Africa faces a shortage of nearly 15 million teachers to meet universal primary and secondary education goals by 2030, according to a report published by UNESCO.
To tackle this shortage, there is a need to shift from the exclusive use of traditional teaching methods to the implementation and use of education technology (EdTech). According to UNICEF, about 108 million young people across the continent are out of school. These staggering numbers point to the work that must be done to chart the path to meaningful education for Africa’s young population.
One of governments’ main roles is to create enabling environments for various sectors and industries to thrive. One indicator of an enabling environment is the formation of policies that inform decision-making. To make suitable investments in education, policies relevant to 21st-century learning need to be formulated. EdTech-specific policies would guide investment in technology-enabled education.
The October 2024 edition of Mastercard Foundation EdTech Mondays Africa brought together education ministers from Ghana and Sierra Leone, experts from the Mastercard Foundation, and education specialists Inspiring Teachers Ghana to assess the role of policy in advancing education technology.
The World Bank’s Education and Technology Readiness Index (ETRI) emphasizes that well-structured policies and practices are essential for effectively integrating technology in education.
Some countries are way ahead of others in driving policy development and implementation. Rwanda, for example, has drafted its EdTech Policy, which is awaiting official approval. Ethiopia’s ICT in Education Strategy and Policy has been approved, while Ghana is in the early stages of a roadmap to develop its EdTech strategy and policy.
In Ghana, the education system is undergoing a significant transformation and is being retooled for the “Fourth Industrial Revolution.” Through education reforms, young learners in Ghana who terminated their education at lower levels now have an opportunity to further their education.
“With the Fourth Industrial Revolution, everything is changing. Jobs we thought were good and reliable will no longer exist in the next few years. For Ghana to remain competitive in the global economy, the government decided that education—from kindergarten all the way through high school and university—had to be looked at through a different prism altogether,” said Dr. Yaw Osei Adutwum, Ghana’s Minister for Education. “[This is] a process that began by looking at the purpose of education through the development of STEM high schools for girls to ensure their numbers went up.”
This has resulted in Ghana coming close to attaining gender parity in secondary education.
Adutwum added that while Ghana has mineral resources, including gold, which can transform the economy, developing policies that spur human capital is more important if the country is to remain competitive in the global economy.
Sound education technology policies can also help education ecosystems remain resilient in the wake of diverse shocks that cause wide disruptions.
Sierra Leone, for example, has experienced multiple shocks and disruptions. Its 11-year civil war (1991-2002) greatly impacted the number of teachers working in the education system, followed a decade later by the Ebola outbreak in 2014, which forced schools to shut down for almost a year. And just six years after that, in 2020, COVID-19 disrupted the education system in the country once again.
“As a result of all that, the government took a deliberate action to introduce education technology as a tool not only to leapfrog our way to the 21st century but also to recover from learning losses. This is why technology sits right at the center of our educational system,” said Conrad Sackey, Minister for Basic and Senior Secondary Education in Sierra Leone.
While many African governments recognize the importance of developing effective education policies, panelists at the EdTech Mondays event said that the focus of these policies must be on the continent’s diverse challenges and how technology investments can address them.
A key priority when drafting any policy is listening to stakeholders. In this case, this group should include the EdTech community, users, teachers, and, most importantly, parents. This way, policies can achieve more than just putting devices and internet access in the hands of teachers and learners.
“We must look at the skills gaps and how to bridge them, especially for the educators. We don’t have to wait for everyone to be at par [across Africa] because we have seen very innovative, locally developed EdTech solutions that are bridging some of these gaps in access,” noted Suraj Shah, Head of Strategic Partnerships and Thought Leadership at the Mastercard Foundation Centre for Innovative Teaching and Learning.
Once the skills gaps are addressed, Shah says Africa needs policies to change the way classrooms are run. He recommends rethinking the current “one-way information system” in which the teacher stands in front of a classroom, speaks, and learners take notes. Instead, he advises that education systems of the 21st century should allow for integration of tutor-student interaction and practical project assignments backed by technology.
“By introducing EdTech in schools, we make the education system resilient so that if physical learning in the classroom is disrupted, there will be a way for learners to continue learning,” he said.
What, then, are some of the key indicators of an effective EdTech policy?
According to Regina Mensah from Inspiring Teachers Ghana, an effective policy should achieve the following:
- Increase accessibility to education technology for all communities, especially those facing the most significant barriers to success.
- Narrow the gender gap by having an equal number of boys and girls with access to education technology.
- Measure the upward trajectory of learning outcomes. For example, a country’s number of exam seating candidates and their performance should have increased by a certain percentage in their basic education examination each year.
Mensah adds the continent’s challenge lies not in the lack of such policies but in the implementation of the ones already formulated. “Policies are there, but they are crafted to be implemented. It is at the implementation stage that you get the effect of the kind of policy that has been formulated,” she says.
Collaboration, it was agreed, is critical to continent-wide success in transforming the education system, since lack of infrastructure, accessibility, funding, and personnel constraints are shared challenges. If African countries could establish a way to exchange insights into education policy formulation and share success stories with one another, they could leapfrog the development phase and move directly into implementing policies that support education technology.
