Empowering Innovative Thinkers – A New Approach to Elevating Education in Africa

A new wave of change is brewing in Africa, and the scale of developmental strides sweeping across the length and breadth of the continent is increasingly attracting global attention. An article in the New York Times asserts that Africa’s rising population, which is also the youngest in the world, will position and transform the continent into a global economic powerhouse by 2050.

The projection is against the background of the current revolutionary progress driven by young Africans in varied fields of endeavors. Today, African music, like the Nigerian afrobeat, is a global sensation sung across major streets in New York, Paris, and Beijing. The continent’s sprouting innovation ecosystem, harnessed through entrepreneurship and technological growth, sits at the pivot of its promising future.

The meat of the matter points to the fact that Africa’s near future, through the lens of innovation, needs to be nurtured and empowered. Like the period that led to the Industrial Revolution in 18th-century Europe, the continent needs a conscientious approach to accelerate this new zeitgeist—weaved in the spirit of enterprise and inventiveness. There is no better way to drive the seismic shift than through education.

While education in African countries has continued to occupy unfavorable positions in the global ranking index, the recent surge of innovations, led by young students across institutions is promising. The infusion of innovation-driven subjects into school curricula has hugely contributed to the progression. In Nigeria, entrepreneurship and introduction to technology courses are compulsory for students starting in primary school. In 2011, most South African schools introduced technology into their curriculum to produce more engineers, technicians, and innovators to propel a technologically driven economy in the country. Edtech in Kenya, Côte d’Ivoire, and Egypt is currently on the rise like never before.

The growing pragmatic approach to education in Africa, as opposed to the age-long relic of theoretical schemas, has also greatly necessitated the birth of innovative thinking in classrooms and among students. Legit.ng, a Nigerian digital media and news platform reported in 2021 that a young Ghanaian student at Takoradi Technical Institute in the country’s Western Region, named Essilfie Abraham, invented an excavator that runs on water. Similarly, the Kenyan Broadcasting Corporation (KBC) reported in 2023 that students at Sacho High School in Kapseret, Kenya, invented an automated silage-making machine designed to reduce the cost of fodder production in rural communities across Kenya.

These innovations signal the rising profile of generative novel ideas among African students and significantly, it is becoming clear that inventions of this sort are beginning to gather momentum and garner far-reaching support across the globe. Last year, students from Gwani Ibrahim Dan Hajja Academy in Nigeria proposed a project to construct a solar dryer for smallholder farmers to prevent post-harvest losses and increase their income. The Academy’s invention became a subject of global recognition, after they won the Zayed Sustainability Prize in the High School category for Sub-Saharan Africa. While the prize has consistently empowered innovation in high school education for over two decades across various regions of the world, it also recognizes innovators in other social transformative categories such as Health, Food, Energy, Water, and Climate Action.

In the past 16 years, the Zayed Sustainability Prize has not only inspired innovative thinking and celebrated excellence in Africa but has continued to set the benchmark to elevate progressive education on the continent. The Prize is committed to empowering an African continent where young people are guided on the path of discovery, inventing new things, and harnessing their creative abilities to the fullest. To encourage innovation among students, high schools in Africa must begin to prioritize the three domains of learning in their curricula: affective, cognitive, and psychomotor skills. Knowledge in these areas will broaden students’ horizons and set them up for lifelong success.

Calling All Changemakers

The Zayed Sustainability Prize invites high schools across Africa to submit sustainable solutions demonstrating impact, innovation and inspiration. Apply for the Global High Schools category, where six winners from six world regions will each receive US $150,000. Student-led projects or proposals working in the sectors mentioned above are welcomed.

Do not miss this opportunity to make a difference. Apply today by visiting www.zayedsustainabilityprize.com. The deadline for submissions is 23 June 2024.