Preparing Educators for an AI-Driven Future: Who Is Teaching the Teacher?

Artificial intelligence is changing how people learn, work, and solve problems.

In classrooms across Africa, this change is taking shape as teachers use artificial intelligence (AI) to prepare lessons, develop activities, simplify difficult concepts, and find new ways to engage learners.

But as education systems rethink how learners are prepared for an AI-driven world, one question deserves equal attention: who is preparing the teacher?

For the October edition of EdTech Mondays Africa, teachers and education leaders from Liberia, Tanzania, Nigeria, Senegal and Zambia explored what it means to teach in an AI-driven world. Their experiences pointed to a clear reality: preparing learners for the future must also mean preparing the teachers who will guide them there.

For many teachers, AI is already becoming part of everyday practice. Mohamed Sané, a high school English teacher and coach from Senegal, shared how AI helps him prepare lessons and activities more efficiently, giving him more time to focus on interacting with his students. In Zambia, Rhoda Namakao Muvita, Biology teacher and Inclusive Education advocate, described how AI has reduced the time she spends planning lessons, while still allowing her to maintain the human connection at the heart of teaching.

In Tanzania, Fatna Waziri Senkondo highlighted how AI can support lesson plans, activities, and resources based on different learners' needs. But she also offered an important reminder: AI can produce convincing answers, but “convincing does not always mean correct.”

This distinction is critical. AI adoption in education cannot simply be about giving teachers access to new tools. Teachers also need the skills to question, verify, and responsibly use what those tools produce.

AI is also changing what it means to teach. Nigerian teacher and education consultant, Olasukanmi Opeifa, observed that “knowledge is now everywhere.” As learners gain easier access to information, teachers are increasingly taking on the role of helping them analyze, evaluate, question, and apply what they know. But for teachers to take on this evolving role, they also need to be prepared.

Mohamed Sané captured the urgency: “Teachers should be among the first.” Investing in teachers, he noted, means investing in every student they teach. For Fatna, that investment must go beyond one-off training, with teachers needing continuous opportunities to learn alongside the infrastructure and resources to apply new skills in practice.

Scholastica C. Lewis, Teacher Educator, Kakata Rural Teacher Training Institute of Liberia similarly called on leaders not to simply provide teachers with technology and gadgets, but to give them the skills, support, and confidence to use those technologies effectively.

The challenge is particularly significant in contexts where connectivity and infrastructure remain limited. Teachers may be willing to experiment with AI, but unreliable internet, limited devices, and inadequate access to digital resources can make adoption difficult.

Hon. Nathaniel K. Cisco Jr, Liberia's Assistant Minister for STEM/TVET at the Ministry of Education, highlighted the importance of preparing teachers alongside the rollout of AI. Liberia, for instance, is incorporating digital and AI literacy into teacher training while also addressing the responsibilities that come with using these technologies, including critical thinking, child protection, safeguards and data privacy.

For Robin Todd, Executive Director of Transforming Teaching, Education and Learning (T-TEL) in Ghana, one of the most important lessons is the need to involve teachers in designing the solutions they are expected to use. “You need to start by asking what problems the teachers are facing, and then build from that,” he said, emphasizing that solutions should be contextualized to teachers’ environments and needs.

Ghana’s experience provides one example. Following changes to the senior high school curriculum that placed greater emphasis on critical thinking and problem-solving, teachers needed support to adapt, particularly around assessment. AI-enabled applications were developed with the Ghana Education Service to support teachers with the curriculum, while ensuring that the technology did not simply do the thinking for them. The approach reflects a broader principle emerging from the discussion: AI should support teachers and learners without replacing the critical thinking, analysis and problem-solving that education is intended to develop.

The experience of Nigerian EdTech entrepreneur Emmanuel Akpan, co-founder of AI Teacha, reinforces this point. Before developing the platform, Akpan and his team worked directly with teachers across different states and found that some technology being introduced into schools was not sufficiently adapted to local classroom realities. They subsequently brought about 400 teachers into the design process, asking what problems they faced, and what solution they needed. The platform has since grown from approximately 14,000 teachers to close to 30,000.

For Akpan, however, the bigger lesson is about who gets considered when education technology is designed. “Teachers are heroes,” he said, arguing that teachers should not be an afterthought in EdTech development. His advice to innovators is simple: ask “Who am I building for?” and involve that user from the beginning.

This principle extends beyond innovators. Preparing teachers for an AI-driven education system requires collaboration across the entire ecosystem.

Governments have a role in setting policies, professional standards, and safeguards. Schools and school leaders need to create time and space for teachers to learn and experiment. EdTech companies need to work with teachers and local communities to develop solutions that reflect their realities. Funders also have a role to play in supporting approaches that strengthen education systems and can continue beyond short-term projects.

As Tracy Osuo, Head of Secondary Education Access & Success at the Mastercard Foundation, noted, teachers are being asked to prepare young people for a rapidly changing future. “Teachers should not be left to navigate this ambiguity alone,” she said. "They need time to learn appropriate tools, guidance, and mechanisms for continued support."

Africa’s ability to prepare young people for an AI-driven future will depend not simply on how quickly schools adopt new technologies, but on whether teachers have the skills, confidence, infrastructure, and voice to use and shape them meaningfully.

If teachers are expected to prepare learners for a future they cannot yet fully predict, they must have the opportunity to keep learning too. The future of education may be powered by technology, but teachers must remain at the centre.

Panelists:

Hear insights from:

• Mohamed Sane: High School Teacher & Coach, Senegal
• Olasukanmi Opeifa: Education Consultant, Nigeria
• Fatna Senkondo: Business Studies Teacher, Hananasif Secondary School, Tanzania
• Rhoda Namakau: Teacher of Biology & Inclusive Education Advocate, Zambia
• Hon. Nathaniel K. Cisco Jr.: Assistant Minister for TVET/STEM, Ministry of Education, Republic of Liberia
• Robin Todd: Executive Director, Teaching, Education & Learning (T-TEL), Ghana
• Tracy Osuo: Head, Secondary Education Access and Success, Mastercard Foundation
• Scholastica C. Lewis: Teacher Educator, Kakata Rural Teacher Training Institute, Liberia (Co-moderator)
• Joy Doreen Biira: Moderator