John Wood
Director and Lead Consultant, Education Development
John Wood trained in Mathematics and as a teacher of Mathematics and Computing and was involved in the early developments of ICT use in schools, working in the Advisory Unit for Computer Based Education and then the Open University Institute of Educational Technology as team manager for the Micros in Schools Project. He was active in professional associations and was founding editor of Micromath, a journal of the Association of Teachers of Mathematics.
In 1984 he joined the British Council as Senior Education Adviser for Mathematics and ICT, providing professional advice to the Overseas Development Agency (now the Department for International Development (DFID)), on the development, implementation and monitoring of aid projects and programmes.
Since that time he has been fully involved in education development in the design and implementation of projects, programmes and developmental partnerships. From 1988 to 1990 he worked as Adviser on an ICT project to the Ministry of Education in Jordan and subsequently worked as an independent consultant and founding partner of Education for Change.
He has worked extensively in Europe, Africa and Asia and within EfC’s portfolio of work in the British education system. He has undertaken numerous individual contracts for the World Bank, Asian Development Bank, DFID and other development agencies. He has extensive experience in Bangladesh, the transitional economies of Central Asia and Eastern Europe and Indonesia, but has also undertaken significant projects in Kenya, the Caribbean and South America.
Increasingly he has specialised in monitoring and the evaluation of education development initiatives and of systemic development, drawing on experience of diverse policy, governance and cultural contexts, along with changing professional practice. He has undertaken major contracts covering: sector strategy; programme development; governance and management; the policies and practices of harmonisation of aid modalities; and the re-alignment of the partnerships for development.
He has led major thematic evaluations including: the international Joint Evaluation of External Support to Basic Education, as a country Team Leader, (www.euforic.org/iob); the Assessment of the Primary Education Development Programme in Bangladesh; and the Thematic Review of Belgium’s Aid to the Education and Training Sector.
In these, and his implementation projects, he has led multinational teams and demonstrated the skills necessary to build team cohesion, to manage evidence collection and document production and to benefit from the variety of perspectives within the team. He creates an efficient, supportive and friendly working environment and works to build the same relationship with all those involved in education, from officials to the youngest of the stakeholders.