Paper ID: 2304.13728

ChatGPT is all you need to decolonize sub-Saharan Vocational Education

Isidora Tourni, Georgios Grigorakis, Isidoros Marougkas, Konstantinos Dafnis, Vassiliki Tassopoulou

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.

Submitted: Apr 11, 2023