The Provost of the College of Education at the University of Ghana, Professor Samuel Nii Ardey Codjoe, has cautioned that inadequate planning of education systems in Africa risks trapping the continent in a perpetual cycle of reaction rather than leadership.
Speaking at the opening of the Foresight Analysis Workshop of the Africa Regional Education System Resilience Observatory (ARESRO), organised by the Legon Centre for Education Research and Policy (LECERP), Prof. Codjoe highlighted the urgency of rethinking how African education systems respond to disruptions. He underscored that resilience must go beyond recovery and focus on building systems that can anticipate, absorb, adapt, and transform in the face of adversity.
“Resilience in education is no longer understood as merely recovery from crisis. It is about the capacity of systems to anticipate, absorb, adapt, and transform in the face of adversity,” he said.
Mr. Joseph Oduro Nkansah, Registrar of the College of Education, also called on stakeholders at the workshop to actively participate in strengthening resilience in Africa’s education systems, emphasising that resilience is a shared responsibility.
“Resilience is not built in isolation; it is built through partnership. Participants must not be passive recipients of policy decisions, but active contributors to shaping the future of education,” he noted.
The Director of LECERP, Dr. Clement Adamba, added that the ARESRO project, spanning 42 countries, is designed to move beyond reactive responses to crises by generating forward-looking insights.
“Our goal is to collectively identify priority domains of shocks and stressors that may significantly affect our education systems and help us understand possible future scenarios,” he said.
The Project Manager at the Resilient Africa Network at Makerere University, Ms. Damalie Kajumba Nsangi, also stressed the need to leverage shared knowledge and experiences across African countries facing similar challenges in their education systems.
She described the workshop as an opportunity to create a “collective think tank” that brings together diverse stakeholders to harness data and innovation for stronger systems.
“This collaboration will create a collective think tank that leverages the growing digital information and data available across the continent,” she added.
The ARESRO initiative aims to generate evidence on building resilient education systems across Africa to ensure that countries can effectively respond to emerging challenges and maintain continuity in learning, even during crises.
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Story by Wonder Mansah Agbengu | univers.ug.edu.gh
Edited by Gabriel Tecco Mensah
