The Director of School for Life, Wedad Sayibu, has called for a thorough re-examination of how Africa’s learning crisis is defined, arguing that the prevailing Western framework fails to capture the continent’s cultural realities and holistic educational needs.
She made the call during the launch of Professor Kwame Akyeampong’s latest book, co-authored with Dr Sean Higgins, titled “Reconceptualizing the Learning Crisis in Africa: Multi-dimensional Pedagogies of Accelerated Learning Programs,” at the Kempinski Hotel Gold Coast City, Accra, on Wednesday, October 22, 2025.
Ms Sayibu commended the authors for their insightful work, describing it as a bold and thought provoking piece especially needed in these times of Africa’s learning challenges, educational innovation, and aspirations. She acknowledged there is indeed a crisis in education across Africa but questioned the dominant framing of that crisis.
She pointed out that the current understanding is narrowly framed through Western inspired values and norms, and that is where the real problem lies. According to her, the global conversation around Africa’s learning crisis has primarily been reduced to test scores and literacy benchmarks, leaving out other crucial dimensions of learning.
Ms Sayibu emphasized that such a narrow view obscures the development of vital skills, including critical thinking, emotional and social intelligence, vocational training, and life skills, all of which are indispensable to the continent’s socio-economic transformation. She further criticized the tendency to prioritize foreign languages over local ones in African education systems.
She stated that the emphasis is usually placed on foreign languages, English and French, the languages of former colonial powers, to the neglect of local languages. She added that community knowledge, languages, and cultural strengths shape education in ways that top down approaches often fail to achieve.
Highlighting a more community centered model, Ms Sayibu cited Ghana’s Complementary Basic Education programme as an example of a locally relevant and inclusive approach. She described it as a community driven, targeted, and contextually relevant model that ensures communities are deeply involved throughout the processes of teaching and learning.
She explained that the programme is designed so the learning process is highly flexible, allowing time arrangements that reflect the social and economic realities of the community. She noted that in farming communities where mornings and early afternoons are busy periods for children’s farm work participation, afternoon or evening lessons may be more appropriate to ensure children can participate fully.
