The Secretary-General of the Organisation of Southern Cooperation (OSC), Manssor Bin-Mussalam, has urged education authorities across Africa to redesign school curricula by shifting the focus from problem-solving to problem-posing.
Bin-Mussalam made this appeal in an interview with The PUNCH in Abuja, stressing that traditional approaches to education are no longer sufficient in the age of Artificial Intelligence (AI).
Founded in 2020 and headquartered in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, the OSC is an international body dedicated to advancing South–South cooperation among countries of the Global South. Its membership spans Africa, Asia, Latin America, the Caribbean, and the Pacific.
According to Bin-Mussalam, curricula that merely emphasize problem-solving risk becoming obsolete. He argued that the ability to frame and pose the right questions is now more crucial, particularly when engaging with AI systems.
He explained, “In AI today, two people can ask the same thing on ChatGPT and receive completely different results. One answer may be poor, while the other is quite strong. The difference lies in the ability of one user to problematise the issue in a way that makes the AI respond more effectively.”
Highlighting the biases within AI systems, Bin-Mussalam noted that current datasets often exclude many African realities. For instance, while AI tools handle translations between English and French effectively, they perform poorly when translating African languages, reflecting training gaps in the technology.
He emphasized that education systems must not only prepare young people to develop AI tools that are contextually relevant but also empower them to ask the right questions. “We should impart to our youth the ability, not just to answer questions, but to articulate the right ones, to analyse their society, and to problematise issues as a path to resolving them,” he added.
Bin-Mussalam’s remarks come as the Nigerian government advances discussions on establishing a technological hub aimed at strengthening innovation, research, and digital transformation in Nigeria and across the continent.
According to the OSC, the hub is expected to serve as a platform for harnessing local talent, promoting knowledge exchange, and driving sustainable development through technology-driven solutions. The initiative, Bin-Mussalam explained, would empower Nigeria’s youthful population with essential digital skills and resources, positioning them to thrive in today’s global economy.
