Africa’s Children Are Growing Up Digital. Are Our Schools Keeping Up

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Africa's Children Are Growing Up Digital. Are Our Schools Keeping Up?

September 8, 2026

For some African children, the distance to the digital future is three kilometers.

Twice a week, pupils at Itumbule Junior Secondary and Primary School in rural Makueni County, Kenya, walk around three kilometers to the Ukia Community Information and ICT Centre for computer lessons. For many of them, it is their first encounter with digital technology. Three kilometers may not sound far. But in a world where another child can reach almost limitless information without leaving their desk, it represents a much greater distance. The school's teacher hopes that one day the school will have its own computer lab so that technology can become a more regular part of learning.

It is a small example of a much bigger challenge facing education systems across Africa.

Our children are growing up in a world where information is increasingly digital, yet access to technology and the skills to use it meaningfully remain deeply unequal.

The question is no longer whether children will encounter technology. They already do.

The question is whether our schools are preparing them to understand it, use it and think critically about what they find online. Are we preparing them to be responsible, empowered digital citizens?

Digital literacy is not an optional extra

Africa continues to face significant education gaps. According to UNESCO's Global Education Monitoring Report, evidence from six sub-Saharan African countries that participated in learning assessments in 2021 and 2023 found that only about one in ten students reached the minimum proficiency level in reading at the end of primary school. The report also highlights significant gaps in digital skills, noting that formal education is an important factor in acquiring them.

Access to technology will not solve these foundational challenges on its own. A computer cannot replace a teacher, and a tablet cannot compensate for poor-quality teaching or content.

But used well, technology can give teachers and learners additional ways to teach, practice and explore, deepening learning outcomes and building critical digital skills for the future.

This is why digital literacy matters.

It is not simply knowing how to switch on a computer. It is knowing how to search for information and evaluate whether it is credible, protect personal information, communicate responsibly, and use digital tools to learn and create.

A computer in a classroom is not enough

The experience in Kenya also points to an important nuance: Access and meaningful use are two different things.The pupils at Itumbule have access to computers, but they must walk three kilometers to reach them. That distance tells us something fundamental about the digital divide: Technology may exist, but it is not necessarily within reach when and where children need it.

The scale of the gap is significant. A 2024 UNICEF Innocenti report found that while 53% of students in North Africa have access to a computer, the figure drops to just 8% in sub-Saharan Africa. Only 14% of students in sub-Saharan Africa access the internet from home.

Efforts are being made elsewhere on the continent to bring digital learning closer to children. In Cameroon, for example, the "Connect My School" initiative, launched in 2021 by the Ministry of Basic Education and UNICEF, aims to "connect schools to the internet and provide access to both online and offline teaching and learning via tablets, including for out-of-school adolescents," according to UNICEF.

In Melong, in the Littoral region of the country, an e-container consisting of a solar-powered digital learning hub equipped with tablets and other multimedia tools serves more than 2,900 pupils from 10 schools. UNICEF reports that children use the hub to access interactive lessons and educational videos, while teachers have been trained to integrate digital tools into their teaching. One teacher reported improved academic performance among her pupils as lessons became more interactive and participatory. However, despite these promising results, it is important to note that access to digital learning sometimes remains limited by the lack of reliable electricity in many parts of the country.

Tanzania offers another approach. The government has recently placed digital education higher on its education and workforce agenda, including through the DigiTruck initiative, a mobile, solar-powered classroom that brings digital skills training to underserved communities. The initiative, implemented through a partnership between Huawei Tanzania and Vodacom Tanzania, has reached more than 5,200 teachers and students across 16 regions in mainland Tanzania. The program's mobility is designed to overcome geographical barriers by bringing digital training directly to schools in underserved communities.

These examples show that the challenge is bigger than simply putting devices into schools. Children need teachers who are confident using technology, reliable electricity and connectivity, relevant digital content and regular opportunities to practice their skills.

The African Union Digital Education Strategy and Implementation Plan 2023-2028 recognizes that Africa's digital education agenda needs to go beyond infrastructure, with a focus on strengthening digital skills and integrating digital technologies into teaching and learning.

Children also need to know what to believe

There is another, perhaps even more profound, reason digital literacy matters.

Children today are navigating an information environment that can be difficult even for adults to understand. A student searching for information for homework can encounter misinformation, manipulated images, scams or content designed simply to capture their attention.

Artificial intelligence is adding another layer of complexity. Children can now generate answers, images and essays in seconds but may not know when the information they receive is inaccurate or an AI hallucination.

Schools therefore have a responsibility to teach children not only how to find information, but how to question and verify it.

Who created this information? Is the source credible? Can I verify it somewhere else? What personal information is it safe for me to share? How can I use technology responsibly?

These are basic digital skills, but they are also critical-thinking skills.

UNESCO has highlighted both the opportunities and risks of digitalization in education, including unequal access to technology, data privacy and online safety. Its work on the digital divide in Africa also shows how unequal digital skills can reinforce existing inequalities, particularly for girls and women.

The goal should be participation, not just access

Africa cannot afford to prepare only children in well-resourced urban schools for a digital future.

The child walking three kilometers to use a computer and the child with a laptop in their classroom are already living in the same increasingly digital world. Their opportunities should not be determined by geography.

That does not mean every child needs the latest device. It means every child needs meaningful opportunities to develop responsible digital skills, whether through a school computer lab, shared devices, offline learning resources or community technology centers.

And we must aim higher than simply teaching children to consume technology.

They must learn to create with it. Empowered to tell their own stories. To solve problems. To research and understand their communities. To experiment, question and innovate. The goal should not simply be to make the three-kilometer journey to a computer shorter. It must be to close the much greater distance between having access to technology and having the confidence, skills and opportunity to shape what technology becomes.

This is not simply an education issue. Africa has the world's youngest population, and the children sitting in classrooms today will enter labor markets increasingly shaped by digital technologies and AI. If digital capability remains concentrated among children who have access to better-resourced schools, the digital divide risks becoming an economic divide, shaping not only how children learn today, but who gets to participate in the jobs, businesses and innovation of tomorrow.

Digital literacy, therefore, is not just about preparing children for the next school year. It is about ensuring they have a fair chance to participate in the future Africa is building, and to take their rightful place in it.

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POSTED BY: Sharon Quntai, Anne Mireille Nzouankeu