eLearning Africa Plenary Debate: “This House Believes Africa’s Education Systems Are Preparing Young People for a World That No Longer Exists - and Setting Them Up to Fail as a Result.”

Across Africa, education still rests on a powerful assumption: that if young people study, gain qualifications and build skills, they will move into stable and meaningful employment. But for a growing number, that pathway does not exist. The conditions they are entering are far less predictable. Labour markets are under strain and are not absorbing the scale of young people entering them. Much economic activity is informal, fragmented and unstable, while the nature of work itself is shifting rapidly under the influence of AI and global change. Education systems, however, remain organised around fixed curricula, standardised qualifications and assumed linear transitions into employment. They are still oriented towards completion, certification and entry into jobs - even where such pathways are limited, unstable or already evolving beyond recognition. This raises a more fundamental question of alignment. Are systems keeping pace with how work is evolving, or are they still preparing young people for a model that is increasingly out of reach?