Why Government Policy Will Decide the Future of EdTech

As Ethiopia accelerates its digital transformation agenda, its education sector faces a critical test: whether the government can move beyond pilot projects and rhetoric to design policies that make technology a real driver of learning quality and equity.

The September edition of EdTech Mondays, a radio show produced by Shega Media & Technology in collaboration with the Mastercard Foundation, brought together practitioners and policymakers to examine how governments can lead that shift. 

Centering on the question, "What kind of government leadership is needed to turn Ethiopia’s fragmented EdTech landscape into a coherent national system that serves every student?" the session featured Tesfaye Degefa, Teachers and Educational Leaders Development Expert at the Ministry of Education; Bereket Gebreselassie, General Manager at Synapse Bridge and Chapter Lead at the AI Collective Addis Ababa; and Mahlet Girma, Founder and General Manager at Limitless Youth and Program Director at Inspired Development. 

Tesfaye opened with critical emphasis: EdTech must enhance, not replace, traditional learning. Recognizing Ethiopia’s diverse learner profiles, where students learn by seeing, hearing, or doing, digital tools like interactive whiteboards and touch-screen devices must reflect and support that diversity.

“Students learn differently. Some by watching, others by listening or doing. So digital tools must reflect that diversity,” he noted.

He stressed that strong government policies and quality standards must anchor EdTech content to Ethiopia’s national curriculum and educational goals. Different education levels require tailored approaches: interactive and playful tools for early learners and progressively complex and contextual content for secondary and higher education. Tesfaye advised, “Quality must never be compromised,” a warning warranted given the uneven content quality in many emerging initiatives.

Tesfaye’s point aligns with Ethiopia’s ongoing Digital Education Strategy 2023-2028, which aims to transform education by improving equity, accessibility, and quality through digital means. The document recognizes challenges from infrastructure gaps to curriculum relevance and stresses contextual adaptation over wholesale adoption of foreign models, but without consistent standards or monitoring, EdTech risks becoming a patchwork of projects with uneven quality.  

While agreeing on the need for clear national standards, Bereket argued for maintaining flexibility in innovation. He emphasized adapting global solutions to local contexts rather than reinventing the wheel. “We don’t need to reinvent everything; we can adapt global solutions to our local needs,” he explained. Instead, Bereket proposed creating collaborative spaces where teachers, developers, and policymakers can test and refine products before adoption. This approach, he said, would prevent duplication and improve accountability.

He further highlighted the importance of innovative ecosystems that bring together teachers, technologists, and policymakers to pilot and improve digital tools. Bereket warned against rigid policies, calling instead for flexible, evolving regulations that keep pace with rapid technological change and feedback from classrooms. This is especially critical given Ethiopia’s historical challenges with slow policy adaptations in the education sector.

Ethiopia’s EdTech ecosystem is emerging but remains largely at an early stage. A 2024 EdTech ecosystem mapping by Reach for Change surveyed 65 startups, finding that about 79% are still developing or testing business models, with roughly 10% considered post-early stage. According to the assessment, access to finance is a major constraint: over half of startups in that assessment report investments below 500,000 birr. While some startups have benefitted from acceleration and fellowship programs, mainly the Reach for Change-Mastercard Foundation EdTech Fellowship, many continue to face barriers in securing large-scale investment or scaling through government procurement.

For Bereket, such short-term funding cycles make it difficult to sustain innovation. “We need shared investment public-private partnerships that go beyond projects,” he noted. 

Turning to inclusion, Mahlet emphasized that technology’s success depends on teachers’ confidence. Citing UNESCO data, she noted that over 70% of teachers are uncomfortable using EdTech tools. “Many Ethiopian teachers have limited capacity and experience with these technologies, which contributes to the gap,” she said. “It is not enough to create tools; we must build teacher confidence through continuous training and support.”

Mahlet stressed ongoing professional development and community-of-practice models for teachers. She cited Rwanda’s EdTech strategy, where student feedback is integrated into digital platform evaluations to ensure usability and relevance. Mahlet’s insights reinforce that investing in human capital, both teachers and students, is as important as investing in technology.

Inclusivity also requires linguistic and cultural representation. Mahlet pointed out that most EdTech platforms use English and Amharic, excluding many other Ethiopian languages. “Ethiopia is multilingual, yet diversity is often poorly reflected,” she said. “Every student deserves to learn in a language they understand.”

Access remains a significant challenge. Many rural schools still lack reliable internet. Tesfaye suggested solar-powered labs and offline-capable tools to address this. Bereket proposed establishing regional EdTech centers where teachers can train and share materials, using repurposed devices and solar energy to close the access gap. 

On sustainability, Bereket reiterated that public-private partnerships are crucial for long-term impact. “Short-term grants can kickstart projects, but lasting change requires shared investment,” he said. He also emphasized the need for teachers to clearly see the value of technology in easing their work and improving learning outcomes, which drives natural adoption.

As the conversation came full circle, what emerged was a vision of government not as a rigid controller but as a dynamic enabler, one that builds ecosystems, not silos. The state, the panelists agreed, must lead in setting standards and ensuring inclusivity, but it should also open the field for innovation, local creativity, and private sector investment. Bereket captured the sentiment succinctly: “The government’s role is not to do everything but to make everything possible.”

In the coming years, Ethiopia’s success in EdTech will hinge on how well it balances this equation, aligning regulatory foresight with local innovation, merging pedagogy with technology, and ensuring that no student or teacher is left behind. As Mahlet put it, “Technology is an investment in the future. The choices we make today will define how our children learn tomorrow.” 

In that sense, Ethiopia’s digital education revolution is not about devices or apps; it’s about power and who wields it, who benefits from it, and how it is distributed across classrooms divided by geography and opportunity. If the government can craft policies that are flexible, inclusive, and forward-looking, the country could leapfrog into a new educational era where digital tools become equalizers, not dividers. If it fails, the digital divide may simply become a new literacy gap.