The world is facing a learning crisis . Worldwide, hundreds of millions of children reach young adulthood without even the most basic skills like calculating the correct change from a transaction, reading a doctor’s instructions, or understanding a bus schedule—let alone building a fulfilling career or educating their children. Education is at the center of building human capital. The latest World Bank research shows that the productivity of 56 percent of the world’s children will be less than half of what it could be if they enjoyed complete education and full health. For individuals, education raises self-esteem and furthers opportunities for employment and earnings. And for a country, it helps strengthen institutions within societies, drives long-term economic growth, reduces poverty, and spurs innovation.

One of the most interesting, large scale educational technology efforts is being led by EkStep , a philanthropic effort in India. EkStep created an open digital infrastructure which provides access to learning opportunities for 200 million children, as well as professional development opportunities for 12 million teachers and 4.5 million school leaders. Both teachers and children are accessing content which ranges from teaching materials, explanatory videos, interactive content, stories, practice worksheets, and formative assessments. By monitoring which content is used most frequently—and most beneficially—informed decisions can be made around future content.

In the Dominican Republic, a World Bank supported pilot study shows how adaptive technologies can generate great interest among 21st century students and present a path to supporting the learning and teaching of future generations. Yudeisy, a sixth grader participating in the study, says that what she likes doing the most during the day is watching videos and tutorials on her computer and cell phone. Taking childhood curiosity as a starting point, the study aimed to channel it towards math learning in a way that interests Yudeisy and her classmates.

Yudeisy, along with her classmates in a public elementary school in Santo Domingo, is part of a four-month pilot to reinforce mathematics using software that adapts to the math level of each student. © World Bank

Adaptive technology was used to evaluate students’ initial learning level to then walk them through math exercises in a dynamic, personalized way, based on artificial intelligence and what the student is ready to learn. After three months, students with the lowest initial performance achieved substantial improvements. This shows the potential of technology to increase learning outcomes, especially among students lagging behind their peers. In a field that is developing at dizzying speeds, innovative solutions to educational challenges are springing up everywhere. Our challenge is to make technology a driver of equity and inclusion and not a source of greater inequality of opportunity. We are working with partners worldwide to support the effective and appropriate use of educational technologies to strengthen learning.

When schools and educations systems are managed well, learning happens

Successful education reforms require good policy design, strong political commitment, and effective implementation capacity . Of course, this is extremely challenging. Many countries struggle to make efficient use of resources and very often increased education spending does not translate into more learning and improved human capital. Overcoming such challenges involves working at all levels of the system.

At the central level, ministries of education need to attract the best experts to design and implement evidence-based and country-specific programs. District or regional offices need the capacity and the tools to monitor learning and support schools. At the school level, principals need to be trained and prepared to manage and lead schools, from planning the use of resources to supervising and nurturing their teachers. However difficult, change is possible. Supported by the World Bank, public schools across Punjab in Pakistan have been part of major reforms over the past few years to address these challenges. Through improved school-level accountability by monitoring and limiting teacher and student absenteeism, and the introduction of a merit-based teacher recruitment system, where only the most talented and motivated teachers were selected, they were able to increase enrollment and retention of students and significantly improve the quality of education. "The government schools have become very good now, even better than private ones," said Mr. Ahmed, a local villager.

The World Bank, along with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and the UK’s Department for International Development, is developing the Global Education Policy Dashboard . This new initiative will provide governments with a system for monitoring how their education systems are functioning, from learning data to policy plans, so they are better able to make timely and evidence-based decisions.

Education reform: The long game is worth it

In fact, it will take a generation to realize the full benefits of high-quality teachers, the effective use of technology, improved management of education systems, and engaged and prepared learners. However, global experience shows us that countries that have rapidly accelerated development and prosperity all share the common characteristic of taking education seriously and investing appropriately. As we mark the first-ever International Day of Education on January 24, we must do all we can to equip our youth with the skills to keep learning, adapt to changing realities, and thrive in an increasingly competitive global economy and a rapidly changing world of work.

The schools of the future are being built today. These are schools where all teachers have the right competencies and motivation, where technology empowers them to deliver quality learning, and where all students learn fundamental skills, including socio-emotional, and digital skills. These schools are safe and affordable to everyone and are places where children and young people learn with joy, rigor, and purpose. Governments, teachers, parents, and the international community must do their homework to realize the promise of education for all students, in every village, in every city, and in every country. 

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Education is in Crisis: How Can Technology be Part of the Solution?

By Paul Vandenberg , Kirsty Newman , Milan Thomas

Digital technologies and EdTech could play a role in addressing the learning crisis underway in Asia and the Pacific.

A learning crisis affects many developing countries in Asia. Millions of children attend school but are not learning enough. They cannot read, write, or do mathematics at their grade level, and yet they pass to the next grade, learning even less because they have not grasped the previous material. The magnitude of the crisis is staggering: in low- and middle-income countries more than half of children are not learning to read by age 10.

At the same time, there is an emerging revolution in learning brought on by digital technologies . These are collectively referred to as educational technology or EdTech . The coincident emergence of a problem in education and a new approach to learning naturally makes us ask how one may be a solution for the other.

Edtech may be one part of the solution – but it should be a means not an end. Our guiding principle should be to first diagnose what is going wrong in a system and then identify which solutions are best suited to solve those problems.

Some causes of the learning crisis are well understood. The poor quality of teaching is a key factor. Teachers often lack subject knowledge and have not had adequate training. There are ways in which technology could address this – and so EdTech may be equally valuable in teaching teachers as it is in teaching students. By offering distance learning, EdTech can provide in-service training or combine online and in-person training (blended learning).

There is also evidence that teachers need better incentives. The idea is that that they can teach well but are not motivated to do so. It is not clear how EdTech can address this problem. Digitized school management systems could better track teacher performance (by tracking their students’ performance) and then linking to pay or other incentives. However, the main need is to design the incentive system; digital applications may only make that system more efficient.    

Computer-assisted learning is the direct means by which EdTech can help students. It can be seen as a partial solution for two fundamental learning crisis problems: addressing students at different learning levels and completing the syllabus. A classroom contains students with a range of baseline learning levels and teachers are often incentivized to teach to the upper stratum, leaving many students behind. Furthermore, teachers are pressured to cover the syllabus by year’s end. They move on to new material even if students have not mastered previous lessons. This also leaves students behind.

The solution to both problems is, of course, more tailored teaching, but a teacher is hard-pressed to provide one-on-one tutoring to 30 or 40 kids. EdTech might help provide one-to-one instruction (e.g., one student to one tablet) so pupils can learn at their own level and pace. The evidence from rigorous assessments (largely in the United States) is that packages that use artificial intelligence to adjust to a student’s level can improve results, especially in math.

However, we need to be cautious. Most of the evidence comes from contexts in which the quality of teaching is already quite good and is much above the average in developing countries. Digital systems can also help increase the efficiency of formative assessment and make it more likely that such assessment will be conducted. Tracking of students’ learning, through data collection and analysis, can help to better monitor a student’s learning level and provide level-appropriate teaching and remediation.     

Computer-assisted learning is the direct means by which EdTech can help students.

Edtech software, introduced in conjunction with other reforms, holds some promise. One notable success is Mindspark in India , which improves math and Hindi learning. It has been evaluated as an after-hours supplement and combined with human teaching assistance. More assessments of programs would be helpful.

There is also evidence that low-tech interventions for “teaching at the right level" can also have large impacts on learning. Careful analysis is needed to determine whether high-tech or low-tech solutions are best, given that low tech is less costly, and finance is a constraint in poor countries.

The COVID-19 pandemic has given a big push to EdTech. We can learn from these experiences but need to keep them in context. EdTech is being used to overcome the need to social distance. Teachers are teaching by video but not necessarily teaching better than when standing in front of a classroom. Zoom fatigue is a problem. More mass open online courses are being offered and are being taken up – but much of this is not for basic education and therefore does not address the learning crisis. 

Supporting EdTech solutions comes with four caveats. First, new initiatives need to be well-designed to address specific weaknesses. Low-quality teacher training delivered partially online is no better than low-quality in-person training. The same applies to computer-assisted learning.

Second, computer-assisted learning is often used in schools or in after-hours programs at or near schools.  Delivering as distance learning is trickier. It requires hardware and connectivity at home, which is not available to children in low-income households in developing countries and even developed ones.

Third, EdTech programs used outside normal classroom hours adds to the time children spend learning. This is good but it is not always clear whether the benefits are coming from EdTech, per se, or simply more time spent learning. Nonetheless, gamification and other techniques may make children want to spend more time learning. 

Finally, let us keep in mind that good learning outcomes can be achieved without EdTech. Developed countries got results before the advent of EdTech. So too did good schools in developing countries.

To be effective, EdTech must address key causes of the crisis and be part of a larger package of reforms. Those reforms include teacher training, incentives, monitoring, teaching at the right level, remediation for underperforming students, and others. 

Digital technologies have changed our lives in many ways, mostly for the good. EdTech could do the same by playing a role in addressing the learning crisis.

Published: 23 July 2021

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Top 8 modern education problems and ways to solve them.

| September 15, 2017 | 0 responses

In many ways, today’s system is better than the traditional one. Technology is the biggest change and the greatest advantage at the same time. Various devices, such as computers, projectors, tablets and smartphones, make the process of learning simpler and more fun. The Internet gives both students and teachers access to limitless knowledge.

However, this is not the perfect educational system. It has several problems, so we have to try to improve it.

•  Problem: The Individual Needs of Low-Achievers Are Not Being Addressed

Personalized learning is the most popular trend in education. The educators are doing their best to identify the learning style of each student and provide training that corresponds to their needs.

However, many students are at risk of falling behind, especially children who are learning mathematics and reading. In the USA, in particular, there are large gaps in science achievements by middle school.

Solution: Address the Needs of Low-Achievers

The educators must try harder to reduce the number of students who are getting low results on long-term trajectories. If we identify these students at an early age, we can provide additional training to help them improve the results.

• Problem: Overcrowded Classrooms

In 2016, there were over 17,000 state secondary school children in the UK being taught in classes of 36+ pupils.

Solution: Reduce the Number of Students in the Classroom

Only a smaller class can enable an active role for the student and improve the level of individual attention they get from the teacher.

• Problem: The Teachers Are Expected to Entertain

Today’s generations of students love technology, so the teachers started using technology just to keep them engaged. That imposes a serious issue: education is becoming an entertainment rather than a learning process.

Solution: Set Some Limits

We don’t have to see education as opposed to entertainment. However, we have to make the students aware of the purpose of technology and games in the classroom. It’s all about learning.

• Problem: Not Having Enough Time for Volunteering in University

The students are overwhelmed with projects and assignments. There is absolutely no space for internships and volunteering in college .

Solution: Make Internships and Volunteering Part of Education

When students graduate, a volunteering activity can make a great difference during the hiring process. In addition, these experiences help them develop into complete persons. If the students start getting credits for volunteering and internships, they will be willing to make the effort.

• Problem: The Parents Are Too Involved

Due to the fact that technology became part of the early educational process, it’s necessary for the parents to observe the way their children use the Internet at home. They have to help the students to complete assignments involving technology.

What about those parents who don’t have enough time for that? What if they have time, but want to use it in a different way?

Solution: Stop Expecting Parents to Act Like Teachers at Home

The parent should definitely support their child throughout the schooling process. However, we mustn’t turn this into a mandatory role. The teachers should stop assigning homework that demands parental assistance.

• Problem: Outdated Curriculum

Although we transformed the educational system, many features of the curriculum remained unchanged.

Solution: Eliminate Standardised Exams

This is a radical suggestion. However, standardised exams are a big problem. We want the students to learn at their own pace. We are personalizing the process of education. Then why do we expect them to compete with each other and meet the same standards as everyone else? The teacher should be the one responsible of grading.

• Problem: Not All Teachers Can Meet the Standards of the New Educational System

Can we really expect all teachers to use technology? Some of them are near the end of their teaching careers and they have never used tablets in the lecturing process before.

Solution: Provide Better Training for the Teachers

If we want all students to receive high-quality education based on the standards of the system, we have to prepare the teachers first. They need more training, preparation, and even tests that prove they can teach today’s generations of students.

• Problem: Graduates Are Not Ready for What Follows

A third of the employers in the UK are not happy with the performance of recent graduates. That means the system is not preparing them well for the challenges that follow.

Solution: More Internships, More Realistic Education

Practical education – that’s a challenge we still haven’t met. We have to get more practical.

The evolution of the educational system is an important process. Currently, we have a system that’s more suitable to the needs of generations when compared to the traditional system. However, it’s still not perfect. The evolution never stops.

Author Bio:   Chris Richardson is a journalist, editor, and a blogger. He loves to write, learn new things, and meet new outgoing people. Chris is also fond of traveling, sports, and playing the guitar. Follow him on Facebook and Google+ .

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Higher Ed unions offer vision for colleges and universities

Eleven union organizations representing hundreds of thousands of faculty and staff at colleges and universities raised their voices Sept. 16 in a historic alliance of purpose, amplifying a vision of higher education for the public good and calling on the Harris-Walz ticket to join them in creating the policy changes necessary to attain it.

In a letter to Vice President Kamala Harris , the coalition, including the AFT, pointed out the crucial connection between higher education and democracy and called for full funding, affordability and access, sustainable working conditions for higher education employees, and a secretary of education with a “clear record” of supporting higher education as a public good.

“As unions representing U.S. higher education workers, we look forward to working with you and our elected partners to rebuild this country’s higher education system as a public good that works for students, workers, and communities,” the letter reads, before listing specific actions to reach that goal.

Recounting the problem, offering real solutions

“Higher education is under attack,” said Todd Wolfson, president of the American Association of University Professors, at a press conference at the Community College of Philadelphia on Sept. 16. Recounting all the ways colleges and universities have struggled in recent years, he pointed to 50 years of defunding, skyrocketing tuition, trillions in student debt and institutional debt, a lack of job security for workers, and “mission drift,” when administrators forget their core purpose: “teaching the next generation; creating critical, cutting-edge research; and serving our communities.”

Wolfson and his colleagues have an alternative vision of public colleges and universities “that are fully funded, and where everyone has access, no one will leave our campuses with a mountain of debt, and all of our workers are going to have real job security and an end to ‘adjunctification,’” a reference to how the majority of faculty are adjuncts—lower-paid professors with short-term contracts and little job security.

“If colleges are supposed to be about how we create innovation and research and [to be] an engine of the economy, and their teachers are running around cobbling jobs together trying to avoid pauperization, how are we actually being the engine of the economy, how are we being the anchor of democracy?” asked AFT President Randi Weingarten. Higher education’s over-reliance on adjuncts “needs to end. This coalition is fighting against it.”

Weingarten talked about the AFT’s particular commitment to academic freedom, accessibility and affordability, adding that she is “glad that the Harris-Walz campaign … believes in this coalition’s principals” and understands that its “rock solid, common good” principals will “really achieve the promise of America.”

Drilling down to specifics

The coalition has specific asks of elected or campaigning officials. The “key issues” listed below are taken directly from the letter to Harris, with paraphrased descriptions:

• Full federal funding of public higher education   Funding incentives for full-time, secure, in-sourced employment and prevention of layoffs; an increase in federal research funding; support for minority-serving institutions; and a commitment to open-enrollment institutions.   
• Expand access to higher education   End student debt and enact comprehensive immigration reform to remove barriers for undocumented and international students and workers.  
• Sustainable working conditions for higher education employees   Pass the Public Service Freedom to Negotiate Act to protect the right to organize unions, and recognize the free expression of ideas; and ensure equitable salaries, benefits, and job protections for low-wage, part-time, unbenefited, subcontracted and temporary workers.  
• Select a   Secretary of Education  who demonstrates a clear record of supporting higher education as a truly public good.

Unions and organizations participating in the action were the AAUP; the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees; the AFT; the Communications Workers of America; the United Auto Workers; the Office and Professional Employees International Union; Higher Ed Labor Unite; the National Education Association; the United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America; UNITE Here; and the Service Employees International Union. As HELU’s statement noted, it represents community colleges, technical schools, and state colleges and research universities, including historically Black colleges and universities, Hispanic-serving institutions, Native American-serving nontribal institutions and minority-serving institutions.

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Integrating social policy dimensions into entrepreneurship education: a perspective from India

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• Roopinder Oberoi 3 &
• Walter Mswaka 4  

Social innovation and social enterprise are often supposed as methodological solutions to address multifaceted socio-economic problems, due to the sharing of ideas and their involvement of stakeholders from different sectors. This cooperative treatise (Ziegler in Innov Eur J Soc Sci Res 30:388–405, 2017) is striking to legislators across the political gamut. This research is therefore positioned within the broader literature on social innovation and its policy relevance; even though social innovation is not a novel thought, the application of social innovation as a policy idea and its part in relation to the restructuring of the prevailing welfare establishment has gained momentum in recent years. Hence, in their paper the authors will examine how social enterprise as a concept can act as a positive catalyst for influencing policy (i.e. public and social) in the developing world. To meet the overall aim of this paper, the authors employed a case study of India and applied a three-step approach, namely: (1) a literature review process that explored a variety of policy methods that can influence on the accomplishment and measurement of social enterprises; (2) a policy survey, which entailed desk-based searches of national and state-level policies, followed by stakeholder consultation queries to complement online results; and (3) qualitative interviews with stakeholders from government agencies and departments at national and state levels, including the Ministry of Finance, representatives of private industry, chambers of commerce, social investors, social enterprise networks, and advocacy leads. The research findings that are presented in this paper were funded by Delhi School of Public Policy and Governance, Institute of Eminence at the University of Delhi.

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Introduction

This paper presents an exploration of the various facets of the social enterprise ecosystem within India and how government, organisational, and institutional policies directly and indirectly impact social enterprises through specific targeted actions or by influencing the broader policy framework within which they operate. This can have either a positive or negative impact on the development of social entrepreneurship. When an organisational body specifically designed for social enterprises exists, it serves as a convenient ‘one-stop-shop’ for specific issues associated with social enterprise and provides a vehicle of support for social entrepreneurs. For example, the global organisation Social Enterprise Mark, which is an award-winning international social enterprise accreditation authority based in the UK that recognises and builds the capabilities of social enterprises as competitive, sustainable businesses, dedicated to maximising social impact (Social Enterprise Mark, n.d. ). The one-stop approach to social enterprise support provides a valuable support system for social enterprises and social entrepreneurs as they strive to create favourable ecosystems that support social enterprise growth and development though an holistic approach that considers the unique aspects of their business models.

Institutions internationally are increasingly acknowledging social enterprises as crucial partners in their pursuit of sustainable, inclusive, and prosperous societies. The significance of this was acknowledged in the Spring of 2023 by the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs and Social Inclusion (UN, 2023 ), emphasising the contribution that social enterprise can make towards attaining the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals. Adoption of this unprecedented, unopposed resolution that calls upon institutions within the global community to support the development of social enterprise is a clear catalyst for the social and solidarity economy that placed emphasis on social justice.

However, social enterprise is in a state of infancy and is juxtaposed against the demands of the UNDP; this paper, therefore, addresses those facets of the social enterprise ecosystem within India and how Integration of social policy into entrepreneurship education facilitates understanding and application of social enterprise at institutional, regional, national, and international levels. The first assessment of the institutional context is broken down into three key components:

State Policy and Programmes: The assessment involves examining whether there is an established state policy, approach, action plan, or dedicated programme. These elements guide the overall direction and priorities within the institution.

Uniformity: The exploration considers legal, political, and professional standards to identify consistency and inconsistencies across administrative bodies and agencies.

Policy Framework: Understanding the policy framework requires the study of those processes that develop, implement, and monitor the institutional framework. A crucial element of this is the engagement and collaboration with relevant stakeholders and beneficiaries.

However, this cannot be simply broken down into a set of three steps. As identified by Oberoi et al. ( 2022 ), the nature of social enterprise is dynamic, multifaceted, and complex. Therefore, when assessing the interaction between institutional bodies (such as chambers of commerce) and social enterprises, several key factors influence the relationship. First, a clearly defined and informed institutional framework—whether through a nationwide policy, agreed strategic approach and plan, or a dedicated schemata—provides valuable support for social enterprise growth and development. In addition, statutory and legal frameworks that complement the policy contribute to feasibility and sustainability. Developing this framework creates a significant challenge for those disciplines that are embryonic. For example, it is well documented that the social enterprise knowledge base is poorly developed, that strategies, polices, and programmes are often untested, and that change adopted and implemented is frequently not built on an evidence base (Halsall et al., 2022a , 2022b ).

To ensure success, active engagement with other institutional bodies is vital. This involvement facilitates information sharing, connecting social enterprises and entrepreneurs with public and statutory agencies, formal and informal support networks, and financial providers. The statutory body itself can contribute by raising awareness through campaigns and by monitoring, assessing, and evaluating the implementation of social enterprise related strategies and development plans. In the Indian context, creating an enabling environment and recognising the government’s pivotal role in supporting the social enterprise sector are key considerations that influence success (British Council 2015 ; British Council 2016 ; British Council 2020 ).

Establishing a collaborative, collegial, coherent, and holistic framework to support the emergence and consolidation of social enterprises is crucial for maximising their social and economic impact. While the plans themselves are essential, policy approaches play an equally significant role. Effective policies are more likely to emerge when built through horizontal cooperation (across different administration portfolios) and vertical coordination (across various levels of administration), in collaboration with relevant stakeholders. This collaborative approach reduces the likelihood of anomalies leading to better policy consistency and overall effectiveness. The authors of this paper have identified four areas that are underrepresented within existing literature and are distinctly related to policy frameworks for innovation and social enterprise in India.

Social enterprises often operate at the juncture of different policy areas and disciplines. Consequently, their actions are entwined with various government ministries and agencies. Engaging in a collaborative dialogue with a broad range of relevant stakeholders and beneficiaries (perceived and actual) allows for a richer understanding of the presenting issues. This understanding contributes to the development of well-informed, real-world policies that effectively address emergent challenges and contribute to the sustainability and longevity of policies.

Legal frameworks play a crucial role in shaping policies. They can legitimise social enterprises and expand the legal definition of ‘enterprise’ to include entities that blend entrepreneurial approaches with social and environmental missions. The trend towards embracing legal and statutory frameworks reflects the enhanced interest in social enterprises and other entities of the social economy. These entities prioritise public and social interests and make a distinct contribution to specific policies (such as renewable energy and other green initiatives) and strategic priorities, including job creation, skills development, and public health initiatives for disadvantaged and marginalised groups. However, globally there is a reliance on working definitions (that are frequently poorly crafted) and criteria (embedded in strategies and action plans) to identify social enterprises.

The existent literature demonstrates a research topic in its infancy (Campopiano & Bassani, 2021 ; Farinha et al., 2020 ; Novak, 2021 ; Opuni et al., 2022 ; Winful et al., 2022 ) and characterised by four key themes that include social entrepreneurship, social movement, community development, and social innovation (Farinha et al., 2020 ; Winful et al., 2022 ). Academic research on social entrepreneurship has emphasised the social outcome of business activities that aim for value creation beyond profit maximisation (Campopiano & Bassani, 2021 ; Del Gesso, 2020 ). However, the research is dominated by the disciplines of Business and Management Studies; subsequently, the social impact of research is often understated (Snowden et al., 2023a ).

Social innovation is often seen as the opportunity for social enterprises to significantly invest in the creation of social outcomes to address people's needs. Social innovation and social enterprise are often proposed as a solution to address multifaceted social economic problems, by sharing ideas and involving stakeholders from different sectors. This cooperative treatise, as described by Ziegler ( 2017 ), presents an opportunity to legislators across the political spectrum.

Recent work carried out by the UK’s Quality Assurance Agency ( 2018 ) and Snowden et al., ( 2023a , 2023b , 2023c ) has illustrated that there are diverse aspects of social entrepreneurship, which have been influenced by international public policy in the context of social, economic, cultural, political, and sustainability agendas. Consequently, this has created a new emphasis on entrepreneurship, innovation, and social enterprise driven by the social justice and socio-environmental debate that has emerged strongly since the COVID pandemic. Nonetheless, it is this complexity that has resulted in conceptual challenges regarding the nature of social enterprise and its relationship with the social entrepreneur.

Social enterprise is not a new concept, but it is growing exponentially as illustrated by the post-pandemic abundance of academic literature on the rise of social enterprise (Chilufya et al., 2023 ; Halsall et al., 2022a ; Oberoi, 2021 ). This increased attention has been evident in a global context, as many governments across the world are shifting away from state-controlled, funded projects and moving towards a more social entrepreneurial approach. The emerging contemporary notions of social enterprise and the social entrepreneur are contributing to an identity and establishing some degree of clarity upon the nature and purpose of a social enterprise.

The impetus for this renewed vigour towards social enterprise is linked to the world adjusting to the demands of living in a post-COVID world (Oberoi et al., 2022 ). It is widely accepted that the global social welfare system is broken and traditional welfare models are ill-equipped to address the emerging social needs in the wake of the pandemic. As a result, there is a clear need for fresh, creative ideas to replace intransigent, archaic, and inflexible systems of welfare. Halsall et al. ( 2020 ) reaffirm this view, commenting that the traditional, rigid, institutionalised assumption of a two-sector economic model is being replaced with the view that social enterprise can provide a mitigating conduit to deal with the challenges associated with social and economic problems.

Social entrepreneurship is underpinned by strong social innovation. Despite social innovation’s long history, it remains relatively under-researched, leading to untapped opportunities (Farinha et al., 2020 ). For social enterprise to develop, it must be underpinned by strong social innovation, and ensuring the connection between social innovation and social enterprise is crucial because both address social and environmental challenges, aiming for positive change but are co-dependent on each other. These approaches provide innovative solutions for pressing issues such as poverty, inequality, environmental degradation, healthcare access, and education. By combining innovative creative thinking with practical solutions, they offer new ways to solve complex problems. Both social innovation and social enterprise prioritise long-term sustainability, moving beyond short-term fixes to address root causes. Collaboration and partnerships are essential, involving government agencies, non-profits organisations, industries, institutions, and communities collaborating towards shared goals, enhancing efficiency, scalability, and sustainability.

A contemporary popular definition for social enterprise is provided by the global organisation Deloitte ( 2018 ), which suggests that a social enterprise is an organisation that combines revenue growth and profit-making with a commitment to respecting and supporting its local community and stakeholders. A crucial element of this involves actively monitoring and adapting to the trends shaping the contemporary world or community and is built by collaborative (social) entrepreneurs who embrace their responsibility as good citizens and act as a model for others. However, this fails to acknowledge the complex and dynamic nature of social enterprise. A responsive definition is proposed within the literature that defines it as a multifaceted change process through which social entrepreneurs offer economic inclusion and social engagement to different global community and social groups through creative, solution-orientated strategies (Halsall et al., 2020 ; Oberoi et al., 2019 ). This recent definition provides and emphasises the importance of innovation underpinning social enterprise.

Contemporary social enterprise acquires a new significance that focusses upon providing innovative approaches to address pressing social needs and challenges reflected by the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), such as poverty, inclusion, disparity, environmental degradation, gender equality, access to healthcare, social welfare and education, and innovative solutions all embracing the notion of social justice. Joining innovative thinking with well-designed innovative solutions will enable new ways of mitigating multifaceted problems to emerge. Social entrepreneurs are the altruistic, solutions-orientated, forward-thinking characters that develop social enterprises to go beyond short-term solutions and place emphasis on creating enduring solutions that address root causes of problems. Social entrepreneurs ensure, and by their very nature emphasise and firmly embed collaboration, co-participation, and partnership working. When developing an enterprise, they bring on key participants; for example, government agencies, non-profits organisations, industries, and communities are enlisted along with actual and potential beneficiaries, all working together towards shared goals. This collaborative alliance improves the efficiency, scalability, and sustainability of the innovation in a collegial approach that embraces entrepreneurial methods to design solution and encourage imaginative thinking. By applying business principles to social and environmental challenges, they foster innovation, adaptability, and creativity.

Social enterprises aim to be financially sustainable while concurrently creating social impact. They advance business models that make revenue through the sale of goods or services, reducing reliance on external funding sources. Distinctly, social enterprises empower people and groups by providing prospects for economic participation, skills development, and social inclusion. They often prioritise marginalised groups, permitting them to become dynamic givers to the social order and agents of change, while leveraging resources like human capital, technology, networks, and funding. The collaborative approach maximises the collective impact of efforts and has the potential to energise systemic change by challenging existing systems and structures and is able to provide a full spectrum of activities, ranging from conventional to hybrid organisations, serving as a catalyst for broader societal transformation.

How are social enterprises legally defined?

Unsurprisingly, the term ‘social enterprise’ is not commonly used in legal frameworks, policies, or literature; consequently, this lack of direct terminology poses a significant challenge for social enterprises. However, several countries do recognise new forms of entrepreneurship that align with the concept of social enterprise. De jure social enterprises (i.e. legally recognised practice and actions) are legally recognised under specific legal frameworks that establish clear legal forms and statuses to support their development—examples include the ‘solidarity enterprise of social utility [ entreprise solidaire d’utilité sociale ]’ (ESUS) in France, the ‘societal impact company’ in Luxembourg, and the ‘social cooperative’ in Poland—whereas de facto social enterprises are not legally recognised through specific social enterprise designations. However, they can still be identified based on their contributions to social challenges and adopt recognised social enterprise business models.

Social enterprises can adopt various authorised arrangements and statuses that reflect their unique characteristics, including their entrepreneurial and economic approaches, societal goals, and comprehensive governance and ownership structures (OECD, 2022 ). In a strict legal context, social enterprises represent an operational archetype (Caire & Tadjudje, 2019 ) reflected by the social cultural context in which they operate and those challenges the enterprise is attempting to mitigate.

While there are inconsistencies on legal definitions of social enterprises there are some key facets that are fundamental to the nature of social enterprises.

A corporate business model generates profit solely for owners and keeps operational for cost benefit deliberation and need to obtain other ventures in line with the principles of the business. However, the social enterprise model creates value not just for the business but is driven by social and environmental impact. Legal frameworks stipulate that social enterprises must explicitly pursue a defined social objective, and some nations limit the notion of flexibility and responsiveness by defining the arenas of engagement in which social enterprises are expected to function. For example, in Luxembourg, societal impact companies must respond to at least one pre-defined area of a 2016 Law on Societal Impact Companies (European Commission, 2020 ). Similarly, in Italy, the 1991 Italian Law on Social Cooperatives requires entities to be operational in at least one sector in an A-list of activities (well-being care, conservation protection, and improvement of cultural heritage) or B-list activities (organisations that conduct entrepreneurial activity oriented to job inclusion of underprivileged or disabled workers/individuals, irrespective of the area or areas) (OECD, 2022 ). Furthermore, some nations’ social enterprises are required to implement an asset lock to ensure their long-term social purpose and prioritise social impact in decision-making. The asset lock typically involves two mechanisms: restricting or limiting profit distribution to owners and ensuring that any surplus upon dissolution is transferred to a similar initiative. For instance, in the UK, France, Italy, Belgium, and Luxembourg, social enterprises are asked to maintain a limited asset or full asset lock in order to safeguard the longevity of the social purpose and clearly prioritise social impact within decision-making processes alongside a reproducible audit of decision-making processes (Fici 2015 ). In addition, there are defined limitations on the amount of profit that can be redistributed to the owners or staff within the social enterprise. A distinct component of some legal frameworks that enhance the spirit of social enterprise is the notion of inclusive governance. Some legal frameworks require the workforce to be part of the decision-making process within a social enterprise and for this to be clearly defined and auditable. For example, within France it is obligatory to involve stakeholders in some company choices (OECD, 2022 ).

Social enterprises are organisations that take diverse legal forms across nations to pursue both social and economic goals with an entrepreneurial spirit. From a global perspective, there a set of key commercial and societal fundamentals that can be used to define social enterprises:

Social enterprises are distinct from orthodox for-profit organisations which are outrightly involved in the production and/or sale of goods and services (instead of chiefly advice-giving or grant-giving occupations);

Social enterprises are designed and fulfilled by groups of citizens and community members;

Social enterprises typically sell products and/or deliver services to members of the public and private users to produce their revenues;

Social enterprises operate in the monetary economy, and use non-commercial resources to become sustainable and;

They share a social dimension in their entrepreneurial goals, which should be based on a distinct social interest and based on unmet needs or presented and established within a legislative model (OECD, 2022 ).

Social entrepreneurship and social enterprises have existed for decades (John et al., 2024 ). The development and advent of social enterprise have taken diverse routes in different geographic areas in the world but can still be grouped according to two foremost schools of thought. One is the market-based or commercial social enterprise arrangement, and the second is more of a blended or hybrid-based form of social enterprise. The market-based formula emerged prominently in North America and Africa, while the hybrid-based plan was adopted more in European and Latin American countries. Haarich et al. ( 2020 ) propose that legal frameworks can be an authoritative tool to foster and bolster social enterprise expansion and, where these are in place, social impact is more accurately measured.

The recent report published by the European Commission ( 2020 ) identifies approximately 397 000 social enterprises among European Union member states. For example, Italy, Belgium, Luxembourg, and Hungary have over 1,600 social enterprises per million residents, while Estonia, Malta, and Greece have much less than 500 (European Commission, 2020 ). In comparison, India has around 2,000,000 social enterprises and the UK 100,000 (John  et al., 2024 ). However, this data does need to be reviewed with caution. As illustrated, there are numerous descriptions of the nature of social enterprise and inconsistencies in legal recognition for social enterprises between nations and regions.

Nonetheless, governments are increasingly looking towards external agencies to solve social and economic problems in society (Khan & Halsall, 2017 ; Oberoi et al., 2021 ). Globally, an era of social enterprise is gaining momentum and is prevalent in many debates within businesses, society, and educational institutions. However, for this to progress in an informed and systematic way, there is need for a strategic realignment of policy with key social enterprise dimensions that will be shaped by five factors:

Political Environment: The administration’s role significantly influences the emergence of social enterprises. When societal issues align with administrative priorities, natural synergies arise, especially in the context of the neoliberal paradigm.

Legal Environment: Like traditional private enterprises, social enterprises require an iterative process of refining knowledge and execution. A supportive legal environment—one that avoids excessive regulation and unwarranted oversight—facilitates this progression.

Social Environment: Favourable social and cultural conditions are essential for nurturing social entrepreneurs. A strong civil society and focus on socio-economic challenges contribute to the development of social enterprises.

Cultural Environment: The enthusiasm of civil society plays a crucial role in the rise of social enterprise. Often, social entrepreneurs emerge from within civil society, responding to socio-economic issues with innovative approaches.

Institutional Environment: To advance social enterprises from emergence to maturity, institutional support is critical. Curricula in academic institutions can prepare novice social entrepreneurs with knowledge and networks.

Despite the challenges in defining the nature and legal basis of social enterprises, they undoubtedly play a vital role in addressing social, economic, and environmental challenges. Applying this observation to the Indian context, there are four key issues that run concurrently with these factors that demand the realignment of policy and social enterprise dimensions:

The legal status of social enterprises is not clearly defined, generating issues with credibility and authenticity, which in turn undermine the development of policy and strategy.

Regarding sustainability, governments must foster an environment that encourages social entrepreneurship and innovation. India (not is isolation) faces a distinct challenge in this area.

The review of literature reveals that social enterprise in India lacks a comprehensive policy framework for understanding the complexities of the phenomenon and its determinants.

There are no clear-cut guidelines of how to improve and enhance social enterprise activities across the nation. The distribution of social enterprise is geographically inconsistent.

Methodological approach to the research

This research is positioned within broader literature on social innovation and its policy relevance. Even though social innovation is not a novel concept, the application of social innovation as a policy idea and its relationship to the restructuring of the prevailing welfare establishment is synonymous with the development of social enterprise.

Embracing the spirit of social innovation was a key feature of the methodological approach adopted in this study. The involvement of partners, prospective partners, and actual and potential beneficiaries is essential to reflect the philosophical basis of social enterprise and to provide a cross cultural and social representation of each community as part of the research and evaluation process. This will provide the firm foundation towards enabling the attainment of the study’s objectives. This study utilised an embedded a case study approach, drawing upon the approach illustrated by Yin ( 2018 ).

The case study approach is used when evaluating and exploring the nature of underlying issues with reference to an identified phenomenon (Robson & McCartan, 2016 ; Yin, 2018 ). The case study approach is the most appropriate to explore the underlying factors perceived to influence a key phenomenon under investigation and is particularly useful when the phenomenon is an under-researched subject. This approach was particularly suited to this study as it reflects the emerging and contemporary phenomenon of social enterprise, enabling the development of an explanation and the exploration of the causal relationships of underlying determinants influencing the development of social enterprise (Robson & McCartan, 2016 ). This enabled the detailed exploration of those factors that influence the determinants of social enterprise and its flexibility; it also allowed the perceptions of participants to be included, and this flexible research design enabled the researchers to evaluate the strengths and limitations of the subject studied in context. A case study effectively addresses the ‘what’, ‘how’, and ‘why’ of events, experiences, phenomena, and data collected in the process, each crucial features of this research. Enabling the researchers to gather information, understand processes, and explore reasons, and thereby facilitating effective and deeper understanding of the various facets of social enterprise and policy development within the Indian context.

Specifically, the research team adopted a mixed methods and exploratory embedded multiple case study design approach proposed by Yin ( 2018 ) was utilised as this specifically offers an insight to the micro-cultural and socio-economic and political influences upon policy development. It is this aspect of the case study that resonates with the aspirations of the study, referring, as Yin asserts, to multiple sources of evidence enables researchers to capture the perspectives of different data sets and participants, focussing on how their different meanings illuminates new perspectives (Yin, 2018 ) is appropriate for the research.

Conceptual framework

The following illustrates the processes that were undertaken to establish a model of change to promote an understanding of the policy framework, the role, forms, practice, and value of learning within social enterprise, and how this could contribute to the development of a policy framework for innovation and social enterprise in India. The model comprises a four-step cyclical process that involves assessment, solutions-orientated problem solving, implementation, and reflection and evaluation (Snowden et al., 2023a ):

Assessment—comprises a holistic method of data collection from all available sources. For the purpose of this study, this involved:

Semi-structured and focus interviews of key beneficiaries (actual and potential) and stakeholders, e.g. NGOs, statutory agencies, community members, social entrepreneurs, and representative of social enterprise groups and agencies.

A desk top review using a systematic method to assess existing research, policy, and curriculum documentation for information relevant to parameters of this study.

Online survey of actual beneficiaries and stakeholders, e.g. NGOs, statutory agencies, community members, social entrepreneurs, and representative of social enterprise groups and agencies.

Solutions-orientated problem solving—involves the development and design of recommendations and solutions to problems and challenges identified from data collected in the assessment phase.

Implementation—is an active phase delivering the solutions to the research questions presented. This stage involved: an initial dissemination of findings; peer review; design of recommendations, strategy materials, and policy based on the evaluation and analysis of data collected.

Reflection and evaluation—this required holistic evaluation and testing in addition to harnessing the reflective elements of Kirkpatrick’s model (Kirkpatrick & Kirkpatrick, 2016 ).

Data collection and analysis

The following methods were used for the data collection:

Document review

Document review within this study includes all publicly available policy, curriculum, and practice documents. The purpose of performing document analysis is to inquire in what ways and to what extent literature is presented and if it is visibly accurate and representative. A systematic approach was used to frame the document review. Documents included specific guidelines aimed exclusively at social enterprises and those additionally associated more broadly towards social enterprise, social innovation, and allied fields such as small and medium enterprise (SME) policy, and policy intents and achievements/failures each within the context of India. The data collected were used to inform and provide a meticulous summary of available data in relation to the research question and objectives of the study. Prior to analysis, data that met the criteria for the study were analysed using the Mixed Methods Appraisal Tool approach. Using content analysis (Krippendorff, 2019 ) enabled inferences to be developed regarding the content within the texts analysed.

Online survey

An online questionnaire was developed to identify those key features of social enterprise that have been influenced or constrained by developments and policies within India. Each of the questions was developed by data identified in the literature review and in consultation with the research team. The purposive sample included key beneficiaries (actual and potential) and stakeholders, e.g. NGOs, statutory agencies, community members, social entrepreneurs, and representative of social enterprise groups and agencies within India. Overall measures of the importance of the different dimensions of influence were calculated using the descriptive statistical method ‘relative importance index’ (Robson & McCartan, 2016 ), and free-text responses were analysed using content analysis.

The interview method is highly recommended when the focus of the study is to explore the meaning associated with a particular phenomenon (Robson & McCartan, 2016 ). For the purpose of this study, semi-structured interviews and semi-structured focus groups were conducted. Interview questions were informed by the literature/desk top review, the results of the online survey, and agreed within the research team. While semi-structured interviews were considered to be the most appropriate method for data collection, as this enabled the curation of views on the perspectives explored, to enhance the credibility and replicability of the study, focus groups were also conducted. This dual approach to collecting qualitative data allowed within the focus groups a sense of greater security, where the group dynamic allowed participants to build on one another's responses and generate ideas that they might not have thought of in an individual interview. Furthermore, the strategy of conducting the focus groups first provided the opportunity to follow up issues and perspectives into more detail from a single perspective.

In evaluative studies, the quality of the information collated is dependent upon the quality of the interview process; to ensure consistency, an interview guide was developed using the principles of PROMPT (Open University, 2024 ) and key suppositions based on the experiences and wisdom of the participants and available literature. This exercise contributed to the validity and credibility of the data collection tools within the evaluative framework (Robson & McCartan, 2016 ). Purposive sampling was used to conduct a series of 34 interviews and 14 focus group interviews. Data collected from both focus groups and interviews were analysed using thematic analysis (Braun & Clarke, 2006 ), transcribed verbatim, coded, and used to analyse similar and comparative themes or patterns to establish key findings.

Results from the survey

The survey posed 10 key questions:

Question 1: What is the scope of social entrepreneurship, especially in a price sensitive market like India ?

The responses (65%) indicate that many feel the scope for social enterprises is huge but that new social enterprises face fundraising challenges. Market competition hinders the growth of social enterprises and catering to Indian market. 50% of the respondents suggested that social enterprises need to price their products/services at a cheaper cost than competitors but this leads to issues with sustainability.

Question 2: Do you see a growing trend in inclination towards social enterprises among Indian youth?

Generally, the participants (70%) perceived that the youth is generally more aware about the environmental and social issues, and are able to understand the role of social entrepreneurship and social enterprise. Participants suggested that there is a sense of responsibility in the younger generation and imply that this group is more innovative and environmentally conscious, so they are more aware of the social enterprise concept as it blends social and economic strategy to respond to social challenges.

Question 3: Are there any incentives and schemes by the Indian and state governments to encourage social enterprise?

Many participants (75%) expressed that, over the past 10 years, the government has been encouraging and continues to encourage social innovation, technological solutions, and a number of schemes have been announced during the past decade to support young entrepreneurs, such as Avishay Capita, Atal Innovation Mission, Support for International Patent Protection in Electronics & Information Technology (SIP-EIT), National Skill Development Corporation, Start-Up India Programme, MeitY Start-up Hub, Start-Up India, and the Stand-Up India Scheme.

Question.5: What could the government or society do to encourage social entrepreneurship?

The respondents had many suggestions that could be taken up by the government and society to encourage and promote social entrepreneurship in the country:

The provision of incentives and financial aid to new social enterprises.

Launching courses and education programmes in schools and universities to raise awareness regarding the concept of social entrepreneurship.

Setting up incubation centres and innovation centres across the country.

The provision of tax benefits to new social enterprises, at least in their initial years.

People, as a society, need to support small-scale social enterprises over large-scale manufacturing houses who are able to provide goods and services at lower costs.

Question 6: What are the main barriers to the development of social entrepreneurship in India?

The overwhelming response was that issues linked to funding are the most critical barrier. There is also lack of awareness among participants about how to harness support for innovative ideas; educational institutions have not been teaching social enterprise courses, and complex regulatory frameworks and bureaucratic procedures are significant barriers in conjunction with a lack of skill and capability development programmes and capacity building. Some participants highlighted that they had opportunities provided by a local university; however, these were not experienced by all.

Question 7: Should the concept of social entrepreneurship and innovation be incorporated into the education curricula?

The response was distinct; it was clear that the participants viewed universities as having a role in challenging the old paradigms of business schools that prioritise profit maximisation. Higher education institutions (HEIs) were viewed by some as engaging with the social enterprise sector in order to discover sustainable solutions for concerns around economic and social disparity and justice. However, this was found to be regionally disparate. All participants agreed that universities should be promoting knowledge and understanding of social enterprise.

Question 8: Do you think the concept of social enterprise requires additional skill development training programmes in higher education settings?

Universities were perceived as income generators within a local community, and most importantly, are seen as a hub between different institutions (public, private, and non-government organisations). Each participant commented that additional skills are needed to fulfil the role of the social entrepreneur.

Question 9: Is the emergence of social enterprise a potential alternative development channel to rapidly shifting Indian policies?

Rich and uniform answers were provided as a response to this question. Participants viewed the growth of social enterprise as significant over recent years. In particular, uniformly they viewed social enterprise as demonstrating spectacular growth in India, with the country being referred to as ‘a social enterprise superpower’ by Think, a social action think-tank and action hub, as well as ‘a hotbed for social enterprise’ by Beyond Profit magazine, a leading social enterprise magazine. Social enterprises have been extremely effective in driving development in India, which is home to one of the world’s largest populations still living in poverty.

Question 10: Indian Social enterprises are very active but operate as NGOs, small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) or foundations, in the absence of any legal definition that could form a basis for policy dialogue. Do you agree with this?

In spite of India having a legal form that closely mirrors the social enterprise model, 80% of the survey respondents reported that they operate as private limited

companies and they find the lack of legal clarity a huge hurdle. There is growing diversity in the way social enterprises are being registered, with participants commenting that this lack of clarity dilutes their social mission.

Findings from the literature review

The survey findings mirrored what was found within the literature. Social enterprises are perceived as positive change agents; they offer the latest methodologies, innovative solutions, and novel conceptual frameworks. Social enterprises attend to social issues and support marginalised and disadvantaged people by developing innovative community-centred methods to resolve challenging issues. Many understand social enterprise as a transformational trend in the progression towards making standard for-profit enterprises that change themselves to generate social value. Opuni et al. ( 2022 ) present the view that, in a local community context, social enterprises create opportunities and can have a real impact in the geographical area (e.g. in tackling poverty, and in employment, education, and environmental issues).

While reviewing the literature, government programmes, and policy supporting the social enterprise sector were found to be too recent to provide evidence of long-term impact. However, there are early results from adaptations to selected local contexts in developing countries that can inform policy design for those governments that are considering the social enterprise agenda as part of their strategy to achieve the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Indian social enterprises are very active but operate chiefly as NGOs, small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) or foundations. Enterprises operate in the absence of legal definitions or even a commonly shared operational definition that could form the basis for policy dialogue among the various stakeholders. Nonetheless, India has commenced a policy dialogue around the social enterprise sector and has recently adapted policy sections that provide a vehicle for engaging with social entrepreneurs. A special social enterprise section has been included within the Enterprise Policy, adopted in 2015 by the Ministry of Skills Development and Entrepreneurship. It provides 14 definitions and specifies forms of support for social enterprises, which includes higher education courses, fiscal incentives for social investment, incubation, grassroots technology hubs, and engagement on innovation with existing entities such as the National Innovation Foundation. Despite the government promoting an ecosystem to encourage social business, impact investment, and social enterprises, the on-the-ground realities of running a social venture remain daunting. However, these changes are pointing to a bright future for India's social entrepreneurship scene.

With an estimated two million social enterprises in India, it is one of the most dynamic social entrepreneurship environments globally. In their 12th Five Year Plan (2012–2017), the Government of India ( 2011 ) accorded priority to Bottom-of-the-Pyramid (Bop) focussed enterprises and social good ventures by declaring the period between 2010 and 2020 as the ‘decade of innovation’. The government is committed to helping social enterprises in capacity building by investing seed capital through a fund called the India Inclusive Innovation Fund (IIIF) in areas of healthcare, energy, urban infrastructure, water, and transportation. IIIF has been capitalised to INR 5000 crores (USD 780 million) and was to be allocated to social enterprises over the 10-year period starting 2010; 20% of a social venture’s funds came from this fund while the remaining 80% will have to come from private investors.

The COVID-19 pandemic has clearly highlighted the critical significance of strengthening systems and building resilience across communities—principally among those living in severe scarcity and who are most at risk during these major disruptions. A social innovation approach puts competence to harness innovation at the hub of community solution orientate problem solving. However, this necessitates a distributed and dispersed arrangement where innovation and social enterprise connects through networks. Halsall et al.( 2020 ) assert that in addition to developing the traditional learner-teacher relationship, pedagogical restructuring needs to take place in regard to social entrepreneurial skill development and that this should take two forms: (1) changes in the curriculum, and (2) changes in the techniques of teaching and learning. The illustration by Snowden et al. ( 2023a , 2023b , 2023c ) presents a conceptualisation of this remodelling of enterprise education, which is developing at various levels globally, as illustrated by the UK—the India Research Initiative ( 2019 ) annual report, the Developing Inclusive Creative Economies (DICE) ( 2019 ), and the British Council ( 2016 ).

Two projects illustrate how this remodelling is influencing the development of social enterprise. The first is a collaborative project between Kirori Mal College, University of Delhi, and the University of Huddersfield. This project formed a collaboration and works in partnership with several stakeholders, including new and existing social enterprises, and has developed a series of educational tools and packages that have advanced social enterprise within a number of different contexts. The second example is the Tamil Nadu Polytechnic College, Madurai, India, project. The aim of this project was to promote the use of ICT and smart classrooms to enhance teaching and learning. This project achieved success via a 30% improvement in teaching materials, a 40% increase in staff using integrated teaching methods, a 40% increase in acquisition of knowledge outside traditional sources of information, and a 10% overall increase in academic performance. Undoubtedly, a symbiotic relationship must develop between social enterprise to be successful, and indeed for HEIs to fulfil their role successfully.

The following assumptions were made about what policy is potentially relevant to social enterprises:

Policies or programmes affecting or targeting SMEs have the potential to include some social enterprises.

Policies and plans influencing organisation registering and governance of organisations and enterprises have the potential to influence social enterprise, given that they register in multiple forms.

Policies or programmes targeting low income and disadvantaged groups in terms of improving their livelihoods and/or access to social services have the potential to influence some social enterprises.

Policies or strategies deliberating financial growth, industrial expansion, sector-level development, or social development have the potential to affect social enterprises.

Qualitative findings

The results from focus group discussions bring out common concerns that were reflected and emphasised by further probing in the individual interviews, reaffirming the reliability of the findings. Participants expressed the consistent view that the social enterprise situation in India has changed considerably in recent years and was dynamic in response to societal trends. The participants were asked about the major objectives for setting up a social enterprise. The most frequently specified aim of social enterprises in the focus group discussions was generating employment (70% of participants), followed by social inclusion (45% of participants), improving health (40% of participants), protecting the environment (40% of participants), addressing social exclusion (40% of participants), supporting agriculture and allied activities (36%), empowering women (35%), promoting education (40% of participants), and supporting vulnerable groups (23% of participants).

At present, though the Indian government has supported social entrepreneurs there are still substantial funding challenges, meaning they often fail to secure start-up capital. There are a limited number of financial institutions that lend financial support to social entrepreneurs, as they hold a misconception that these organisations are not profitable. Participants were invited to propose how social entrepreneurship could be improved, the data collected identified three themes:

Enhancing and expanding research and education on social enterprise and social economy in schools and universities, which might help to develop both local knowledge and the talent pipeline.

Encouraging private and public procurement channels to be more inclusive, enabling the procurement of services and goods from social enterprises that impart social and environmental value.

The creation of incentives for funding and investment.

It is evident from each data set that there are significant growth plans for social enterprise; for example: the majority of surveyed social enterprises is looking to enlarge their scope, reach new areas, and increase their customer base by developing new products and services. A disturbing observation notable in both the literature review and commentary from participants was the barrier associated with recruitment. The foremost recruitment challenge was perceived to be finding and retaining junior to mid-level talent, with a lack of awareness and understanding of social enterprise identified as key contributory features. Respondents were asked during the interview discussions about funding and finance they have received since they started operating. The nature of funds received primarily consist of funding from the government; endowments from foundations; indentures from the government; fees, sales, and charges; and aids—cash and in-kind (e.g. apparatus, volunteer time, etc.). The nature of finance received comprised of: capital grants; concessional loans (loans with below-market interest rates); commercial finances (market interest rate loans); and equity or equity-like investments. Of the respondents surveyed, 40% count on grants from foundations, and 28% of social enterprises got funds from philanthropists and charities; capital grants (24%); commercial loans (27%); funding from government schemes (25%); contracts from governments (18%); and concessional advances lower than the market rate (14%).

There is a significant variance between the funding of social enterprises and conventional commercial organisations. Of the social enterprises surveyed, 40 faced difficulties gaining access to investors due to inadequate networks. This was significant in some areas, where support establishments are rare and social enterprises are limited. For example, there is significant social enterprise presence in Maharashtra and Karnataka as compared to Utter Pradesh or North East states. Nearly 30% of the social enterprises recognised a lack of access to debt/equity as a key stumbling block. New social enterprises are moving to repayable finance to establish and expand their businesses. New generation social enterprises are also tapping into diverse, non-traditional funding sources; for example: crowd funding, using social media like Facebook’s ‘internet.org;’ social loans from Milap (an online micro-lending platform); and educational institutions and consortia, etc.

An incidental issue that raised during the interviews was related to incorporation of the concepts of social entrepreneurship and innovation within high school curricula. The perception of the participants encouraged incorporation and encourage students to explore new business ventures that provide self-employment opportunities as well as enabling them to contribute to developing solutions to social problems; for example, by improving health outcomes that exploit innovative approaches. Indian social enterprises are very active but operate as NGOs small- and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs), or foundations, and lack legal definition that could form a basis for policy dialogue. A legal definition of a social enterprise would promote a self-sustaining model that could generate the financial resources to support operations, but also to enhance scalability, develop awareness, and promote social enterprise as a career option alongside the more commonly recognised professions.

The Government of India is making positive steps towards this by promoting incentives and schemes by Indian and state governments:

The central government's Atal Innovation Mission (AIM) was established to encourage innovation and entrepreneurship throughout India. It consists of programmes that support and fund social entrepreneurs, such as Atal Incubation Centres, Atal Tinkering Labs, and Atal New India Challenges.

The National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC) supports social entrepreneurs operating in industries like healthcare, agriculture, and renewable energy with funding and training. The NSDC focuses on skill development.

Start-Up India is a programme that intends to promote the development of new businesses, especially social enterprises. It offers advantages like tax breaks, simplified compliance procedures, and access to investment through several government-backed programmes like AIM and Fund of Funds for start-ups.

While government initiatives and schemes provide a foundation of support, additional resources and partnerships are typically necessary. There are few incentives and schemes by the governments at either national or state levels to encourage social enterprises. The Atal Innovation Mission (AIM) was set up NITI Aayog in 2016, which aims to promote the innovative and entrepreneurial mindset among school and university students, and the private and MSME sectors across the nation. AIM is mandated to promote a culture of innovation and entrepreneurship in India. Through Atal Incubation Centres—or AICs—at universities, institutions, and corporations, AIM is creating an ever-evolving ecosystem of start-ups and entrepreneurs. These business incubation centres aim to foster and support world-class innovations and dynamic entrepreneurs, who want to build scalable and sustainable enterprises. To date, AIM has successfully operationalised 69 AICs in 18 states and 3 Indian union territories. These AICs support incubated start-ups by providing world-class technical facilities, resource-based support, mentorship, funding support, partnerships and networking, co-working spaces, and laboratory facilities, among other modes of support. More than 2,900 start-ups have been supported by these AICs, of which 900 + start-ups are led by women and have created 30,000 + jobs in the ecosystem. Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology's (MEITY’s) Start-up Hub (MSH): MSH acts as a national coordination, facilitation, and monitoring centre that integrates all the incubation centres, start-ups, and innovation-related activities of MEITY, which aims to promoting technology innovation, start-ups, and the creation of intellectual property. 3. Start-Up India’s Stand-Up India scheme launched on 15 August, 2015; Start-Up India is a flagship initiative of the Government of India, intended to catalyse start-up culture and build a strong and inclusive ecosystem for innovation and entrepreneurship in India. In most cases, social enterprises do need external aid, whether in the form of capital or mentorship, mostly due to lack of education about the concept and lack of financial aid schemes.

The Indian government has announced policies and 63 incentives, such as the AIM and Start-Up India schemes, to support social entrepreneurship. The UK has a vigorous legal framework for social enterprises, with the Community Interest Company (CIC) structure explicitly intended for them. The UK government has executed numerous policies and programmes, including the Social Value Act and Social Investment Tax Relief, to endorse and support social enterprises. Funding and Investment: India: Impact investment and social finance in India are rising, but access to investment for social enterprises can still be challenging, particularly for early-stage ventures. Old-style funding sources, such as banks and venture capitalists, have limited exposure to the social enterprise sector.

India has seen the emergence of incubators, accelerators, and support organisations focussed on social entrepreneurship. These organisations provide mentoring, networking opportunities, and capacity-building programmes for social enterprises. However, the ecosystem is still evolving and expanding. Nonetheless, India's social enterprise sector is growing rapidly, and the government is increasingly recognising and supporting social entrepreneurship. With the right policies and support, India has the potential to further strengthen its social enterprise ecosystem and increase its impact. A much-neglected area, as highlighted in this study, is the importance of education—in particular, the role that higher education institutions can play.

Recent studies (Halsall et al., 2022b ; Snowden et al., 2023b , 2023c ) highlight the value of delivering a curriculum that will develop the key skills and qualities of a social entrepreneur. Halsall et al. ( 2022b ) and Snowden et al. ( 2023b ) present six components of a proposed social entrepreneurship curriculum and recommend that they should be delivered within a heutagogical approach. The six characteristics include:

Institutions—structures of rules and norms that develop social change in society. In this context, an institution is a personal business, governmental, or education establishment. Here, institutions are, overall, seen to have an important effect on citizens in society.

Stakeholders—key individuals and organisations contributing to social enterprise, for example this may include: learners, i.e. those who want to learn the skills associated with social enterprise; educators, i.e. those who ‘teach’ or facilitate learning about social enterprise; entrepreneurs, i.e. those who are contributing to society and developing social enterprise.

Teaching and Learning—a process whereby the learner gains skills and understanding.

Personal Skills and Capability—a framework for skills and knowledge growth from a social entrepreneur development perspective.

Curriculum—centrally driven by knowledge, practices, and critical engagement.

Work Placement—a period in which the learner can experience expertise in the employment or specific sector they want to enter.

The data collected from the study also demonstrate that despite the importance of social enterprise in society, students are still studying theories as opposed to acquiring practical skills. Hence, there is an urgent need to encourage students to learn by doing, and to develop an understanding of how to collaborate and engage with each other to address social problems. As emphasised by Halsall et al. ( 2022a , 2022b ), engagement can only take place if the stakeholders, both actual and perceived, engage in the transformational process, providing opportunities to acquire the capability and skills through work-based learning and internship opportunities alongside constructive mentorship are offered.

However, education must also take place in practice. Strengthening of the emerging social enterprise ecosystem is achieved by:

The development of capacity building and entrepreneurship support. Developing entrepreneurship and incubation programmes that focus on social enterprise development; the provision of training, mentorship, and technical assistance to social entrepreneurs is key to this.

The promotion of partnerships between academic institutions, incubators, and industry experts to offer specialised courses and programmes on social entrepreneurship and social innovation would develop social entrepreneurs’ capability, skills, and knowledge base.

Encouragement of a community of praxis via the development of support networks and platforms that facilitate knowledge sharing, collaboration, and peer learning among social entrepreneurs and innovators.

While from a more strategic viewpoint this ecosystem can be strengthened by:

The introduction of policies that promote social enterprise and that encourage social procurement by encouraging government agencies and corporations to prioritise procurement from social enterprises rather than multinational corporations. This should include the simplification and creation of transparent procedures that allow social enterprises to access government tenders and contracts, providing them with fair opportunities to compete. Encourage corporations to include social enterprises in their supply chains and foster partnerships between social enterprises and private sector entities.

Impact Measurement and Reporting: The development of standardised frameworks and guidelines for the measurement and reporting of social impact, ensuring consistency and comparability across social enterprises. Support and training should be provided to social enterprises to build their capacity in impact assessment, monitoring, and evaluation, and the adoption of impact measurement tools and technologies should be encouraged to enhance accountability and transparency.

Collaboration and knowledge-sharing platforms should be established to connect social enterprises, government bodies, academia, civil society organisations, and traditional businesses to create a robust social innovation ecosystem. Dedicated social innovation centres and incubation hubs should be established across the country, providing physical spaces, mentorship, and networking opportunities for social entrepreneurs.

Research and development in social innovation should be promoted, with the support of partnerships between universities, research institutions, and social enterprises to enable them to address pressing social challenges.

Implementing these policy suggestions can create an enabling environment for social enterprises and social innovation in India, driving inclusive economic growth and sustainable development while addressing critical social and environmental issues.

The development and agreement of a uniformed legal framework for social enterprise development will consolidate the approach to social enterprise and promote sustainability. There is a consistent view demonstrated within the study’s findings that a legal framework will benefit social enterprise growth. The espousal of legal frameworks typically indicates that social enterprises are significant to establishments. In countries where legal frameworks for social enterprises were introduced, they have been beneficial both socially and economically. A clearly defined characterisation that is widely accepted provides structure, clarity, and additional authority as opposed to a working definition that produces de facto social enterprises. The design of a clear and uniform policy also helps to promote the identity of the social entrepreneur role, encouraging professionalisation. An enhanced and improved empathetic view of what social enterprises mean and how they function regarding funders and establishments will contribute to sustainability and advancement of the discipline.

Conclusion and recommendations

This paper provides an exploration of the issues associated with the integration of social policy dimensions into social entrepreneurship education and makes the following recommendations:

The Indian government should implement measures to foster a supportive environment by utilising suitable legal and fiscal tools. This would encourage MSMEs to transition from the unorganised to the organised sector and promote their corporatization. Furthermore, the government should stimulate higher investments in innovative and knowledge-based ventures, as well as in research and development, by enhancing collaborations between industry and academic institutions.

The social enterprise ecosystem will continue to grow rapidly and will attract interested stakeholders. Social enterprise has the potential to address societal needs, and it will bring a positive impact to society.

The social enterprise ecosystem in India operates in an unorganised fashion. It needs a platform for communicating social and economic values and to leverage business opportunities.

To streamline and establish institutional structure for standard setting and the measurement of impact.

Social enterprises in India need to develop a managerial framework that can be adapted to offer guidance to new and emerging social entrepreneurs. This could help to cut the number of errors new social entrepreneurs make and enable them to manage their organisations in a more professional manner.

There is immense potential to link social enterprise to corporate social responsibility. Social enterprises can avail numerous benefits apart from funding if policy regarding corporate social responsibility is streamlined in a coherent manner.

Furthermore, to provide support at a fundamental level, the government should aim to set up a technical advisory team whose role is to mentor emerging social enterprises and provide them with guidelines on registration, funding, management, business, networking, expansion, collaboration, and innovation. The necessity for an all-in-one, exclusive social enterprise policy in India is clear; it would act as a singular source of wisdom, guiding approaches and providing solutions to many of the issues that occur frequently in social enterprise operations.

While this research has significant limitations, it paints a common and consistent picture of the key determinants of social enterprise. Social enterprises are attracting increasing research and academic consideration around the world. By implementing supportive policies, governments can create a sustainable ecosystem that nurtures social entrepreneurship and contributes to inclusive and sustainable development.

Policymakers need to develop a clear understanding of why, when, and how to regulate social enterprises and the impact that legislation (or lack thereof) can have for their development. The need for regulation for social enterprises is context-based: motives and outcomes of legal frameworks reflect local conditions, which means that what works within the broader legal and regulatory frameworks of one country may not in another and vice versa. Legal frameworks may provide recognition and visibility, as well as access to financial incentives and support, to markets, and to support services that facilitate starting, developing, and growing social enterprises.

Higher education increasingly requires institutions to evidence their worth and address the issue of employability within the curriculum. Traditionally, the focus is largely on young undergraduates who are studying full time and preparing for their first job. However, students enrolled on higher education courses within further and higher education institutions are not primarily concerned with their ability to get that first job, but their ability to keep their current job and/or progress on to the next job. Current employability strategies are concerned with generic skill development. Drawing upon a student centred approach to learning, drawing upon the principles of heutagogy, that focuses upon the development of a social entrepreneurial skill set and related capabilities is required.

Social enterprises are promoted as a solution to the socio-economic challenges posed to the challenges presented of the post-COVID-19 pandemic world. The innovative use of entrepreneurial skills and spirit to address social issues, though not a new concept, surpasses traditional frameworks and is essential for meeting the evolving demands of the modern world. To ensure equality and parity, society today demands that graduates develop new skills, abilities, and knowledge that are responsive to the challenges of the day—i.e. that they become an individual who is able to create social value by generating innovative solutions through a process of social entrepreneurship.

This paper illustrates that social enterprise is complex and dynamic; it is a multifaceted change process through which social entrepreneurs offer economic inclusion and social engagement to different global communities and social groups through creative, solution-orientated strategies (Halsall et al., 2022b ; Snowden et al., 2021a , 2021b ; Oberoi et al., 2018 ). The global community sits on a on a fulcrum; societal and global challenges are distinct and reflect the pervasive inequalities within global society, a response to the needs of today’s dynamic global society is demanded, and social enterprise provides a resolution to these challenges. The recent statement by the United Nations issued in Spring 23 (Unted Nations 2023 ) reaffirms this and calls for global institutions and nations to enable the development of social entrepreneurship skills and capabilities to meet the goals of Sustainable Development Goals.

These include social inequality and injustice, public health, and socio-environmental issues as they present in society, and distinctly, the manner in which the issues empower communities and groups locally, nationally, and globally. Indubitably, the development of a ‘new’ curriculum to develop must be achieved within a cross-disciplinary framework that is both global and hauntological in nature. It is clear that the emerging social enterprise curriculum should be multifaceted and complex, like the concept itself; this would, therefore, enable the learning experience to be dynamic and context specific, and ensure that the needs of the social entrepreneur, community, and society are met by the training provider in the form of the higher education institution.

There is a significant opportunity for policy leaders to shape the future of Indian society. Key to this is the development and adoption of a clear policy to enable social entrepreneurs to fulfil their potential. However, to support this development, opportunities must be realised in relation to learning, and can be developed via the teaching and learning curriculum in terms of skills and development. Without the adoption of a clear pedagogic model to support policy development, the realisation of social enterprise will not be achieved.

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Acknowledgements

This paper would not have been possible without the inputs from various social entrepreneurs and directors of social enterprises and CISE students, particularly our research assistant Adarsh Sachan from KMC, who helped us to carry out focus group discussions and data collection. A special thank you to those who took time out of their busy schedules to share their entrepreneurial journeys with us.

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School of Human and Health Sciences, University of Huddersfield, Huddersfield, UK

Michael Snowden & Jamie P. Halsall

Huddersfield Business School, University of Huddersfield, Huddersfield, UK

Liz Towns-Andrews

Department of Political Science, University of Delhi, New Delhi, India

Roopinder Oberoi

Department of Social Entrepreneurship, Rollins College, Winter Park, FL, USA

Walter Mswaka

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Correspondence to Michael Snowden .

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Approval was obtained from the ethics committee of University of Delhi. The procedures used in this study adhere to the tenets of the Declaration of Helsinki. The authors have no relevant financial or non-financial interests to disclose.

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Snowden, M., Towns-Andrews, L., Halsall, J.P. et al. Integrating social policy dimensions into entrepreneurship education: a perspective from India. Entrep Educ (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s41959-024-00125-6

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Received : 08 July 2024

Revised : 08 July 2024

Accepted : 02 August 2024

Published : 17 September 2024

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1007/s41959-024-00125-6

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