Leveraging Artificial Intelligence and Other 4IR Technologies for Driving Education 4.0 in South Africa: A Scoping Study

The advent of the fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) has impacted human life across many disciplines including healthcare, agriculture, telecommunication, manufacturing, education etc. It is characterized by cyber physical systems thus enabling automation of processes, in which devices can autonomously communicate. Some of the technologies that drive 4IR include Artificial Intelligence (AI), Internet of Things (IoT), big data, drone technology, robotics and others. However, many nations are struggling with the challenge of harnessing 4IR potentials because a large number of their populations lack the required skills, thus necessitating the need for appropriate learning, unlearning and relearning. In this scoping study, we explored how to leverage AI as well as other 4IR technologies and their transformative effects in driving education 4.0 in South Africa. We followed scoping study guidelines by searching Scopus and Web of Science bibliographic databases for academic literature and obtained 111 articles from which 27 met all eligibility criteria and were thematically coded. The PRISMA-ScR protocol was adopted for systematic reporting. Findings obtained indicate that South Africa is active in academic research publications regarding 4IR, especially focusing on higher education. However, there is a lack of academic evidence on the upgrade of curricula across all education levels in South Africa for 4IR enabled education 4.0. We make informed recommendations to bridge this gap across different educational levels in the country. Ultimately, policy makers and education stakeholders could leverage our findings and recommendations to provide timely interventions to identified challenges with respect to actualizing 4IR compliant education in South Africa.