Wantoe T. Wantoe

Education has shaped much of my own journey, from Liberia to Oxford and Harvard, and through experiences working with students, policymakers and institutions across different contexts. That journey has reinforced a simple conviction: education policy is ultimately about people, their possibilities and the futures they are able to imagine for themselves.

The Oxford Global Education Futures Forum emerged from a desire to create a different kind of space. Too often, those researching education, those making policy, those supporting its financing and implementation, and those living with the consequences of those decisions encounter one another only occasionally. We want to bring these communities into sustained conversation, not simply to discuss the future of education, but to consider how we might shape it together.

For Africa, this conversation carries particular significance. Across the continent, governments are confronting questions of access and quality alongside rapid demographic change, technological transformation, changing labour markets and the continuing challenge of building institutions capable of expanding opportunity. Yet Africa’s education story should not be understood only through its challenges. There is equally a story of ideas, innovation, leadership and possibility. The Forum seeks to create space for African policymakers, researchers and emerging leaders to contribute to global education conversations from their own experiences, priorities and aspirations.

I am particularly committed to ensuring that young people are not simply invited into the room, but are recognised as contributors to it. Decisions being made today about artificial intelligence, universities, skills, education financing and human capital will profoundly shape the world our generation and those after us inherit. Emerging leaders should therefore have meaningful opportunities to engage those decisions, challenge assumptions and contribute ideas of their own.

My hope is that what begins at Oxford extends far beyond these three days: new relationships between governments and researchers, new connections between institutions, opportunities for young leaders, and collaborations capable of translating dialogue into meaningful action.

If this Forum succeeds, it will not be because we assembled important people in an important place. It will be because the people who came together left Oxford better connected, more willing to learn from one another, and prepared to build something together.