Global Smart Education Conference 2025: Huawei Promotes Inclusive Education in Africa
From August 18 to 20, 2025, Beijing hosted the Global Smart Education Conference 2025, which brought together over 30 representatives from Egypt, Algeria, Senegal, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Cameroon, and other African countries, including ministerial officials and university partners. On this occasion, Huawei organized the first African Forum on Inclusive Education and signed several cooperation agreements with African countries to promote inclusive education through digital and intelligent technologies and joint ecosystem development.
Innovations in Education
Digital and intelligent innovations are opening up new perspectives for personalized learning and optimizing resources. Applied to inclusive education, they enable overcoming geographical and material barriers, so that everyone can benefit from quality teaching and technology can fully realize its humanistic value.
Huawei's Commitment to Inclusive Education
In his welcome speech, Ye Ziping, Vice President and Chief Digital Officer of Huawei Northern Africa, addressed the African guests and stated: "Huawei is determined to work with its partners to mobilize the most advanced technologies and design inclusive solutions adapted to African realities, to ensure that everyone has equal access to education."
Developing Talents in ICT
Peter Zhang, Vice President of Huawei Global Public Sector BU and Director of the Marketing & Solution Sales Department for the public sector, recalled that the development of ICT talents is a key factor: "Over the past decade, Huawei has accompanied more than 7,800 educational institutions in over 120 countries, established more than 3,000 Huawei ICT Academies in partnership with universities around the world, and trained more than one million students. The company will continue to work with its partners to develop innovative solutions based on new-generation technologies and support high-quality development of the education sector."
China's Initiatives in Digital and Intelligent Education
Wu Yonghe, Director of the China E-Learning Technology Standardization Committee (CELTSC) of the Chinese Ministry of Education and Professor at East China Normal University, presented China's initiatives and practices in digital and intelligent education. He emphasized that the synergy between national policies and local regulations, backed by a solid digital infrastructure, has enabled the integration of artificial intelligence into the entire education process. AI is now benefiting tens of millions of teachers and students and contributing to a significant improvement in the quality of education.
Addressing Africa's Specific Needs
Liu Yue, Director of Inclusive Education at Huawei Northern Africa, recalled that the shortage of educational resources and weak infrastructure require global solutions. Huawei proposes an integrated end-to-end approach (device-pipe-cloud-intelligence) combining intelligent classrooms, affordable cloud terminals, campus connectivity solutions, and integrated cloud & intelligence platforms. These solutions aim to push the traditional boundaries of the classroom, promote equity and quality education, contribute to the global goal of universal access to quality education, and accelerate the digital and intelligent transformation of the sector.
Partnerships and Agreements
During the forum, a company specializing in intelligent education presented its AI-based digital teacher, illustrating the latest concrete advances in AI-driven education. This innovation promotes the sharing of quality educational resources and personalized development of students, while accelerating the digital and intelligent transformation of education.
On the partnership front, on behalf of the Ministry of Higher and University Education of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Minister Prof. Dr. Sombo Ayanne Safi Mukuna Marie-Thérèse signed a letter of intent with Huawei. The agreement focuses on developing university digital infrastructure, setting up intelligent classrooms and online learning platforms, strengthening the digital skills of teachers and students, and cooperating in education and research. The two parties also plan to create a joint innovation laboratory in the DRC to train young talents adapted to the digital era.
Similarly, on behalf of the Ministry of National Education of Senegal, Moustapha Mamba Guirassy signed a protocol agreement with Sonatel and Huawei to strengthen cooperation in the fields of digital educational equipment, digital infrastructure development, and talent training. This partnership will contribute to accelerating the digital transformation of national education and promoting inclusive education in Senegal.
Visits and Exchanges
On the sidelines of the event, ministerial officials and representatives of African universities visited educational demonstration sites in Beijing, Shenzhen, and Dongguan, where they had in-depth exchanges with their Chinese counterparts. Today, information and communication technologies are stimulating equity and innovation in education. Huawei reaffirms its willingness to work with its partners and customers to advance educational equity in Africa through digital technologies.
