AJESI

Vol. 1 · No. 1 · 2026

Beyond the Deficit: Rethinking Education, Skills and Innovation in Africa.

Africa is among the most intensively researched regions in the world, and among the least represented in the journals that publish that research. AJESI launches into that gap. Our inaugural issue, Beyond the Deficit, questions the habit of measuring African education systems by how far they fall short of somewhere else. The shortfalls are real. Up to nine in ten children in sub-Saharan Africa may be unable to read and understand a simple text by age ten, and the region needs 15 million more teachers by 2030, the largest shortfall anywhere in the world. But treating these as technical gaps awaiting technical fixes misses what produced them. We ask a different question. Not how far behind, but how these systems actually work, for whom, and under what constraints. Read the editorial. Submissions are open, and we charge no fees to authors or readers.

  1. 01

    Education, Skills and Innovation in Africa: Evidence, Power and the Politics of Knowledge

    Kelechi Ekuma

    This inaugural editorial introduces the African Journal of Education, Skills and Innovation (AJESI), a diamond open access, double-blind peer-reviewed journal published by the African Skills and Innovation Network. AJESI is conceived not as a conventional scholarly outlet but as an intellectual project: a platform for rethinking the role of education, skills and innovation in Africa and across the Global South. The editorial makes three connected arguments. First, that the dominant policy framing of Africa's education and skills challenge, organized around measurable shortfalls against external benchmarks, is analytically weak because it treats as technical what is substantially political, and obscures the colonial inheritance and neoliberal restructuring that shaped the systems now under scrutiny. Second, that the empirical picture nonetheless matters, and that four interlocking deficits define the field the journal seeks to serve: a foundational learning deficit, a transition deficit, an innovation and knowledge-application deficit, and a deficit in the production of knowledge about Africa by scholars based in Africa. Third, that these deficits cannot be addressed within the disciplinary and epistemic boundaries that currently divide the field. Drawing on evidence from the African Union, the African Development Bank, the International Labour Organization, UNESCO, UNCTAD, the World Bank, UNDP and the International Telecommunication Union, alongside peer-reviewed scholarship in higher education studies, vocational education research, innovation studies and scientometrics, the editorial sets out five founding commitments and the journal's editorial standards. It concludes by inviting scholars, policymakers, educators, industry leaders, development partners and practitioners to contribute.

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  2. 02

    Decolonising the curriculum: Practitioner perspectives from East African universities

    Mwangi, A. K., Okello, J. & Ndlovu, S.

    This study examines how academics in three East African universities interpret and operationalise curriculum decolonisation. Drawing on 42 semi-structured interviews and document analysis, we identify three competing framings — epistemic restoration, contextual relevance, and institutional reform — and trace how each shapes pedagogical practice. We argue that effective decolonisation requires institutional commitments that move beyond symbolic gestures toward substantive curriculum transformation.

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  3. 03

    Adaptive learning technologies in low-bandwidth secondary classrooms: A mixed-methods evaluation

    Boateng, F. & Diallo, M.

    We report on a 14-month evaluation of an offline-first adaptive learning platform deployed in 18 secondary schools across Ghana and Senegal. Using a mixed-methods design combining learning analytics with teacher and student interviews, we document gains in mathematics achievement, particularly for students in the lowest-performing tertile. Implementation challenges centred on device maintenance and teacher professional development rather than connectivity. Implications for low-resource educational contexts are discussed.

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  4. 04

    Community-led literacy interventions in sub-Saharan Africa: A scoping review

    Adeyemi, O., Hassan, R. & Tembo, L.

    This scoping review synthesises 87 studies (2010–2025) on community-led literacy interventions across sub-Saharan Africa. We map programme typologies, theoretical framings, and reported outcomes, identifying a strong evidence base for early-grade reading gains but persistent gaps in measuring sustainability and longer-term transfer. We propose a research agenda emphasising longitudinal design and community-centred outcome measures.

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