Decolonising the Curriculum in Africa: A Comparative Analysis of Policy and Practice

Debates on curriculum reform in Africa increasingly highlight the persistence of colonial epistemic hierarchies that privilege Western knowledge traditions while marginalising Indigenous Knowledge Systems (IKS). This article advances the field of comparative education by positioning curriculum decolonisation as a comparative analytical category rather than a country-specific concern. Drawing on a qualitative meta-analysis of policy frameworks, curriculum documents, and scholarly literature from Botswana, Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya, and South Africa (2015–2025), the study employs a decolonial–comparative framework to interrogate four dimensions: epistemic orientation, integration of IKS, socio-economic alignment, and governance structures. Findings reveal a continental pattern of rhetorical commitment to decolonisation but limited structural transformation, with Botswana serving as a critical anchor case that illustrates the depth of epistemic dependency and governance centralisation. By contrasting Botswana’s symbolic inclusion of IKS with Kenya’s competency-based experimentation and South Africa’s contested provincial reforms, the analysis demonstrates how global accountability regimes, teacher preparedness, and governance arrangements constrain epistemic pluralism. The article contributes theoretically by distinguishing between symbolic and structural decolonisation, offering a lens to explain why reforms often reproduce colonial hierarchies despite policy rhetoric. It concludes with implications for comparative education scholarship and policy, arguing that meaningful decolonisation requires embedding Indigenous epistemologies across disciplines, decentralising curriculum governance, and rethinking assessment regimes to align education with local socio-economic realities.