INVESTMENT IN EDUCATION AND ONLINE LEARNING IN AFRICA

Prior to 2020, trends across sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia demonstrate the traction of online education as a cost-effective approach to making educational opportunities more accessible. Today, remote learning has transformed into a key component of the new normal, proving that wide-scale implementation is not only possible, but necessary.

Technological innovations in Africa can drastically reduce barriers and bring millions of African students online for the first time, provided that we can overcome connectivity infrastructure challenges and hardware/material costs. There is an unprecedented opportunity for Africa to accelerate education through technology, which is why investment in the sector is a priority for Africa. The global digital economy will enable millions of young Africans to partake and contribute to the sustainability of the continent’s development.

How do we align the AU Continental Education Strategy for Africa with technological integration? What are the opportunities and challenges that the continent will need to address to systematize both in-person and remote educational opportunities? How do we ensure pedagogical continuity and the opportunity that e-learning represents in this context?

This panel seeks to explore models of online education and need for investment in catalyzing digital education to meet the immediate and long-term needs of the continent.