The disruptions in Africa including underdevelopment, poverty, disease, ignorance, instability, are said to have constituted a serious pandemic, and the causes of the pandemic have been variously described as consequences of colonialism, neo-colonialism, military incursion, poor leadership and corruption. This paper argues that the absence of mass education may be considered as a pandemic. It further contends that the failure to offer the population mass education, beginning with the basic literacy programmes is serious educational pandemic. That pandemic could explain much (...) of the problems and afflictions in Africa and the breakdown of the society, long before the contemporary COVID-19. The study relied on interviews, articles and books using the descriptive approach as a methodology. The authors found out that the absence of mass education has consequences such as unemployment, low life expectancy, poverty trap and exploitation among others. The study recommends that training structures at all levels need to ensure there is always a built-in link between literacy and students’ professional activities, including the different elements of their environment. It also recommends that the vision for mass education itself needs to be more inclusive of and responsive to other areas of life to improve the guarantee of adjustment to globalization, rapid change and new challenges. (shrink)