Essays in Africa’s EdTech Breakthrough Series

It always seems impossible until it’s done — Nelson Mandela

As described in Essay #1, African EdTech’s Four Barriers — Policy, Technology, Data, and Economics — have kept Africa’s best EdTech out of its learner’s hands. Africa’s EdTech Breakthrough was the decision by three people — Dr. Barbara Glover, John Kimotho, and Jim Plamondon — to design a new EdTech system that would lower all of the Four Barriers at once. Africa’s EdTech Breakthrough System is the result. Africa’s EdTech Breakthrough Project is the effort to build that System. This Essay Series describes Africa’s EdTech Breakthrough System & Project. There are a lot of essays, because a lot must change. However, each essay is short. Each step along our path is small, but together, we can go far. May the Light of Learning — Mwanga wa Elimu — illuminate our path.

Africa’s Education Crisis and Its Context (01–05)

01. African EdTech’s Four Barriers

02. Understanding AUDA-NEPAD’s African EdTech 2030: Vision & Plan

03. Understanding Digital Public Infrastructures (DPIs)

04. Understanding Africa’s DPI Experience

05. Understanding AUDA-NEPAD’s EdTech Policy Framework

The Breakthrough and Its Economic Sustainability (06–09)

06. Africa’s EdTech Breakthrough

07. Making Education Outcomes Finance-Grade

08. Understanding RESPECT’s Economic Model

09. Understanding Sponsor Credits (SpoDits)

Technology, Stakeholders, and Scale (10–13)

10. LearnTab

11. From Vision to Value

12. AI in Africa’s DPI-Ed

13. When Will RESPECT Reach Global Scale?

Governance and Trust (14–15)

14. Understanding Governance and Sovereignty

15. Legitimacy, Trust, and Safety (LeTS)

Institutions and Human Capital (16–19)

16. Building the DPI Engineer Pipeline

17. Boots on the Ground

18. AUDA-NEPAD’s EdTech Task Force

19. Human Capital in Africa’s EdTech Breakthrough

Planet-Projects (20–23)

20. PROMISE

21. Easy FLN Localization

22. Easy Curriculum Mapping (ECM)

23. Mappers: Mapping Lessons to Curriculum Standards (Years 1–4)

Funding the Breakthrough (24–27)

24. Funding RESPECT™

25. The Luqmān Project

26. Sun and Planets: The Architecture of Africa’s EdTech Breakthrough Project

27. The Ask

Partnerships and Conclusion (28–29)

28. XPRIZE & the Breakthrough Project

29. Summary: RESPECT Essay Series


All Executive Summaries — a single document containing the executive summary of every essay, useful for loading the gist of the entire Project into an LLM’s context.