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With the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic, we undertook a series of profound reflections on the ideals we aspire to for the education sector as a whole, especially in terms of primary and secondary education. We aim to contribute, among other things, to rethinking comprehensive education, marked by the attractiveness of the teaching profession, which is reflected in both initial and ongoing teacher training, enriched by a greater and continuous dialogue between theory and practice. Additionally, we envision a redefinition of early childhood education, effective literacy accessible to all children, as well as a more engaging secondary education capable of preparing adolescents and young people to realize their life projects.

In the professional sphere, it is essential to pay attention to the new opportunities provided by the digital revolution and the regulation of the National Education System, with a clear definition of roles between the various bodies and entities involved, including ministries, state secretariats, and cooperation partners, in addition to ensuring the necessary funding. This is compounded by the urgent need to recover the learning losses caused by the pandemic, which jeopardized years of efforts to build a solid educational system.

This process involved the participation of teachers dedicated to the cause of education, analyzing metrics and educational policies. Without pretension, these will never be final reflections, nor do they claim to have all the solutions; however, they are presented with the intention and interest of citizens engaged in seeking theoretical paths to crises.

In a context marked by political and social challenges on the African continent, the African Union (AU) made a timely and relevant decision. Despite the turbulent times on the continent, marked by armed conflicts, coups, and political instability, the AU took on the responsibility of safeguarding the institution’s reputation, as well as the trust and credibility placed in it. Under the auspices of UNESCO and its regional office in Dakar, Senegal, a city that, in 1980, hosted the development of the Dakar Framework for Action aimed at universalizing education on the continent, the AU proclaimed 2024 as the “Year of Education in Africa.” In this direction, the AU encouraged the use of new tools and technologies, especially those related to information and communication, as crucial means capable of revitalizing teaching and learning across the continent.

The AU seems to have sought to respond to the debate about the impact of artificial intelligence (AI) on education. Two thematic axes were highlighted: secondary and technical-vocational education and the teaching of mathematics. Nobel Laureate in Economics, David Card, a professor at the University of California, stated that AI can assist in the pedagogical process, although its impact on the job market is still uncertain.

In reality, it seems difficult to predict the impact of artificial intelligence on careers in technology, mathematics, and engineering. However, Africa, and Mozambique in particular, should start focusing on enhancing the teaching of mathematics and statistics at the secondary level. These subjects, optional in some groups, may be fundamental to mandatory training in data science and computing.

With the 1980 Dakar Declaration, the massification of national systems was often observed throughout the continent, and Mozambique was no exception. Today, over 90% of children may attend school. However, access has other indicators and is distinct from mere enrollment. Access relates to structured education, educational infrastructure, and the necessary quality, including teaching materials and motivated teachers. Yet, this access has suffered setbacks. The idea that all of us support the notion of having alternative areas of specialization to be chosen by students at this stage, as happens in other countries with strong education systems, made the principle of “school for all” seem like a distant dream. Across Africa, advocating for a curriculum with six, seven, eight, or even thirteen subjects crammed into three and a half hours of classes, offering only a superficial understanding of each, made little sense then and continues to make little sense now.

Despite repeated efforts to improve the crisis in educational systems on the continent, particularly to address its two main contradictions, there are still schools with minimal infrastructure, overcrowded classrooms, inadequate teaching materials, and demotivated teachers without the necessary resources. The promises of a dignified education, moving towards modernity and progress for all, are fading. Statistics show that students are unable to learn the essentials after four or five years of schooling, and more seriously, functional illiteracy is rising and taking on alarming proportions.

As if the problems and the crisis were not enough, we now face, across the continent, including in our own country, the phenomenon of terrorism, which destabilizes schools, uses students to swell its ranks, and transports the loot from its raids to the villages. Terrorism forces this youth to indefinitely postpone their dreams of integrating into a just and equitable society. Worse than illiteracy itself is terrorism.

In reality, in the Fourth Scientific and Industrial Revolution, we cannot remain detached from the world and its essential foundation, artificial intelligence. The digital revolution, driven by artificial intelligence, is bound to induce and shape inevitable changes in societies’ cultural, political, economic, and productive systems. Therefore, it is impossible to rethink education systems per se, or the integration of education in Africa, without being able to follow these dynamics and trends. Let us join the world by improving competitiveness indices, more suitable teaching methodologies, and above all, an appropriate foundational education. Working at the grassroots level yields far more results than focusing only on the top.

No one knows for sure how the agreements and decisions made at the 2024 African Summit in Ethiopia will be implemented and translated into regular practices or incorporated into national public education policies. In fact, it is not even clear to what extent we can reverse the worrying and disheartening situation that is afflicting the younger generations in the short and medium term. Dysfunctionalities are multiplying, and their resolution has become an imperative.

We fear, due to the disillusionment taking hold of families, teachers, and educational administrators, that constraints will undermine promises of improvement and, consequently, lead to the collapse of dreams for a continent educated for modernity, technology, and artificial intelligence. Even more troubling is our sense of incapacity and ineffectiveness in dealing with all that troubles even the most uninformed citizens.

The changes suggested by the AU should, it is presumed, not be distant from the observations of various scholars and educators on or in the continent. In fact, they result from this interconnected set of social, demographic, and budgetary phenomena, in addition to the shortage of teachers and infrastructure. These are, in fact, fundamental issues that could help us become part of a globally integrated and competitive economic system, where we would embrace communication and information technologies and artificial intelligence and place them at the heart of the educational and knowledge revolution we long for. The continent pursues the dream of modernizing and offering the same possibilities to its youth that other continents provide, looking for development and progress that is neither dependent on aid nor the fluctuations of raw material prices in the global market.

In the global economy, Africa has always served as a producer and exporter of raw materials. After enduring a long history of constraints and fractures, the continent needs to adjust to the time of profound transformations to understand that what was an alternative in the past is no longer viable. Comparative advantages have ceased to exist. Continuing in the same manner will only lead us backward and worsen the progress that has been made.

We need a more innovation-aligned approach and a political and social dialogue that takes the best from all sectors of society. Politics must be about knowledge and the ability to adapt to new technologies and technological assumptions. In other words, the African continent has learned, in the worst way, that the lack of knowledge and qualification of its workforce takes too long to address, that its best talents vanish to support more developed economies, and, above all, that we are widening the gap between those who have and those who lack resources, and, even more crucially, the means to feed themselves and sustain themselves.

Following Judith Butler’s question, “What World Is This?” (2022), about those who still believe another world is possible and that we cannot give up fighting for it, we must bring the debates about education and educational systems in Africa back into the light of technology and the challenges of modernizing systems. Therefore, promoting a constructive and creative dialogue among these different visions and possibilities must be on the agenda of African governments.

The hopelessness of young people regarding the future, worsened by the crises of employability, reflects the perception that the solution lies in private education or emigration. The time has come to place education at the core of policy, not just with promises but with concrete actions. We need to think and act to shape the future of work and ensure that education is the key to a modern, technological, and prosperous African continent.