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Shaping the Future of Africa through Innovative Literacy Approaches

The future for the African continent as envisioned in the Pan African 2063 Agenda for “an integrated, prosperous and peaceful Africa, driven by its own citizens and representing a dynamic force in the global arena” calls for immediate action. The dynamic and unpredictable revolution in new and emerging technologies, especially Artificial Intelligence (AI) and machine learning, demands that we have a well-educated citizenry for Africa’s advancement and sustainable development.

Having been in the forefront of literacy empowerment in Africa since 1999, the Pan Africa Literacy For All
(PALFA) is positioned to support the new agenda through literacy dialogues. This will ensure that Africa, as a
continent, contributes significantly to the building of a “literate, creative and adaptive citizenry equipped with 21st Century skills for a competitive global environment”. This lofty vision will however remain a mirage if the
depressing education and literacy statistics at the continental, regional and national levels are not addressed as a matter of urgency and priority. The African continent, as a youthful population with low literacy rates, is
characterised with high percentage of out-of-school children (ages 5-9), while seven out of 10 children are unable to read and comprehend a passage at age 10.

Global digital technology companies seem to advocate “buttonification of education” as a panacea, arguing that
Edtech can save time and money by generating teaching and learning materials like curricula with a press of a button. However, critical scholars identify the risks and potential harms from algorithmic biases based on western knowledge systems and racialized ower elations, including the standardization of instructional design, and the marginalization or exclusion of African indigenous knowledge systems. Since education does not exist outside of literacy development, PALFA 2025 seeks to move beyond these dichotomous debates and envision what literacy education should look like in “The Africa we want” in the context of Agenda 2063.

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