It might seem strange for everyone to be getting so excited about data, Chair of the Board of Directors for the Global Partnership for Education Julia Gillard told Devex at Women Deliver 2016. But it’s exciting because it supports a new framework for improving education, she added.

The old MDG framework of “build schools and they will come” — and considering that a job well done — is a thing of the past.

“What we know from the Millennium Development Goal period is children come to school and they simply don’t learn because the quality is so poor,” Gillard said. “And we’re now needing to make sure that we’re expanding access to more than just primary school, but lifting quality.”

It’s a “new information and data journey” for many development partners, she added.

Find out more about how Gillard views cross-sector collaboration between education and global health sectors and watch the full Devex interview here.