Mozambique is in the advanced stages of drafting regulation governing AI use across its education system, with the framework due before the Council of Ministers before the end of the year.
Minister of Education and Culture Samaria Tovela announced the work in Maputo on Wednesday, on the sidelines of the 4th National Conference on Distance Education.
Scope: nationwide, covering all levels from primary through to higher education, with particular focus on generative AI.
“We are working with all institutions. We have already held working meetings and the document is being produced,” Tovela said. “In a short time we will present it and, subsequently, the rules will be taken to the Council of Ministers for approval.”
The stated objective is to protect the quality of education and ensure AI is used responsibly and ethically.
Why education, and why now
Preliminary 2025 data presented at the conference shows distance education now covers approximately 75,200 students — 26.6% of Mozambique’s total higher education enrolment.
That is the constituency the regulation governs. More than a quarter of the country’s higher education students are learning remotely, mostly through the digital channels where generative AI is hardest to see and simplest to use.
Tovela framed distance education as widening access for young people, women, working adults and others using the modality to acquire new skills — and as increasing citizen participation in national development.
A sector rule ahead of the national framework
The sequencing is unusual and worth noting.
Mozambique’s National AI Strategy has been in development with UNESCO support since December 2025, went out for public consultation between 4 May and 4 June, and remains unadopted. The country has also established a National Commission for Artificial Intelligence, secured ITU backing for an AI regulatory sandbox, and launched the Mozambican Association of Artificial Intelligence in August.
Education regulation is now likely to reach Cabinet before the strategy it would sit beneath.
That is not necessarily wrong. Sector rules can move faster than national frameworks because the stakeholders are fewer and the problem is immediate — students are using generative AI now, whatever the strategy eventually says. But it does mean the education regulation will set precedents the national framework later has to accommodate rather than the reverse.
Where it sits regionally
No other African country in your coverage has taken education-sector AI regulation to cabinet.
Egypt launched a nationally contextualised AI competency framework for teachers with UNESCO in July — guidance for educators rather than binding rules. Ethiopia is preparing to integrate AI into its core curriculum without an announced teacher framework. South African universities have moved individually away from AI detection tools toward disclosure requirements and AI literacy, institution by institution rather than by statute.
Mozambique is attempting something different: national, binding, and covering primary through tertiary.
The substance will decide whether that is an advantage. Rules written for a system where a quarter of higher education is delivered remotely need to address what disclosure looks like in an online assessment, how institutions verify authorship at distance, and what happens to students who cannot access the tools their peers are using. None of that detail has been published.
