Inside digital push to transform education in Africa

From solar-powered tablets in Malawian classrooms to Kenya’s Digital Literacy Program and Ghana’s nationwide teacher learning hubs, a silent revolution is brewing in the education systems of low-resource countries (LDCs).

At its core lies a promise that digital courseware when thoughtfully deployed can bridge deep educational inequalities and equip the next generation for a digital future.

Yet, behind these promising headlines lies a sobering reality: the road to digital learning is riddled with potholes of infrastructure gaps, financial strain, policy inertia, and persistent inequities.

A comprehensive report released in March 2025 by the mEducation Alliance and the Spix Foundation captures the voices of over 40 education officials, donors, and implementers from eight countries across Africa. It paints a nuanced picture of digital courseware in low-resource environments: a story of innovation battling limitation, of vision tempered by reality.

Success in the shadows of scarcity

COVID-19 was the unlikely catalyst. When schools shut down in 2020, many governments scrambled to adopt digital alternatives. Some initiatives, launched in crisis, are now shaping national strategies.

In Malawi, the Building Education Foundations through Innovation and Technology (BEFIT) program is a standout. Backed by a $15.2 million grant from the Global Partnership for Education, BEFIT is rolling out digital courseware across all primary schools. Its multi-modal approach, online, offline, on-air, mobile, and printed materials ensures no learner is left behind.

Tablets preloaded with the award-winning onebillion app, combined with animated videos in local languages from Ubongo, are helping bridge the access gap.

In Kenya, the Digital Literacy Program has deployed devices and content across 23,000 public primary schools. EIDU, an edtech platform operating in low-income schools, is another success story. With structured pedagogy and adaptive learning tools, EIDU has helped 70% of its pre-primary learners in pilot areas achieve literacy and numeracy benchmarks up from 11% in schools without the platform.

Ghana, through the Learning Management Platform (LMP) and Professional Learning Center (PLC), has focused on equipping teachers with digital resources and collaborative learning spaces. Over 673,000 students were enrolled in digital courses by 2023 nearly tripling the number from 2020.

Tanzania, The Gambia, and Liberia are also leveraging partnerships with organizations like Imagine Worldwide, ProFuturo, and CEMASTEA to deploy teacher training and digital science labs, ensuring education reform goes beyond devices to include capacity building.

Learning on the learner’s terms

A common thread across countries is the shift from passive consumption to interactive, learner-centered models. Adaptive platforms now personalize learning pathways. Offline-first models like low-cost Raspberry Pi units in Malawi and preloaded SD cards in The Gambia allow education to flourish in areas without reliable connectivity.

In Kenya, Alice Ngunzu Digital Labs, a Mastercard-backed initiative, is providing free simulations for secondary school learners. Similarly, Ghana’s Online Gambia Project and Tanzania’s digital game-based learning tools are proving that edtech can thrive even without the internet.

Flexibility is key. Whether it’s community-based learning, school-based tablets, or home-based audio content, digital courseware is slowly reimagining how and where learning happens.

Teaching the teachers

Digital tools are only as effective as the people behind them. And for many countries, that means a massive push to support teachers.

In Liberia, Tanzania, and Nigeria, ProFuturo’s professional development program trained over 15,000 teachers with practical tools to integrate digital tools into daily teaching. In Kenya, the Elimika and TSC TPD online training platforms are helping teachers gain 21st-century skills. Meanwhile, the INCREASE program by VVOB in Kenya combines in-person and app-based training for school leaders.

Data and devices: double-edged sword

The promise of data-driven learning is being realized in places like Kenya’s Embu County, where EIDU’s real-time analytics are guiding policy and teaching strategies. In The Gambia, officials are designing systems where institutional local area networks (LANs) can deliver secure content without internet reliance.

However, many platforms remain fragmented. A lack of interoperability across tools and devices frustrates scaling efforts. Open-source solutions are emerging as a key recommendation lowering costs and allowing local customization but require sustainable financing models.

What does ideal digital courseware look like? According to the report, it is:

• Hybrid, complementing not replacing teachers.
• Offline-first, ensuring access in the remotest areas.
• Inclusive, supporting learners with disabilities and in their local languages.
• Free, or nearly so, enabled through open educational resources (OERs).
• Safe, with strong data protection and zero advertising.

UNESCO’s Gateways to Public Digital Learning and platforms like the ProFuturo Digital Library are setting global examples. Still, local governments want more control. The Gambia, for instance, envisions a centralized content delivery system using a VPN maintained by a single provider to ensure both access and security.

The pain points: infrastructure, policy, and equity

Despite the progress, several challenges threaten momentum:

• Connectivity remains a major hurdle. In Malawi, only 2% of schools have internet. Rural areas across Ghana and Tanzania remain cut off, with solutions often piecemeal and donor-driven.
• Policy misalignment is common. Without updated quality assurance standards or curriculum-aligned digital content, even the best tools can fall flat.
• Funding models are uncertain. While donor support abounds, few countries have sustainable budgeting for maintaining devices, updating software, or training teachers long-term.
• Equity gaps persist. Gender, disability, language, and regional divides continue to shape who benefits from digital education.

Where do we go from here?

The digital courseware movement is no longer a theory it’s a lived reality in classrooms across Africa. But scaling these pockets of innovation into national transformation will require serious investment, bold policy reforms, and inclusive planning.

Governments must prioritize open standards, teacher training, and funding frameworks. Developers must adopt interoperable, low-bandwidth, and multilingual designs. Donors should shift from pilots to systems support, and civil society must ensure no learner is left behind.

While many countries are testing impressive digital tools, policy has not kept pace. Few have national frameworks that:

• Standardize quality assurance for digital content
• Enforce data privacy and cybersecurity for learners
• Require alignment of courseware with curriculum standards

Without these, digital pilots often remain isolated and unsustainable.

Some governments, like Kenya, have taken steps through KICD and NI3C to set content standards, but many of these guidelines are now outdated and don’t account for AI, learner analytics, or mobile-first design. A continental or global framework could accelerate local alignment.

Why interoperability matters

A key bottleneck in digital learning is interoperability. Too many tools can’t “talk” to each other. Offline tablets can’t sync with online dashboards; LMSs may not support OER content; schools can’t switch providers without losing progress.

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) is pushing open-source and cross-platform protocols across its programs to combat this problem. Meanwhile, informants in The Gambia, Ghana, and Kenya stressed the need for integrated ecosystems—not just fragmented apps—to unlock true scale and sustainability.

The Vision: Universal, Hybrid, and Free

Stakeholders envision a system that blends teacher-led instruction with digital tools. Courseware should be inclusive, multilingual, and free to use. Teachers need OER libraries, pre-designed lesson plans, and classroom-ready simulations.

Country-by-country key initiatives

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