ChatGPT is all you need to decolonize sub-Saharan Vocational Education
It addresses educational inequality and socioeconomic mobility in poverty-stricken regions, but is incremental as it builds on existing AI capabilities for policy advocacy.
This position paper proposes using ChatGPT and other Generative AI models to decolonize vocational education in sub-Saharan Africa by prioritizing technical training over academic education, highlighting tailored applications to cultural needs.
The advances of Generative AI models with interactive capabilities over the past few years offer unique opportunities for socioeconomic mobility. Their potential for scalability, accessibility, affordability, personalizing and convenience sets a first-class opportunity for poverty-stricken countries to adapt and modernize their educational order. As a result, this position paper makes the case for an educational policy framework that would succeed in this transformation by prioritizing vocational and technical training over academic education in sub-Saharan African countries. We highlight substantial applications of Large Language Models, tailor-made to their respective cultural background(s) and needs, that would reinforce their systemic decolonization. Lastly, we provide specific historical examples of diverse states successfully implementing such policies in the elementary steps of their socioeconomic transformation, in order to corroborate our proposal to sub-Saharan African countries to follow their lead.