In Zambia’s Classrooms, AI Is Starting to Teach

A landmark partnership between the government and a British AI company marks Sub-Saharan Africa’s latest experiment in reimagining education through technology. For a system where only 4 percent of Grade 2 students can read at a minimum standard, the stakes could not be higher.

The classroom at Katoba Secondary School in Chongwe District does not look like the future. Cracked plaster lines the walls, and a hand-painted timetable hangs beside windows that let in more dust than light. Yet it is here, in this quiet corner of Zambia’s Central Province, that the government has placed an ambitious bet: that artificial intelligence can do what decades of policy reform could not.

This week, that ambition took a formal step forward. Zambia’s Ministry of Technology and Science and the British AI firm Obrizum Group signed a memorandum of understanding to pilot an adaptive AI learning platform in secondary schools and vocational training institutions across the country. The agreement, signed in Lusaka on Monday, is being hailed by officials as a turning point for an education system that, by nearly every measure, is struggling.

The numbers are stark. According to UNICEF Zambia, only 4 percent of Grade 2 students achieve the government’s minimum reading proficiency, a figure that has actually declined in recent years. By Grade 5, the average score in English sits at just 34.97 percent, and in Mathematics at 31.07 percent. In a country of more than 20 million people, where the 2024 Annual School Census counted 13,487 schools and 158,504 teachers, the system’s reach has never been broader. Its quality, however, has not kept pace.

“The introduction of AI in education represents a shift from the traditional classroom model towards a more personalised and responsive learning environment.”

Felix Mutati, Zambia’s Minister of Technology and Science

Obrizum’s platform works by analyzing individual learning patterns and continuously adjusting the content a student receives, a process known as adaptive learning. The idea is that a child in rural Luapula Province, studying on a shared tablet, receives lessons calibrated to her specific gaps and pace, rather than the one-size-fits-all approach that has long defined Zambian schooling.

“The collaboration will focus on piloting AI-driven learning solutions designed to transform the education experience for learners and educators alike,” said Dr. Chibeza Agley, Obrizum’s chief executive, who signed the agreement on behalf of the company. The goal, he added, is to demonstrate how technology-enabled learning can enhance efficiency and better prepare graduates for the demands of a digital economy.

The pilot sits within a broader government technology push. In September 2024, Zambia partnered with Google to establish an AI Center of Excellence at the University of Zambia. A month later, Katoba Secondary School in Chongwe was designated a separate AI hub, backed by a K300,000 investment from Ecobank that covered solar panels, internet infrastructure, and teacher training. And in November 2024, the Ministry of Technology and Science formally launched the National AI Strategy 2024-2026, a roadmap that envisions full-scale AI integration in primary and secondary schools by 2030.

Early indicators from within Zambia’s own institutions offer cautious optimism. A study at the University of Lusaka found that AI-powered analytics dashboards reduced time spent on administrative reporting by 20 percent, while improving the accuracy of early-warning systems that flag students at risk of falling behind. Separate pilot projects at secondary schools using AI chatbots for vocabulary practice have shown measurable gains in retention, particularly among students who struggle in conventional classroom settings.

The global context lends urgency to Zambia’s timing. The generative AI market, valued at $44.89 billion today, is projected to reach $1.3 trillion by 2032. Yet Zambia currently ranks 143rd out of 193 countries in the Oxford Insights Government AI Readiness Index, a placement that reflects both the scale of infrastructure gaps and the determination to close them.

Those gaps are not lost on educators. Fewer than 35 percent of children entering Grade 1 have experienced any formal pre-primary education. Rural schools face chronic shortages of qualified teachers, and hidden costs including uniforms and textbooks continue to push children, especially girls, out of classrooms before they reach secondary level. Technology, critics caution, cannot substitute for the structural investments those problems require.

George Hamusunga, executive director of the Zambia National Education Coalition, says his organization welcomes the AI strategy but insists that regulation must keep pace with rollout. “There is a need to regulate the way AI is used to derive positive benefits,” he said. “Universities and schools need to position themselves and be ready.” Student voices from campuses suggest that AI tools are already widespread, with one Mulungushi University student noting that almost all of her peers have more than four AI applications installed on their phones, a fact that complicates any neat narrative about supervised, structured adoption.

The Obrizum partnership addresses a recurring criticism of Africa’s AI strategies: that ambition consistently outpaces institutional capacity. By focusing the initial pilot on secondary schools and Technical Education, Vocational and Entrepreneurship Training (TEVET) institutions, the government has chosen the level where students are closest to workforce entry, and where demonstrable outcomes can be measured within a government term.

Minister Mutati has framed the initiative explicitly in terms of equity. “Integrating AI into education could allow learning to be personalised according to the needs and abilities of individual students, whether they are studying in rural or urban environments,” he said at the signing ceremony. “Such technology could help bridge the digital divide while improving educational outcomes across the country.”

Whether a platform developed for enterprise training in Britain can be meaningfully adapted to the rhythms of a rural Zambian classroom remains to be seen. Questions about data governance, connectivity in off-grid areas, and the linguistic diversity of Zambia’s more than 70 languages will need answers before any national scale-up becomes credible.

For now, though, the walls of Katoba Secondary School are being repainted. The solar panels hum. And somewhere in the national education strategy’s fine print, a date is circled: 2030, when AI-enhanced learning is meant to reach every Zambian child, in every province, in every grade. The technology is ready. The question is whether everything around it will be too.

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Lakin Ogunbanwo (Nigeria)

Most Famous Photo: His portrait series exploring Nigerian masculinity and identity, often featuring subjects in traditional hats or veiled faces.

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