I’ve quipped here before about flying cars, automatically generated food, as well as systems that automatically create penalties for bad driving through the use of artificial intelligence.
Those technologies are not completely outside the bounds of reality. Elon Musk’s Tesla has, for example, created a levitating Tesla Cybertruck that is a 1:24 scale model of the actual car.
US-based Alef Aeronautics has developed a pilot version of a flying car that, interestingly, seats one-and-a-half people. That news emerged in January, with an apparent production timeline of a year. One hopes it has some more space when it is launched because quite what half of the human body can be accommodated isn’t yet clear.
Removing politics from the Tesla discussion completely, its autonomous vehicles have already shown just how important it is to ensure they are thoroughly tested, interrogated and actually fit for purpose without putting lives at risk.
Already, we are leaving children behind.
Musk’s cars are so (in)famous for accidents that there’s even a dedicated website tracking each of these. Tesla Deaths has counted 647 deaths so far. While this is a far cry from the thousands of lives lost on our roads each year, it’s a serious issue.
Such developments show tangibly that we are already leaving industry 4.0 behind to enter the era of the next industrial revolution (IR) as technologies start seamlessly building on each other in a world in which machine and man will co-exist to improve productivity, with the ultimate aim of enhancing economic growth. I’ve detailed this process here.
A great example is in Rwanda where, driven by the Smart Rwanda 2020 Master Plan, there’s the Kigali Innovation City, which integrates university campuses, incubator office spaces, research and development facilities, business hotels, supporting retail, student housing and residential accommodation with green and sustainable design features.
This is a shining example of what can be achieved when development banks, government, education institutions and the private sector pull together.
Clearly, reaching this level of innovation at scale as envisioned by the fifth IR means there will be a high demand for skills – career paths that we can all only imagine will need to be forged.
This is where the need for education becomes acute. Already, we are leaving children behind. Not only in South Africa, but also on the broader continent. I’ve made the refrain for education that is future fit and is equally accessible to all before, as well.
I’m blowing my own trumpet here because I cannot overstate the importance of good education that will enable our young people to not only benefit from all these developments and implement such technologies in their lives, at home and at work: Africa and her people can become leaders in this field.
Incidentally, “blow your own trumpet” − according to one person on the internet − is a phrase that goes all the way back to 1576 and likely came into being because common people had to announce their own arrival, unlike royalty, who had someone to blow a trumpet for them. This could be wrong but certainly sounds legitimate.
The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development’s (OECD’s) “The Future of Education and Skills” position paper for 2030 makes the point that new solutions are required in this rapidly changing world of ours. Dating back to 2018, the OECD was already arguing that those who are best prepared for the future will be agents of change.
The organisation’s paper specifically called for a system that enables people to think creatively, develop new products and services, new jobs, new processes and methods, new ways of thinking and living, new enterprises, new sectors, new business models and new social models. These words − the OECD’s words and not mine − should be obvious but aren’t.
Drawing on the OECD again: it has noted that 27% of South African students who have been in school for six years cannot read. This means that children entering their teenage years simply have no literacy skills at all. This is unacceptable.
This piece, my final in a series on 5IR, deserves this more sombre tone. The dire need for education across Africa is a serious matter, especially when one considers that it is already not at the levels it should be, never mind for Africa to benefit fully from industry 5.0, but also to be a game-changer in this field.
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