Top 10 African Countries with the Highest Education Global Ranking

In Summary

• North African countries are still leading the way as Africa’s best-educated nations in 2025, with Egypt, Morocco, and Tunisia continuing to be globally competitive.
• In East and West Africa, Kenya and Ghana are leveraging digital reforms and updated curricula to achieve a steady rise in the global rankings.
• Most of these top 10 countries are focusing on teacher development, local language inclusion, and public-private partnerships to enhance foundational learning.

Deep Dive!!

Education in Africa is becoming a strategy for the long-term economic and technological future. In 2025, the global conversation about education is changing from how many children are enrolled, to ensuring the quality, access, and adaptability of education are measurable. As the commitment to education becomes a national priority, many countries across Africa are investing in curricular reforms, digital learning infrastructures, and regional centers of innovation. The focus of their investments in education is reducing future costs, closing workforce readiness gaps, increasing equitable access, and building local capacity.

It is also important to note that several countries ranking in the top ten globally did not use embellished budgets to get there, but were able to achieve higher rankings through policy consistency, creative ideas to innovate locally, and dedicated reform goals that earn persistent rewards. According to the World Population Review global Education ranking, here are the top 10 African countries leading in education.

10. Ethiopia

Ethiopia has devoted considerable effort to decentralizing its education policy to better address the demands of its multilingual population. Ethiopia is advancing bold reforms that include mother-tongue instruction in early grade levels, introducing competency-based curricula, and ambitious teacher training initiatives for existing and new teachers. The country is also continuing to expand the use of digital classrooms, as well as low-cost electronic learning models, especially in regions with little to no access, which is indicative of longer-term structural improvement.

9. Nigeria

Nigeria has the largest population in Africa and one of the most complicated education systems in Africa. Despite the many challenges facing the country, including a shortage of teachers, regional inequities, and inadequate infrastructure for learning, Nigeria has demonstrated strong policy intent in the area of universal basic education, digital learning uptake, and national curriculum reform. Platforms like uLesson and EduTech are addressing some of the access issues, while the national examinations like WAEC and JAMB provide credibility and structure for movement between secondary school and tertiary education.

8. Zimbabwe

Zimbabwe ranked 87th globally and continues to make an impressive mark in literacy, despite prolonged economic pressure on the government. Historically, Zimbabwean governments have prioritized education spending, and its curriculum is strong in science areas and languages. Community engagement in the governance of schools, as well as sustained effort in reintroducing technical subjects in high school, has enabled sustainable performance in education for Zimbabwe.

7. Cameroon

Cameroon, ranked 82nd globally and operates one of the most linguistically diverse schooling systems in Africa. The existence of both French and English curricula has facilitated engagement and collaboration with foreign academic institutions and has allowed for greater mobility of teaching staff across regions. Increased emphasis on vocational education was recently incorporated into the curricular reform. Cameroon's higher education institutions, like the University of Yaoundé and the University of Buea, have both become important centres for studies related to agriculture, medicine, health, and climate sciences.

6. Algeria

Algeria is ranked 75th as a country that has relatively strong state-sponsored education policies and very high literacy rates, especially among the youth. Arabic remains the main language of instruction, but French and English are gaining ground in the sciences and technical fields. The government is also investing in efforts to improve digital literacy and comparing partnerships with international institutions to improve the competitiveness of higher education. Algeria's state commitment to free public education has kept enrolment rates at all levels stable.

5. Tunisia

Ranked 74th and commonly recognized for its advocacy of progressive education, specifically regarding girls’ access and teacher welfare, Tunisia’s curriculum plans sequence logic, philosophy, and science from early levels. Recent reforms will also adapt higher education to labour market needs and incorporate the recent requirements to teach human rights. Tunisia is also remarkably one of the few African countries that has a systematic national debate and exploration on AI education, with pilot programs exploring ways to responsibly use AI in education programs.

4. Ghana

Ranked 73rd, Ghana continues to develop educational legitimacy and credibility with several reforms including its Free Senior High School (SHS) policy that dramatically raised enrollment. The new curriculum framework focuses on creativity, problem-solving, and developing digital competence. Ghana is also making strides toward the standardization of minimum teacher qualifications while tertiary education institutions are receiving new funding for research and innovation. The Ghana Education Service has one of the most organized models in the public sector of West Africa.

3. Kenya

Kenya placed 71st and is often regarded in the region as the leader of educational reform in East Africa. By adopting a Competency-Based Curriculum (CBC) into its education system, the country’s education reforms have moved away from rote learning to skills-based training. Kenya’s use of ICT tools and technology in classrooms, including through the Digital Literacy Programme, has had an immensely positive impact on student learning outcomes, particularly in the public school sector.

2. Morocco

Morocco ranked 55th globally. Morocco has undertaken to amend textbooks to create texts that emphasize critical thinking, to grow and diversify STEM subjects. This also creates and trains thousands of new teachers across the country annually. Bilingual education is also part of the effort to moderate global competitiveness. Moreover, Morocco built strong education partnerships with France and Spain and GCC countries leading to possibilities for reform, agreement on opportunities for curriculum reform, and student exchanges.

1. Egypt

Egypt leads Africa in global rankings for education. The Education 2.0 reform agenda has transformed the system by emphasizing critical thinking, digital literacy, and assessment reform. Huge state investment has also transformed classrooms, teacher standards, and the curriculum to include skills necessary for the future. Egypt’s new administrative capital has also opened additional international branches expanding the higher education sector.