The IFIP IP3 Global Industry Council (GIC) serves as the principal forum for employers and educators to engage with IP3 and shape the global ICT profession. Each month, they will feature relevant and insightful ideas in IFIP Insights. This month, GIC director Josine Overdevest reflects on the recent Leadership Conference on the Impact of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in African School Leadership Development and the opportunities highlighted by the speakers and delegates.
“Ubuntu leadership aligns well with AI”, stated Professor Tshilidzi Marwala, rector of the United Nations University and former Vice Chancellor of the University of Johannesburg in his keynote address. He explained that both the African Union Continental AI Strategy and Ubuntu leadership contribute to a more just, sustainable and equitable world, particularly when addressing Africa’s needs and potential. He emphasised that while powerful AI solutions are vital for Africa’s development, it is up to leaders to ensure these solutions remain human-centric and localised. This means considering African diversity in language, culture and geography. This sentiment was echoed by many speakers over the two-day event. True transformative leadership on the continent requires the optimal collaboration between human and artificial intelligence to drive cohesive strategies for sustainable development and to unlock Africa’s immense potential.
About the Conference
The Conference was part of the Education Conversations series, organised by University of Johannesburg (UJ) Faculty of Education and Kagiso Trust since 2012. These dialogue sessions bring together a wide variety of participants to discuss the state of South Africa’s education system and explore sustainable solutions. The annual leadership conference aims to foster conversations about leadership development and the importance of lifelong learning for school leaders.
I was honoured to attend and speak at the Conference. Afterward, I had the pleasure of discussing its outcomes with Prof Kat Yassim, the knowledgeable organiser and host—a true innovative African leader in education.
Prof Kat, an Associate Professor in the Department of Education Leadership and Management at UJ, believes deeply in education and research that contribute to a sustainable future. She champions the use of 5IR technologies and pedagogical approaches that integrate technology into the classroom. Her funded teaching projects have explored augmented reality, digital storytelling, app development and, more recently, gamification and AI integration in leadership development.
She encourages the student teachers and education leaders in her care to engage in experiential, innovative learning, emphasising technology skills, outreach, and sustainability. This year, Prof Kat and a multidisciplinary team secured funding to design an online game focused on sustainable schools. She is also researching AI-empowered toolkits for developing future-fit leaders in education and beyond.
A reimagined and revitalised education system
Prof Marwala emphasised the urgent need for investments, infrastructure, policy frameworks and global collaboration. He called for a “reimagined and revitalised education system” to equip Africa’s vast youth population with the skills needed to seize the opportunities AI presents. Think for instance about the AI-powered platforms that are already helping farmers boost productivity, reduce risks, and improve food security by providing real-time data on weather conditions, pest control and market prices, enabling smarter decision-making. In manufacturing, AI-driven solutions are optimising processes, with predictive models analysing data to prevent defects, reduce waste and improve efficiency.
This revitalised education system must prioritise science, technology and innovation while developing critical skills such as creativity, complex problem-solving, cognitive flexibility and decision-making.
According to Prof Kat, AI holds the potential to revolutionise instructional design, technological development and educational research in ways previously unimaginable. AI enables new educational opportunities like personalised learning, shifting educators from instructors to facilitators, and developing complex curricula. AI techniques such as natural language processing, machine learning and deep learning are already being used to create intelligent learning environments, build predictive models, and recommend learning paths. In this way, AI has become a central focus of research in education technology, holding the potential to transform knowledge, cognition, and culture.
From our research and on-the-ground experience, Prof Kat and I know that integrating technology into basic education is a challenging task. Less than 40% of South Africa’s 25,000 public schools have functional computer centres, broadband access is limited in many areas, and data costs remain high. These challenges are mirrored across the African continent.
While inadequate infrastructure, lack of devices and high data costs are real barriers, school leaders and teachers too often use these obstacles to resist change. Yet, there are schools, even in similarly difficult circumstances, that manage to expose their learners to future-oriented skills through creativity, resilience and agility. What sets these schools apart is their leadership—principals, teachers or district officials who, individually or in collaboration, choose to embrace innovation and technological advances for the benefit of their learners and staff.
I witnessed this first-hand when one of the least resourced schools, participating in a pilot of the Siyavula online maths and science platform, finished first on the leaderboard. Despite limited resources, the principal, head of department and teachers united to fully support the platform and their learners.
Leadership in transformation
In his address, Prof Marwala expressed concern over Africa’s slowing growth, highlighting how the current leadership, policy deficits and stalled implementation are hindering the continent’s potential. He proposed embracing Ubuntu leadership, as articulated by Letlhokwa Mpedi, Vice Chancellor of UJ in his book From the Baobab to the Mosquito, which centres on cohesion, strong relationships and a shared purpose. This leadership style encourages challenging traditional norms and embracing sustainable development.
So, what qualities and skills are essential for African school leaders in this age of AI and leadership transformation? Common themes from the conference included fostering a growth mindset, embracing change, demonstrating agility, committing to lifelong learning and upskilling the workforce for the future. Above all, leaders need to stop making excuses, take responsibility and act.
School leaders must consistently envision the future, understand emerging technologies, and anticipate the skills required. They need to make data-driven decisions today while implementing innovative and forward-thinking policies that support technology integration and teacher development for digital learning.
AI and leadership development
According to Prof Kat, AI opens new avenues for developing critical leadership skills. With its unmatched processing power, generative AI can analyse vast amounts of data to provide real-time analytics and feedback, offering a 360-degree view of leadership profiles. This integration of AI into leadership development is not just theoretical—it has practical applications through personalised learning, real-time feedback and simulations that support leadership practice.
The old teaching adage, “meet them where they are,” takes on new meaning in the age of AI. Prof Kat demonstrated this during a workshop with school principals, where she asked them to formulate leadership questions and showed them how to use the Meta function on WhatsApp to find answers. The seamless integration of human and artificial intelligence took on a new significance for these leaders. They were already applying cohesive and sustainable development in their communities through school food gardens, and the introduction of a Smart Sprinkler Controller—an AI application—brought this concept into their daily reality.
Charting a human-centric AI future for Africa
As Africa stands on the precipice of rapid technological advancement, leadership will be the catalyst for realising the continent’s immense potential. The integration of AI into education and leadership development is not just about adopting new tools; it is about reimagining possibilities, fostering human-centric solutions and cultivating leaders who can harness innovation suited to Africa’s rich diversity in culture, language and geography. By embracing AI and Ubuntu leadership, Africa’s education system has the opportunity to develop future-fit leaders who will not only shape the continent’s destiny but also contribute to a more equitable and sustainable global future. The time for action is now and it begins with visionary leaders who dare to transform today for a better tomorrow.
