A New Social Contract for Education: The Implications for Education Quality in Africa

Abstract

The 2021 Futures of Education report advocated a new social contract for education grounded in principles of solidarity, inclusivity and shared responsibility. “Contract” is the chosen metaphor because it puts an obligation on renewed education quality. Meanwhile, Africa is moving towards Agenda 2063. Now, the global appeal for a new social contract raises a question about what specific educational quality offerings are being extended to the continent regarding curriculum, pedagogy and teacher education. Drawing on Heila Lotz-Sisitka’s conceptualisation of “learning as connection” as a theoretical framework, this article examines how the new social contract can adequately respond to Africa’s developmental, epistemic and economic realities. Learning as connection underscores sociocultural meaning-making as central to educational quality. The article uses this framework because the sociocultural meaning-making processes take into account Africa’s linguistic and cultural plurality. The framework contends that prevailing discourses on educational quality, focused on mastery and inclusivity, remain inadequate if they fail to address relevance as embodied and contextualised practice. Through a comparative policy analysis of the Futures of Education report with the Agenda 2063, the article interrogates the contradictions between the global framing of the social contract and the African economic pressures. I argue that the new social contract will prove fundamentally insufficient unless teaching for relevance is embedded at its core. The article articulates this relevance as different from the “relevance” already cited in existing African educational policies because it is specially conceptualised on sociocultural dimensions that take into account the educational realities of diverse African contexts.