In many African Ministries of Education, the first real EdTech conversation does not start with apps, dashboards, or artificial intelligence. It starts with a question that sounds almost administrative, but is actually strategic: “How will this work with what we already have, and still be working after the pilot team has left?”
That question has been repeated in different ways across the continent since COVID-19 made digital learning a necessity rather than a choice. Many countries accelerated digitisation, often through emergency remote learning, radio and television programming, and rapid partnerships with private providers. Post-COVID, digital transformation became a priority across national planning, partly because education systems have continued to face disruption from conflicts, climate shocks, and public health emergencies.
Yet, as urgency increased, a familiar pattern also strengthened: fragmented initiatives, parallel platforms, and pilot projects that do not translate into national capability. In several contexts, private sector and donor-led delivery remains poorly embedded and uncoordinated, sometimes not aligned to national plans and policies.
This is where governments’ needs become clearer, and sometimes uncomfortable for the ecosystem to hear. Ministries are not asking for more tools. They are asking for fewer, better-integrated tools that strengthen national systems and protect learners, teachers, and public budgets.
In early 2026, AUDA-NEPAD will launch its EdTech Vision and Implementation Plan alongside the implementation plan for STISA-2034. A key message is that Africa’s education transformation cannot be delivered through isolated solutions. It must be built on interoperable, trusted digital public infrastructure, including for education. The invitation to the ecosystem is simple: align what you are offering to what governments can absorb, govern, and scale.
What governments consistently ask for
1) Interoperability that prevents lock-in
Many Ministries have a lived experience of platform proliferation. A donor introduces a learning management system. Another partner brings a content repository. A third offers assessments on a separate platform. Data sits in different silos. Teachers have multiple logins. District officials cannot see a coherent picture. When procurement cycles change or contracts end, the country is left with technical debt rather than a stronger system.
This is why vendor-neutral, standards-based approaches matter. In AUDA-NEPAD’s EdTech policy initiative, the case for standards-based, vendor-neutral EdTech is anchored in a practical reality: without common standards and interoperability, governments cannot scale sustainably, and they cannot protect public investment over time.
Governments want tools that can plug into national education management information systems, digital ID where relevant, content platforms, and assessment systems. They want the freedom to change vendors without collapsing the whole ecosystem.
2) Sustainability, including the real cost of “free”
Ministries are often asked to take on solutions that appear “free” at the start. Then, the hidden costs emerge: licensing, hosting, device replacement, connectivity, training, maintenance, and support. In many African contexts, budget constraints are structural, not temporary. The literature review underpinning AUDA-NEPAD’s policy work highlights how insufficient budget allocation hinders implementation, and it flags the burden on governments of providing devices in public schools as a constraint on adoption.
What governments need is not a promise of scale; they need a credible pathway to scale. That includes total cost of ownership, a realistic connectivity model, and options that work in low-resource settings.
3) Teacher support that respects classroom realities
In many public systems, teacher readiness is the hinge factor. A ministry can procure devices, commission content, and sign platform agreements, but if teachers cannot integrate tools into pedagogy, learning outcomes do not move.
Across the 13-country pilot review that informed AUDA-NEPAD’s policy initiative on EdTech, teacher training and pedagogical integration are repeatedly highlighted as a core policy focus area, alongside the observation that teachers in public schools still lag in digital literacy.
What teachers need is not a one-off training. They need ongoing support, peer learning, classroom-relevant resources, and simple tools that reduce workload rather than add to it. Governments want EdTech partners who understand that teacher capacity-building is not a “nice to have.” It is the delivery engine.
4) Trust, privacy, and governance of learner data
EdTech is increasingly a data system. That creates powerful opportunities for learning analytics, targeted remediation, and better system management. It also raises real questions about learner privacy, consent, security, and ownership of public data.
Some countries have data protection provisions, but implementation can be uneven, and in many contexts the regulatory and enforcement capacity is still developing. The policy review notes that concerns about data protection and privacy appear within national policy frameworks and highlights the unevenness of implementation and rural inclusion.
Governments therefore ask for clear answers: Where is data stored? Who can access it? Can the ministry retrieve it in usable form? What happens when a contract ends? Can the system be audited?
These are not obstacles. They are the foundations of trust.
5) Equity that is designed, not assumed
For many learners, connectivity is mobile-first or mobile-only. The literature review notes that broadband penetration remains low and that many people access the internet through mobile data. This reality shapes what works in education delivery, especially in rural areas and crisis-affected settings.
Governments need solutions designed for low bandwidth, offline use, and multilingual contexts. Language and localisation are highlighted as key focus areas in the policy review. When EdTech is not localised to curriculum, language, and classroom practice, it becomes an imported layer that does not stick.
What governments do not need, even when it is well-intentioned
1) Parallel systems that bypass ministries
Sometimes, projects are delivered “to schools” rather than “with the system.” That can create quick wins, but it weakens national coordination and reduces the likelihood of scale. The policy analysis observes that public and private sector EdTech delivery is often poorly embedded and uncoordinated. Ministries often do not need more islands of excellence, they need system strengthening.
2) Hardware-first thinking without a plan for learning
Devices can be valuable, but they are not the strategy. Hardware without content alignment, teacher capacity, maintenance, and connectivity becomes a storage room problem. The policy review is explicit that infrastructure matters, but it places teacher training, equity, and pedagogy alongside it, not beneath it.
3) Short pilots that create long-term complexity
A pilot that cannot scale, or that cannot integrate, is not neutral. It consumes leadership attention, fragments implementation, and can produce procurement confusion. Governments want pilots that are designed as the first step of national scale, with standards, data governance, and capacity-building included from day one.
A constructive pivot: from tools to systems
A practical way to summarise what governments are asking for is this: EdTech should behave like public infrastructure. Not in the sense that government must build everything, but in the sense that solutions should strengthen shared rails that others can build on.
This is one reason AUDA-NEPAD’s standards-based, vendor-neutral policy work matters. It is a governance approach that protects ministries from lock-in, supports interoperability, and enables a healthier market where local innovators can compete fairly.
It also aligns with the direction of travel at continental level. The policy review references the AU Digital Education Strategy and Implementation Plan (2023–2028) and underscores the need to operationalise continental strategy through practical implementation pathways that countries can contextualise.
The upcoming launch as an invitation to align
The forthcoming AUDA-NEPAD EdTech Vision and Implementation Plan launch, alongside the STISA-2034 implementation plan, is not simply a communications moment. It is a coordination moment. It signals that the next phase for African EdTech must prioritise interoperability, sustainability, teacher capability, and trust.
For partners, the question is not “What product do we want to bring?” It is “Which government priorities are we ready to deliver against, in a way that fits national systems and strengthens long-term capability?”
For innovators, the opportunity is significant. Standards-based, vendor-neutral ecosystems reduce barriers to entry and make it easier for local developers to integrate into national platforms. The policy review explicitly points to open-source approaches as important for faster scaling and sustainability.
For Ministries, the launch is an opportunity to set clearer expectations of the market and to shift the conversation from pilots to platforms, from products to public value.
A simple checklist for the ecosystem
If you want your EdTech offer to land well with government, test it with five questions:
- Interoperability: Can it integrate with existing systems and standards, and can the ministry change vendors without losing the system?
- Sustainability: Is the total cost of ownership realistic under public budgets?
- Teacher reality: Does it reduce teacher burden and include ongoing capacity support?
- Data trust: Does it protect learners and give ministries real governance over data?
- Equity: Does it work in low bandwidth environments, multilingual settings, and rural schools?
If the answer is unclear, the solution may still be useful, but it may not be ready for national scale.
Africa’s EdTech future will not be won by the most polished platform. It will be built by those who understand how governments work, what classrooms require, what teachers can practically handle, and what systems need to endure beyond political cycles, funding cycles, and technology cycles. The launch of the AUDA-NEPAD EdTech Vision, Implementation Plan, and the accompanying policy work is an open invitation to build that future together, with seriousness, humility, and shared accountability.
For more information on the event launch and/or our vision and plan, email: Barbara Glover (barbarag@auda-nepad.org)
