Africa Policy Centre

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Browsing Africa Policy Centre by Subject "Education sector – Uganda’s response COVID-19"

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    How AI could transform Uganda’s Eduscape Paving the Path for Blended Learning
    (Africa policy Centre. Uganda Christian University, 2020-07) Kabahizi, Cadreen Barungi
    As the world enters the fourth industrial revolution, artificial intelligence (AI), an emerging technology, is subtly becoming part of our lives. In many ways, we are becoming increasingly dependent on AI-powered tools and devices. In the education sectors of several countries, we see some cases in which AI has been integrated into students’ personal and school lives. Because Sub-Saharan Africa has not yet fully launched the use of AI in schools, it is of paramount importance that Uganda’s education system looks into this proposition as a means to bridge the historic literacy gaps within the country. Educating students with AI and about AI is also a means to prepare Ugandan students to be competitive in the world market. This is especially important to consider now that Uganda’s education sector is recalibrating the education system as a response to the COVID-19 driven school closures. AI offers the chance for faster recovery of the learning losses that students are currently suffering. It would empower educators, increasing their reach in the number of students taught and thus increasing their efficiency. This, however, does not come without challenges. The biggest of which are ethical concerns and lack of necessary infrastructure. This paper explores ways in which these challenges can be mitigated to bring about the necessary advancement. We encourage the Government of Uganda to run trials to find the best-suited ways to apply AI in the education system. AI application has to be safe, ensuring secure data and privacy of users and it has to be helpful and beneficial, producing positive learning outcomes and increasing the teachers’ efficiency. All this is in hope that AI can provide the avenue to reach through which many uneducated people get access to world-class education closing the historical learning gaps of illiteracy and greatly enriching the Human Capital of Uganda.