Why academic excellence is no longer enough

Can schools achieve world-class academic performance when they stop making tests and compliance the priority?In this episode of the #EdVance Podcast, Nooraine Fazal, Founder and CEO of Inventure Academy, explores what it really takes to build an institution centred on purpose, student agency, and social impact.Transitioning from corporate executive leadership at IBM and Reuters with no formal background in education, Nooraine shares how a beginner’s mindset helped her question conventional schooling norms. She explores why traditional metrics fail modern learners, how leaders create high-trust cultures where staff rarely leave, and the leadership principles behind empowering educators to surpass their founders.Her message is clear: academic results matter, but so does giving students the agency, values, and courage to make a real difference.Download, subscribe, and share the #EdVance Podcast for conversations with the world's most influential education leaders.

What does it actually take to scale high-performing schools without compromising classroom quality?In this episode of the #EdVance Podcast, Brian Rogove, Founder and CEO of Ariston Education, unpacks nearly two decades of experience scaling global education groups across Asia and beyond. He explores why traditional growth strategies often fail, how leaders move from micromanagement to empowering distributed teams, and why the rise of AI makes human power skills more essential than ever.He also shares his practical playbook for setting non-negotiable standards, building psychological safety, and why schools should stop teaching coding to focus on what truly makes us human.Download, subscribe, and share the #EdVance Podcast for conversations with the world’s most influential education leaders.

What actually happens when a school decides that feeding children is just as important as teaching them?In this episode of the #EdVance Podcast, internationally acclaimed educator and founder of Green Bronx Machine, Stephen Ritz, explores what it really takes to engage students when traditional methods stop working. He questions conventional approaches to education, examines what traditional philanthropy gets wrong about creating lasting community impact, and makes a powerful case for addressing a child’s most fundamental needs as a foundation for learning.He also pushes us to rethink what we expect from leadership, performance, and institutional accountability, showing what becomes possible when schools create the conditions children need to thrive.Download, subscribe, and share the #EdVance Podcast for conversations with the world’s most influential education leaders.

Are universities failing worldwide?Between rising student debt, shrinking budgets, and shifting job markets, higher education is under severe pressure. In this episode of the #EdVance Podcast, Professor Sue Rigby, Vice-Chancellor of Edinburgh Napier University, makes a bold case for institutional reform.Moving from palaeontology research into university executive leadership, Professor Rigby breaks down why traditional university models no longer work, how to fix financial foundations without losing academic values, and what it really takes to lead exhausted teams through massive change.

Can schools really achieve high performance without putting staff wellbeing first?In this episode of the EdVance Podcast, Alan Williamson, CEO of Taaleem, one of the UAE’s largest education groups, shares what decades in education have taught him about building great schools. He explores why relationships, culture and exceptional teachers sit at the heart of school success, and why wellbeing and performance are far more connected than many leaders assume.He also shares his views on AI and technology, preparing young people for the future of work, and leading through uncertainty. For Alan, great leadership means choosing optimism, building people and making decisions with an eye for tomorrow.Download, subscribe and share the EdVance Podcast for conversations with the world’s most influential education leaders.

Corporate playbooks may work in business, but do they work in schools?In this episode of the EdVance Podcast, Dr Navin Valrani, CEO of Arcadia Education, reflects on his journey from the corporate world to educational leadership and what it has taught him about building great schools. He explores why standardisation has its limits, why leaders need to understand the individual journeys of the people they lead, and how to create environments where teachers and students thrive.He also reflects on what high performance really requires from leaders, and what should drive anyone thinking of starting a school. His advice is clear: do not start one for the money.Download, subscribe and share the EdVance Podcast for conversations with the world’s most influential education leaders.

You can have the best ideas, the best strategies and the best people and still fail to transform an education system. So what is the missing piece? In this episode of the EdVance Podcast, Iwan Syahril, former Director General at Indonesia’s Ministry of Education and Senior Advisor at Teach For All, reflects on what it really takes to lead education reform at scale. Drawing on his experience leading change across a system serving more than 53 million students, Iwan shares what leaders need to understand about purpose, people and the human side of transformation. He explores what makes a great school, how we can build a stronger teaching profession, why change cannot simply be mandated, and how leaders can empower people to become change agents. The conversation also examines innovation, technology and AI in education, and why technology matters most when it helps solve problems that actually matter. Download, subscribe and share the EdVance Podcast for conversations with the world’s most influential education leaders.

Schools know how to measure achievement. They are much less certain how to help young people understand themselves. That gap may help explain why so many leave school with impressive results but little confidence about the path ahead. In this episode of the EdVance Podcast, Devi Sahny, CEO of Ascend Now and The Edge, draws on her experience supporting more than 500,000 students across five continents to explore how schools can help every learner develop the confidence, self-awareness, and sense of purpose needed to thrive in a rapidly changing world. She explains why student voice should shape school improvement, why leaders should resist chasing every new trend, how AI is exposing long-standing weaknesses in education, why mentorship is becoming increasingly important, and the leadership principles behind building two globally recognised education ventures. Download, subscribe, and share the EdVance Podcast for conversations with the world's most influential education leaders.

India has one of the world's largest education systems, yet millions of children still learn through textbooks, blackboards, and memorisation. Everyone knows it has to change. Changing it in every classroom is the hard part.In this episode of the EdVance Podcast, Smita Deorah, Co-Founder and Co-CEO of LEAD Group, shares how her organisation built one of India's largest integrated school learning systems, partnering with around 9,000 schools and serving over four million students across India.She explains why standardisation is not the answer to scaling quality, why teacher education needs a complete rethink, what schools are getting wrong about AI, and the leadership principles that have shaped one of the world's largest school learning systems.Download, subscribe, and share the EdVance Podcast for conversations with the world's most influential education leaders.

Education is one of the only sectors where a failed product doesn't cost money. It costs a child a year of learning they never get back. In this episode of the EdVance Podcast, Hernan Carranza, Chief Innovation Officer at Intercorp, shares how he helped grow Innova Schools into the largest K–12 private school network in Spanish-speaking Latin America, and what it took to innovate inside a sector with almost no margin for error. He built an AI tool in-house for teachers and tested a new personalised learning model in a smaller market before scaling it, choosing small experiments over big rollouts at every step. Hernan explains why strategy can never be handed off to outside consultants. Download, subscribe, and share the EdVance Podcast for conversations with the world's most influential education leaders.