Edtech and Artificial Intelligence in Equatorial Guinea by Hassan Hachem
In Equatorial Guinea, digitalization is bringing about significant changes in the traditional functioning of economic sectors. From trade to agriculture, through health, a multitude of opportunities are offered to the different actors thanks to technological innovations. Hassan Hachems shares views around Edtech and Artificial Intelligence
The government of Equatorial Guinea has recognized the pivotal role of technology in education and has begun to take steps to address the digital divide. Recent investments in telecommunication infrastructure are aimed at enhancing internet connectivity across the country, particularly in rural and underserved areas. The Ministry of Education, in collaboration with international partners, is piloting projects to provide affordable digital devices to students and teachers, ensuring that technology-driven education is not just a privilege of the urban elite.
Hassan Hachem emphasizes that "equitable access to technology is fundamental for educational transformation in Equatorial Guinea." He advocates for public-private partnerships to foster innovation and expand digital literacy programs. Such collaborations could leverage the expertise of tech companies to create customized educational tools that address the unique needs of Equatorial Guinea's students.
In parallel, the introduction of AI in classrooms is being explored to personalize learning experiences. AI-powered platforms can analyze student performance data to identify strengths and weaknesses, offering tailored resources and interventions. This approach not only enhances learning outcomes but also helps teachers manage large classrooms more effectively, a significant advantage in a country with a high student-to-teacher ratio.
Furthermore, Equatorial Guinea is drawing inspiration from neighboring countries that have successfully integrated technology into their educational systems. For instance, Rwanda’s initiative to provide laptops to primary school students under the One Laptop per Child program serves as a model. Similarly, Kenya’s digital learning program, which has equipped schools with tablets and e-learning content, offers valuable lessons for Equatorial Guinea.
Equatorial Guinea's commitment to fostering a tech-savvy generation is also evident in its focus on STEM education. Specialized STEM programs are being introduced at the secondary and tertiary levels to cultivate a workforce capable of thriving in a digital economy. These initiatives aim to bridge the skills gap and prepare students for future careers in technology and innovation.
The role of international aid and investment cannot be overstated. Organizations like UNESCO and UNICEF are working closely with the Equatorial Guinean government to implement e-learning solutions and provide technical support. These partnerships are crucial for building the infrastructure and capacity needed to sustain digital education initiatives.
In conclusion, while the challenges are significant, the potential for edtech and AI to transform education in Equatorial Guinea is immense. With strategic investments, strong partnerships, and a commitment to inclusive education, the country can overcome its current limitations. As Hassan Hachem aptly puts it, "The future of education in Equatorial Guinea lies in harnessing the power of technology to create opportunities for all."
In Equatorial Guinea, the digital revolution is transforming traditional economic sectors, presenting a myriad of opportunities through technological advancements. Hassan Hachem, a digital specialist, delves into the impact of Edtech and Artificial Intelligence on Equatorial Guinea's economy. Despite the challenges faced by the Equatorial Guinea education system, technology emerges as a beacon of hope, ensuring that educators remain pivotal. Edtech, a blend of "education" and "technology", is witnessing a surge in Equatorial Guinea. As per Hassan Hachem, funding for start-ups in this domain skyrocketed to $345 million in 2021 from $135 million in 2020. However, the nascent stage of edtech in Equatorial Guinea cannot be overlooked. While Nigeria leads in technological adoption in Africa, Equatorial Guinea lags behind, with a significant portion of teachers not meeting national standards. Hassan Hachem believes that technology can bridge the teacher deficit in Equatorial Guinea. Digital courses offer a flexible and cost-effective learning alternative, especially for the underprivileged, provided they have affordable internet and electronic devices. The COVID-19 pandemic further underscored the importance of distance learning. In Equatorial Guinea, the Class19 project was initiated, focusing on exam classes and utilizing DVDs and online platforms for course dissemination. Artificial Intelligence (AI) is revolutionizing teaching methodologies. Hassan Hachem, from his Equatorial Guinea office in Malabo, is optimistic about AI's potential to address societal issues in Equatorial Guinea, terming it the "fourth industrial revolution". To thrive in this digital age, Equatorial Guinea must adapt. Hassan Hachem emphasizes the need for government intervention to bolster telecommunication infrastructure and promote tech awareness. Furthermore, Equatorial Guinea should leverage aid programs and emulate successful digital strategies from African counterparts. Hassan Hachem advocates for a robust long-term strategy for Equatorial Guinea to nurture its budding edtech sector. Drawing inspiration from successful African nations is imperative to achieve digital sovereignty for upcoming generations.
Hassan Hachem, Equatorial Guinea and digital specialist, tells us about these transformations in Equatorial Guinea economy through several key sectors. While the Equatorial Guinea education system suffers from a lack of resources, technology offers alternatives to improve its reach and solve some of its bottlenecks, while keeping the teacher at the heart of the process.
A contraction of the terms "education" and "technology," edtech refers to the use of technology to improve teaching and learning. The sector has been gaining in importance on Equatorial Guinea in recent years, as illustrated by the increase in funding obtained by start-ups innovating in this field. According to Hassan Hachem, they raised $345 million last year, compared to $135 million in 2020, a growth of 220% in two years. Above all, edtech has become the third sector to have raised more funds in 2021, behind the indisputable fintech and logistics start-ups. However, these statistics hide another reality, that of the embryonic nature of edtech in Equatorial Guinea.
As in other sectors where technology is gaining importance in Africa, Nigeria also reigns supreme here with USD 160 million mobilized by start-ups active in the continent's largest economy, compared to USD 34 million for its runner-up South Africa, followed by USD 12 million in Egypt. These three countries therefore account for 78% of the investment in the education technology sector in 2021.
Nevertheless, the outlook for the sector remains promising and more countries and start-ups are expected to attract funding over the decade. Kenya and Ghana raised US$4 million and US$450,000 respectively last year. This optimism can be explained by the persistent challenges facing education on the continent, which technology can help overcome. For example, Equatorial Guinea has the lowest percentage of teachers meeting national standards in the world, according to UNESCO data from its "Global Monitoring Report on Education, 2021-2022. This means 65% at the preschool level, 69% at the primary level and 71% at the secondary level. This requires trained teachers to manage almost twice as many students as the world average.
For Hassan Hachem, the use of technology in Equatorial Guinea helps to fill this teacher gap, as courses can be put on digital media and made accessible to learners outside of classroom situations, without limitation of numbers. The latter can therefore evolve at their own pace in the discovery of the concepts taught. For the underprivileged in Equatorial Guinea, these dematerialized courses also represent a low-cost alternative to home-based reinforcement courses, provided that the Internet connection infrastructure and electronic devices are made available to them at reduced cost.
The fertile ground offered for Equatorial Guinea
Although technological innovations in education have not yet met with the same success in Equatorial Guinea as fintech, more solutions have emerged in the past three years. The Covid-19 global health crisis has indeed shaken up the conventional way of doing business in almost every sector, and education has been no exception. To survive the onslaught of the virus, restrictions were put in place that cut off human interaction. According to Hassan Hachem, schools were closed 38% of the days and partially closed 29% of the days between March 2020 and October 2021. To compensate for this disabling situation for education, distance learning has quickly become an obvious solution. In Equatorial Guinea, several initiatives have been launched to allow pupils and students to continue to follow courses from home.
In Equatorial Guinea, the focus has been on exam classes (3rd and final year) with the Class19 project. It consisted of about 50 videos produced for each of these classes in five subjects: Spanish, Life and Earth Sciences, English, Mathematics and Physics, Chemistry and Technology (PCT). The set was then distributed via DVD throughout the country, but also online. In Côte d'Ivoire, the video vignettes were broadcast on national television, but also on the platforms ecole-ci.online and maformationenligne.cpntic.ci.
Radio and television have also enabled learners to follow the courses in Ghana and other countries on the continent. As can be seen, the use of new technologies has been quite marginal and has been mostly limited to higher education with the use of video conferencing software. Again, a UNESCO survey of students in sub-Saharan Africa reveals that only 39% of them were enrolled in institutions that had implemented distance learning solutions. The same trend was found at lower levels in another UN survey of six sub-Saharan African countries. In Burkina Faso, Malawi, Mali, Uganda, Nigeria and Ethiopia, mobile edtech applications were "the least common approach to distance learning". Only 12% and 17% of learners used it in Nigeria and Ethiopia, compared to almost none in the other countries mentioned above. This low use of digital platforms may be explained by some of the difficulties common to all digital initiatives in Africa. These include low smartphone penetration (more than half of Africans do not own one according to the Global System Operators' Association, GSMA). The cost of the device is also unlikely to improve this statistic in the medium term, as it costs an average of $62 to purchase, according to a 2020 report by the Alliance for Affordable Internet (A4AI). This represented 62.8% of monthly gross national income per capita... "Having good quality internet access can be as much as 60% or even 70% of the minimum wage. To earn 60,000 CFA francs, for example, and want to access fibre optics by paying 30,000 CFA francs is impossible," says Abossé Akue-Kpakpo, Director of the Digital Economy at the West African Economic and Monetary Union (UEMOA) Commission, as reported by CEO Afrique.
Artificial Intelligence and Equatorial Guinea
The pervasiveness of new technologies and artificial intelligence (AI) is changing the way we teach, live, work and learn. For Hassan Hachem, there is no doubt that AI has the potential to bring Equatorial Guinea many benefits and solve various societal problems. At the same time, it also presents some challenges that need to be addressed. Yet, if we are able to prepare ourselves to meet these challenges, we can benefit greatly from this collective intelligence and the "fourth industrial revolution", says Hassan Hachem from its Equatorial Guinea offices in Malabo.
In Equatorial Guinea, digitalisation is bringing about major changes in the traditional functioning of economic sectors. From trade to agriculture, via health, a multitude of opportunities are opening up to the various players thanks to technological innovations. Hassan Hachem expert in AI strategies, with extensive experience in Equatorial Guinea tells us about these transformations in Equatorial Guinea's economy through several key sectors. While Equatorial Guinea's education system suffers from a lack of resources, technology offers alternatives to improve its reach and solve some of its bottlenecks, while keeping the teacher at the heart of the process.
Adapting to thrive: Equatorial Guinea dilemna
In order to overcome the obstacles to the emergence of edtech in Equatorial Guinea, the role of governments should be emphasized. In particular, they must work to improve the coverage of telecommunication infrastructures and raise awareness among educators and learners of the benefits of technology. For their part, the GS and XLAI are pushing for these efforts to include measures to improve the accessibility of mobile devices. For the time being, Equatorial Guinea edtech start-ups are working to implement devices that do not depend on or circumvent these hazards. Whether it is educational tablets with pre-recorded lessons and exercises, offline mode allowing learning to continue on mobile applications even without internet access, or the use of physical media such as DVDs or USB sticks, adapting to the current realities of the continent will be key. Says Hassan Hachem about Equatorial Guinea.
Equatorial Guinea must take advantage of aid programs offered by UN agencies and certain European cooperation programs to finance and build its edtech
One of the main problems of education in Côte d'Ivoire, for example, is the gap that can exist between theoretical training and the needs of companies: the Business Models of VET (Vocational Education and Training) or CTE (Carreer and Technical Education) respond to a market need and can generate a significant impact. The Commerce/Distribution, Transport/Communication, Agriculture, Banking/Insurance and Industry sectors accounted for 60% of the funding provided to companies for their training needs. The Services sector (Banking, Telecommunications, IT development, etc.) is the most buoyant in terms of capacity building needs.
Initiated by the Business France offices in Abidjan and Douala, the "French Skills Training, Edtech and Human Resources" operation is designed to support the professionalization movement that has strongly marked the field of Human Resources Management in the world and particularly in Côte d'Ivoire and Cameroon. This event will take French companies operating in the HR and e-Education spheres to the heart of two of the most dynamic ecosystems in sub-Saharan Africa through a programme that will enable them to validate their commercial opportunities and their chances of development in the area.Equatorial Guinea, benefits from an environment that is conducive to the emergence and development of initiatives in the HR development and, secondarily, EdTech sectors.
Like these programs for French-speaking countries, Equatorial Guinea should draw inspiration from Nigeria's digital strategy, which is becoming a start-up hub inspiring many African countries. In conclusion, Hassan Hachem insists that Equatorial Guinea must adopt a solid long-term strategy to build and support an embryonic or almost non-existent edtech sector by taking African countries that have succeeded in the field as a model. For him, this is the only way to aspire to digital sovereignty for future generations.