Prof. Akyeampong Meets Education Minister Ahead of Book Launch on Africa’s Learning Crisis
Renowned education scholar, Prof. Kwame Akyeampong, today paid a courtesy call on the Minister for Education, Hon. Haruna Iddrisu, to present him with a copy of his newly released book, “Reconceptualising the Learning Crisis in Africa: Multi-dimensional Pedagogies of Accelerated Learning Programmes”, co-authored with Dr. Sean Higgins and published by Routledge.
During the meeting, Prof. Akyeampong formally invited the Minister to the book’s launch event, scheduled for October 22, 2025, in Accra, which is by invite-only. The Minister graciously accepted the invitation and confirmed his participation as keynote speaker, adding significant weight to the event that is already drawing interest from across the education and development community.
The book, which challenges long-standing global narratives about Africa’s “learning crisis,” advocates for inclusive, locally rooted, and values-based approaches to teaching and learning across the continent. Drawing on case studies from Ghana, Liberia, and Ethiopia, the authors highlight the transformative power of Accelerated Learning Programmes (ALPs), programmes that offer faster, community-led, and language-sensitive pathways to learning for children left behind by mainstream systems as well as lessons for the mainstream schools.
Today’s meeting marks a critical step in ensuring that the book’s message reaches the right hands, those shaping the future of African education policy. Prof. Akyeampong noted that the purpose of the book is not only academic, but advocacy-driven, aiming to influence policymakers, educators, and thought leaders to shift how learning is approached in African contexts.
Hon. Iddrisu expressed strong appreciation for the book’s themes, especially its emphasis on the use of local languages in instruction, the centrality of national values, and the importance of reflecting Ghanaian knowledge systems and ways of knowing in curriculum reform. He remarked that these align strongly with his ministry’s ongoing priorities. Children must be taught not just what to learn, but in a way that resonates with their identity, their culture, and their community.
The meeting reflects growing momentum around the book’s central argument, that the learning crisis in Africa is not a failure of learners, but a failure of systems that refuse to see and respond to learners as they are.
Supported by leading organisations including T-TEL Ghana, Luminos Fund, Jacobs Foundation, Yidan Prize Foundation, and mc2h Foundation, the upcoming launch event will convene key stakeholders from government, academia, civil society, and international development.
