The release of the Tākina Accord: Advocating inclusive, scalable, and sustainable education, following the 2025 ICDE Educational Policy Forum, marks an important moment for global advocacy in open, flexible and distance learning. Developed from the voices of more than 250 education leaders, students and policymakers, the Accord sets out a coherent framework for inclusive, scalable and sustainable education systems. 

From a FLANZ perspective, what is most striking is how closely the Tākina Accord aligns with our own advocacy for the New Zealand schooling sector, Enhancing Education Access in the New Zealand Schooling Sector Through Online Networked Learning. Although the Tākina Accord focuses primarily on tertiary education, its core principles translate powerfully into compulsory schooling. 

At heart, both the Accord and the FLANZ advocacy paper are concerned with the same challenge: how education systems can equitably serve diverse learners, across geography, circumstance and aspiration, while remaining financially and operationally sustainable.

The Tākina Accord’s first principle, that policy must incentivise practices that are inclusive, sustainable and scalable, directly reflects FLANZ’s long-standing call for an enabling policy framework for Virtual Learning Networks (VLNs) in schools. In New Zealand, VLNs such as Kōtui Ako, NetNZ and Te Whare Angitū already demonstrate how collaboration between schools can extend curriculum access, better utilise scarce teaching expertise, and improve system resilience. However, as our advocacy paper makes clear, these benefits are constrained by short-term, uncertain funding and the absence of clear regulatory recognition. 

The Tākina Accord also highlights the need for evidence-based policy centred on student experience, valuing indigenous knowledge systems and addressing the needs of diverse learners. FLANZ’s advocacy echoes this through its focus on small, rural and remote schools, Māori-medium education, and learners whose curriculum access is limited by school size or location. Networked learning has proven particularly effective in supporting te reo Māori provision, kura Māori, and culturally grounded models of teaching and learning.

FLANZ advocates for system-level standards and guidance that recognise online and networked learning as equivalent, not supplementary, to traditional provision. Here, the Accord’s call for assurance and standards that are contextually relevant also resonates strongly with the schooling sector. Current regulatory settings in New Zealand are largely designed for single-site, face-to-face schooling. As a result, VLN provision often operates at the margins, despite its demonstrated quality and impact. 

FLANZ’s paper reinforces that connectivity and devices, while necessary, are insufficient on their own. What matters equally is teacher capability. Here we see both documents highlight professional learning as system-critical infrastructure. In the schooling context, sustained investment in online and hybrid teaching capability enables not only curriculum extension but also resilience in times of disruption, as was clearly demonstrated during COVID-19 and more recent regional school closures.

Notably, the Tākina Accord’s emphasis on lifelong learning provides a compelling bridge between schooling and tertiary education. By positioning open, flexible and distance learning as core system capacity, the Accord invites policymakers to think beyond sector silos. FLANZ’s vision for a coherent national approach to networked learning in schools aligns with this systems-thinking perspective. Preparing learners to engage confidently in online and flexible learning environments during schooling lays the foundations for lifelong participation in further education and work.

Taken together, the Tākina Accord and FLANZ’s advocacy paper tell a consistent story: effective education systems are collaborative, learner-centred and future-focused. The global principles articulated in the Accord validate and strengthen the case for local action in New Zealand’s schooling sector. 

Both documents argue that innovation cannot thrive on goodwill alone; policy alignment and sustained investment are essential.

For FLANZ, this global-local alignment reinforces the call for policy, funding and regulatory settings that recognise networked learning as an integral part of a resilient, equitable education system—one that can meet today’s challenges while preparing learners for tomorrow.