Are African Education Curricula Effectively Preparing Citizens for the Future

Introduction

Many African countries inherited education systems from colonial times, which often do not align with their societies' current and future needs. African education systems are at a crucial juncture, facing the challenge of equipping students with the skills and knowledge needed to thrive in the 21st century. For African education curricula to effectively prepare citizens for the future, they must be relevant, inclusive, and aligned with the needs of the modern world.

All About Curriculum

To start with, Curriculum is not the lesson plan, nor is it the scheme of work, as many people define it. In the context of education, the curriculum is a standards-based sequence of planned experiences where students practise and achieve proficiency in content and applied learning skills. It provides guidance and a framework for educators as to what is important for learning and teaching. In a simpler term, the education curriculum defines the learning outcomes and the planned activities to achieve those outcomes. A comprehensive curriculum includes ‘the plan (what ought to happen)’ and ‘the experience(how things are in the classroom). In this rapidly changing society, it has become imperative for countries’ education curricula to be up-to-date, adapt to an evolving world, use evidence-based teaching techniques (with adequate context modifications), and promote collaboration and smart objectives. There have been several projections that Africa is the future and the future is Africa. But how is our educational system in Africa preparing the youths and the professional communities for this future? Are our curricula well-aligned to empower youths to be relevant in the future?

The Assessment of the Current State of Education Curriculum in Africa

An ideal education curriculum should be able to adapt to society's realities and needs. As society changes, with novel research breakthroughs, technological innovations, labour market and industry demands evolve, education curricula should respond to these changes. In most African countries, however, education curricula are often modified reactively, rather than being designed through proactive projections and forecasts of future needs. While change is undeniably constant, unpredictable, and rapid, a well-designed education curriculum does not leave those equipped with it at a disadvantage before the next review or modification is carried out. There is a huge gap to cover in Africa’s curriculum development. While many call for a total overhaul, experts featured on our webinar made solid recommendations that what is required is not an overhaul or a total revamp, but an evidence-based, collaborative and industry-relevant upgrade, adaptation and improvement. Common challenges include outdated content, insufficient focus on critical thinking and problem-solving skills, and a lack of resources and teacher training. Additionally, there is often a disconnect between education and the labour market, resulting in high unemployment rates among graduates and a lack of relevance on a global scale.

Digital literacy, climate change education, robotics, coding and programming, critical thinking and problem-solving, creativity and innovation, among others, are lacking in the education curriculum or national policy on education in most African countries. Trends have shown that there is usually a misalignment between what the students learn in the classroom and what is expected of them when they get out into different sectors or industries.

Exploring the Age of National Education Policies in Africa

The education curriculum is a subset of the national policy on education in any country. The national policy on education defines the vision, and direction, including goals and objectives, standards for assessment, allocation of resources etc for what a country aims to achieve through education. The circulation operates with the policy frameworks and carries out planned activities to achieve the goal of the national policy on education. When the policy is wrong, there is a high likelihood that the curriculum is wrong. The last publication date of education policy in selected African countries was carried out. These African countries were selected using a systematic random sampling technique, using the list of African countries published by WHO, Africa Region. Every 5th country was picked till the 9th Country was selected. Nigeria was picked manually to be the 10th country

Education policy review is important because it provides the framework and strategy for a country’s educational system. When an education policy is reviewed, an overall assessment of the educational system is carried out, including teacher policies and capacity-building of teachers and other educators, curriculum development, policy evaluation and assessment of the achievement of the goals set from the last objective. It is popularly recommended that education policies should be reviewed every five years. This is imperative because it helps to adapt to changing needs, address emerging challenges, implement improvements and ensure relevance.

From the sample assessment carried out, it is evident that countries like Nigeria and Burkina Faso still have policies that are 11 years old, while Equatorial Guinea has 16 years of education policy. One of the most affected sectors by the Covid-19 pandemic is the education sector. While countries in Europe and Asia have made necessary policy adjustments to their educational system by leveraging on lessons learnt from the pandemic, many African countries are still stuck with age-long, archaic, education policies and curricula.

Areas to Prioritise in our Curriculum as a Continent

As the continent experiences rapid technological advancements, economic shifts, and social changes, it is essential to evaluate and reform education curricula to meet contemporary needs and future demands.

• Review National Policies on Education: Every African country needs to redefine their education vision and objectives. The policies need to be reviewed to reflect modern-day realities and prioritise investments that can secure the future. Data-driven policies with inputs from people of different generations and with different expertise need to be developed.
• Align curriculum to sector skills: The worrisome disconnect between education and the outside needs to end. Education must adequately prepare the learners for the real world and equip them with skills and competencies to navigate their path successfully while adding value and contributing to the development of the sector they find themselves in. Revise content and context by leveraging input from industries.
• Refocus the learning outcomes: Education is largely accepted as being contributory to human capital development and it has been established that learning outcomes from formal education are a useful indicator of future economic growth and productivity. Countries like Nigeria have recorded low learning outcomes, while 87% of children in Africa cannot read and write. We need to move away from training children to be able to just read and write to focus on skills, outcomes, behaviours, practicals etc.
• Adapt to local needs and global perspectives: Learning from more developed educational systems is recommended, but duplicating learning systems 100% will not produce the required outcomes. There is a need to think globally but act locally and ensure that strategies are consistent with the African content and context.
• Equip teachers or curriculum implementers: The quality of a curriculum is as important as the quality of those who will interpret, implement or teach the curriculum. African nations need to invest more in teacher development, including pre-service and in-service development of teachers. Equipping teachers goes beyond giving them the right instructional teaching and learning materials or providing conducive learning environments but also includes ensuring teacher welfare through quality packages. Many people shy away from teaching because of the way the teaching profession has been managed.

Achieving 21 st Century-relevant Curriculum Through Partnerships

The need for partnership and collaboration for sustainable development cannot be over-emphasized. Developing an effective curriculum requires the input of more than just education specialists or experts. Involvement and strategic input from players in different sectors and industries have become pertinent in this 21st century and are a panacea for preparing learning for a reasonable future.

• Research and Development – No true curriculum improvement or policy review can take place without quality research and data collection. African curriculum developers need to engage in extensive research about education, generate data, learn from international nations with remarkable results, and localize, contextualize and adapt accordingly. Input from industry and basic research should be used to develop a sustainable framework.
• Involvement of Industry Experts in Policy Design and Curriculum Development- Silo operation between education institutions and industry experts needs to stop. Experts in different sectors and industries need to be involved in education policy design and curriculum development. Their insights on market intelligence, market forces, trends and demands could go along when they are involved both in advisory and technical capacity.
• Funding – Effective curriculum development is not cheap; it requires a lot of resources and funding. This is where private sectors alongside state governments, and international development organizations need to mobilize resources to fund activities that would result in quality education design, including funding research, sponsorship of capacity development for curriculum developers and teachers, supply of teaching and learning materials etc.
• Government – While many advocates have argued against the popular opinion that education is the government’s responsibility, the truth is that the government remains the biggest education stakeholder in a country. The government has a role in developing effective education policies, and by placing premium value on education through adequate budgetary allocation, ensuring teacher welfare as people who will interpret and implement the curriculum.

Conclusion

The education curriculum in Africa may not be adequately preparing our youths for the future. The curriculum needs to be constantly reviewed and updated as well as the national policies on education that provide the frameworks for the curriculum. Multi-sector and industry collaboration with government and education agencies has become a necessity to reduce the gaps between the classroom and the labour market. Having a good policy and curriculum will amount to nothing if we don’t have the right teachers to interpret and teach the curriculum. Quality teachers need to be recruited sieving out possible charlatans while ensuring there is continuous in-service training for them.

Catch the replay of our webinar on this topic HERE