French President Emmanuel Macron’s recent assertion that Africa “is not yet ready to manage its own affairs” and his warning that a French withdrawal could halt African progress have ignited fierce debate.
While many have condemned his remarks as neo-colonial and dismissive of African agency, the uncomfortable reality is that Macron’s claim resonates uncomfortably with the crisis in African classrooms.
But Macron is wrong to suggest that Africa’s future depends on perpetual foreign aid.
The real emergency is not about Macron’s presence or absence; it’s about whether Africa can urgently reinvent its own systems to survive the unfolding age of automation and disruption.
Nowhere is this more urgent than in our schools because Africa’s educational systems remain colonial in design, obsolete in content and catastrophic in outcome.
The ‘Assembly Line’
Africa’s 600 million youths are racing against time. The world is sprinting toward a new age – the age of abundance, where artificial intelligence (AI), robotics and decentralised systems rewrite the rules of survival.
Yet, our schools remain factories – relics of a colonial-industrial complex designed to produce clerks, not innovators; cogs in a machine, not system thinkers.
Here’s the brutal truth: 78% of African graduates are unemployable in a tech-driven economy (I dare say 90%), and by 2030, 85% of clerical jobs will vanish. This isn’t a prediction – it’s an extinction event. Ask yourself:
Why are we training children for jobs that will no longer exist? Why do African schools punish curiosity while rewarding conformity? Africa’s educational system was built on two toxic pillars: Colonial interests and industrial-era logic.African classrooms were never meant for personal and societal transformation. They were tools to erase identity, suppress critical thought and funnel generations into ‘labour for income’ extraction industries and bureaucracies, keeping people in jobs automation is now making redundant.The curriculum? A “rigid, linear and uniform” script assuming that everyone must labour to survive – “memorise names of past presidents” – conform to the weight of irrelevance and repeat tasks. But factory gates are closing. Machines can now plant crops, process data and manage logistics.Automated factory robots don’t need breaks; AI doesn’t go on strike and machines already outperform humans in tasks involving speed, precision and repetition. Yet, African schools still drill in 19th century logic.This educational system is a blueprint for obsolescence in the modern world. This is the dark truth from Macron. The system isn’t broken – it’s a death sentence.
Existential threat
Automation isn’t coming, it’s already here.
AI accountants are streamlining financial tasks, robot surgeons are transforming healthcare, 3D printing is changing manufacturing and autonomous drones are revolutionising engineering and construction projects.
What happens to the millions studying law, accounting or engineering?
Degrees are decaying. A university certificate today will now be like a floppy disk in the cloud era – outdated before it’s printed.
Survival demands a civilisational shift.
The World Economic Forum warned that 50% of workers would need reskilling by 2025. But our schools? They’re stuck in 1925.
This is the “scarcity based model”: A system that treats humans as expendable cogs, not social architects or system builders.
It’s time to ask: What is education’s true purpose?
Why does it exist and who does it serve? A linear path from childhood to employability?
Or, a lifelong unfolding of human potential; fluid not rigid, self-directed not dictated, guided not instructed, and deeply integrated with the realities of daily life not isolated from them.
Education as a lifeline
The “civilisational transition” demands radical reinvention.
The future belongs to nations that abandon “industrial era models” and embrace decentralised knowledge ecosystems – where learning will become a platform for personal and societal transformation – to awaken creators, regenerative thinkers and ethical leaders.
Where education will be defined by the ability of individuals and communities to direct their own intellectual, creative and aspirational growth.
This will be through guided, personalised learning pathways that adapt not just to cognitive needs but to emotional states, cultural contexts and ethical aspirations.
Rigid classroom hierarchies of the past should dissolve into holistic fluid mentor-apprentice relationships, peer-to-peer knowledge exchanges, and immersive experimental discoveries.
What about accreditation?
Diplomas and degrees should evolve into decentralised community-validated proof of mastery.
Pupils should demonstrate competence not through standardised tests, but through real-world contributions.
Reputation should be built on verifiable impact not institutional branding. This transformation should not merely be pedagogical but civilisational!
The girl who hacked the system
Meet ‘Imaginary Ngozi’.
At 10, she was desk-bound in a crumbling classroom, reciting “states and capitals” from a tattered textbook.
At 12, she enrolled with an intentional purpose-driven “decentralised knowledge network” – an innovation hub.
At 14, she’s coding in Python. At 15, she’s designing AI tools to optimise Monrovia’s traffic, mentored by engineers in Accra and San Francisco.
At 20, she’s a “solution architect” – her portfolio of climate-resilient infrastructure projects earns global contracts.
Ngozi isn’t your everyday student. She’s an example of human relevance in the machine age.
Her education isn’t about jobs – it’s about mastery, agency, and creating value no algorithm can replicate.
Hard questions
Why do we accept a system that prioritises compliance over ingenuity? How many generations do we need to sacrifice in order to preserve colonial-industrial relics? What good is a degree when graduates can’t think critically and build systems, collaborate and solve complex problems?Will we let Africa’s youth perish as exponential technologies outpace them – or arm them to lead the revolution?The answers demand courage. To government officials: Build intentional, interconnected, purpose driven “decentralised knowledge networks” – online platforms, innovation hubs, and micro-schools where tomorrow skills > syllabi.To teachers: Stop lecturing. Start guiding and curating “ethical reasoning, complex problem-solving, and collaboration in uncertainty”.To parents: Demand more than certificates. Demand purpose!
Adapt or disappear
This isn’t about “reforming” education. It’s about survival.
Every day we delay, another million minds are trapped. Africa’s choice is binary:
Extinction: Cling to colonial-industrial logic, churning out graduates destined for the scrapheap of automation.For example, according to reports, more than 1.8 million Nigerians graduate each year from higher education, yet over 70% face unemployment. Evolution: Unleash a “self-directed learning revolution” where every child becomes a co-designer of their future. For instance, according to reports, peer-to-peer learning hubs deliver 300% better job placement.The unfolding ‘age’ forgives no bystanders. The machines won’t wait.The question isn’t if Africa will change – it’s whether we’ll have survivors or victors when the dust settles.It’s about the courage to lead the charge before the windows slam shut. Emmanuel Ezeoka is an entrepreneur and strategic policy futurist focused on systemic transformation, particularly through the Global Africa Agenda; ezeokaemmanuel@gmail.com
