Introduction

This introductory chapter reviews the uneven global journey of getting schools to work better despite its importance as well-acknowledged in the fourth Sustainable Development Goal (SDG4) specified in the United Nations 2030 agenda. It argues that the key issue lies in the unhelpful configuration of educational accountability relationships that overly emphasise performance and exert the pressure disproportionally on government schools and teachers. I then present the conceptual departure this book plans to take with the conception of “Accountability 3.0.” Above all, the new conception proposes to combine disciplinary and supportive measures to fulfil diverse purposes of accountability including assurance, control and improvement. The intrinsic and instrumental values of the empirical focus on China and India are justified subsequently. While explaining the theoretical, empirical and policy-oriented contributions of the book, I also briefly describe the organisation of the chapters.