Cultivating Critical Thinkers: A Shift from Banking to Co-Creation.
Fifty-four years ago, Brazilian educator and Marxist philosopher Paulo Freire wrote a seminal book- The Pedagogy of the Oppressed. In it, Freire critiqued the way schoolchildren were educated in the supposedly post-colonial era. He introduced a concept he named “Banking Education,” arguing that education was being used as a tool by oppressors to perpetuate their dominance, rather than to liberate people and cultivate critical thinkers who can think for themselves.
Freire described “banking education” as a dehumanising system of schooling for children in newly independent countries.
In this model, students are treated as empty vessels to be filled with the teacher’s knowledge. The teacher is positioned as the most important person in the classroom — the “sage on the stage” — while students are denied personal agency or the opportunity to engage in meaningful dialogue. Instead, they are discouraged from questioning or contributing.
The metaphor of “banking” reflects the process of “depositing” knowledge, where the teacher deposits information into students’ minds, much like depositing money in a bank account. Students are then expected to memorise, mimic, and regurgitate the information later, without contributing their own thoughts — rote learning in its worst form. This model reinforces the teacher’s power while stifling the intellectual curiosity of learners, making education a tool for control rather than liberation.
The banking model continues to dominate African schools, where teachers are viewed as unquestioned authorities. Students are seen as having nothing to offer except their capacity to absorb what the teacher presents. Critical dialogue is absent, as teachers “unload” information into students’ “empty” heads.
At the end of this process, students are required to sit for exams that test their ability to recall the deposited information. Success in regurgitating this information is rewarded with certificates and degrees, while failure leads to the label of “failure,” denying students employability and social prestige.
It is time for this outdated model to end. Freire was not merely a critic of education; he also proposed a solution to the problems of banking education. He advocated for the “Problem-Posing” model, which emphasises the co-creation of knowledge. In this approach, students are valued as human beings who contribute to the pursuit of learning. They are encouraged to engage in meaningful dialogue with teachers, becoming active participants and stakeholders in the learning process rather than passive recipients.
In the problem-posing model, the teacher’s role is not diminished but transformed. Teachers become facilitators of knowledge rather than fountains of it. They share the centre of the learning process with students, nurturing an environment where students develop personal agency, critical thinking skills, and the ability to solve problems.
This is the teaching model African schools need to adopt. For this transformation to happen, school leaders and curriculum designers must prioritise student-centred pedagogy. Teachers must be trained in the problem-posing model during their professional development, and school leaders must encourage both teachers and students to embrace this shift.
By adopting this approach, we can create a generation of empowered, critical thinkers ready to tackle the challenges of the modern world.
The absence of this paradigm shift in African schools will leave brilliant minds uncultivated. As Francis Bacon said, “Knowledge is power, only when used.” However, you cannot advantageously use the knowledge that has merely been deposited in you because it is not knowledge you created — it still belongs to the depositor, which, in this case, is the teacher and school leaders.
