By Alicia-Ann Caesar, Charlotte Iraguha, Josephine Saidu, Mesfin Derash, and Yukabeth Kidenda
With a youthful population set to become the world’s greatest workforce, Africa faces significant challenges in human capacity development. As education leaders working on the frontlines of social impact in countries across the continent – Ethiopia, Kenya, Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Uganda–we witness daily the immense challenges within our education systems, from growing populations and inadequate infrastructure to the low status of teachers, to the need for more comprehensive teacher training.
Despite these challenges, we’ve seen firsthand that educators and leaders at every level of the education system are the key to unlocking our human potential. As we mark World Teachers’ Day, it’s crucial to reflect on the state of education and the unique role these leaders play in shaping our collective future.
Across much of Africa, our education systems struggle with persistent systemic limitations. Resource constraints and management issues divert critical funding from where it’s needed most, leading to teacher shortages and overcrowded classrooms. The low status and perception of teaching as a “fallback career” often impacts the profession’s ability to attract the most talented young Africans with the skill and passion to inspire learning in their students, drive excellence in the classrooms, and create innovative solutions to challenges in the broader community.
Breaking this cycle requires more than piecemeal solutions. It demands a cultural revolution in how society perceives and values education. This movement must start with recognizing teaching and leadership in education as crucial drivers of development across the continent. We need passionate young Africans to join this movement to solve the challenges of education and human capacity development in our communities. We need visionary leaders with empathy, integrity, and a deep understanding of the challenges to lead in shaping the solutions.
Our work over the past several years has given us a profound sense of possibility. We’ve seen that when passionate, promising young leaders, from diverse academic backgrounds and career interests, invest their time and talent in education, even in the most challenging environments, they can drive remarkable improvements, inspire communities, and reinvent systems around children.
In Teach For Kenya, Beverly Mutua, an astrophysics graduate turned educator is inspiring a new generation of girls to pursue STEM fields, leveraging her real-world experience to make abstract concepts tangible and relevant; driven by her desire to make a positive impact and contribute to addressing education inequality in Kenya.
In Teach For Liberia, geologist-turned-educator, Solomon P. Davis, is introducing innovative teaching methods to spark a love of learning in his students. Although initially committing to just 2 years, he is now studying for a mathematics degree to expand his skills, and also launch a social impact initiative to help address issues that keep girls out of school.
These educators give meaning to the saying that “classrooms are ordinary buildings without the teachers”. In Sierra Leone, for example, the impact of these young leaders has inspired local communities to rally around and create spaces for learning. Sometimes, these spaces are simply rooms in religious houses where kids and teachers engage in learning. Similarly, in Ethiopia, despite the infrastructural limitations, the success of Teach For Ethiopia in raising the academic outcomes of kids in rural communities underscores the centrality of leadership in our classrooms.
This movement is more than just a collection of individual success stories – it’s the beginning of a systemic transformation. We see young Africans who, after teaching and experiencing firsthand the inequities affecting children, go on to found schools, work in government, and build nonprofits with innovative solutions. They address critical issues from food security in Uganda to girls’ education in Liberia and improved mental health for children across Kenya.
Our call for a system-wide transformation is not just about the pedagogical approach in the classrooms. Nor is it about policy changes alone. We must work towards collective action. We will also need people exercising leadership and agency in government and our communities. Governments must prioritize education in both policy and budget allocations. Communities must rally behind their educators, supporting their professional growth and recognizing their crucial role in societal development. The private sector too should partner with education initiatives to scale impactful solutions. Most importantly, we call on more young Africans to see education as a field of innovation and impact in shaping a better future for us all. Your energy, your ideas, and your commitment are the fuel this movement for positive change across our continent needs. Our hope is to build a movement and grow the collective leadership necessary for systemic transformation.
On this World Teachers’ Day, let us recognize the complex challenges facing human capital development, but more importantly, recognize that by investing in educators and leadership needed to transform education systems around children across Africa, we set our nations on a path of sustainable development. The challenges are significant, but so too is the opportunity.
The future of our continent is being shaped daily in our classrooms and through the leadership of people at every level of our education systems. While technical improvements like curriculum revisions are important, they alone cannot drive the transformative change we need. The true catalyst lies in the hands of passionate, skilled educators and leaders who bring these improvements to life. Therefore, let us commit to investing in attracting and developing the best talents for education in Africa.