The 21st Century Students

  Education in its broadest sense is any act or experience that has a formative effect on the mind, character, or physical ability of an individual. It is the process by which society deliberately transmits its accumulated knowledge, skills, and values from one generation to another. The generation on the receiving end is called “student”. According to Martin Luther King Jnr., “education has two fold purposes; utility and culture”.

  In time past, society had responded to its various needs by adopting several paradigms of education as was suited to solving their particular needs. As epochs unfolded, so did man redefine the core objectives of what to pass on to its students. First, there was education for economic prosperity. Then with the discovery of the beauty of democracy by the Greeks, education was modified to be a means by which it could be secured by sustaining shared values such as justice, equality, and freedom.

  It has been a long march for humanity and finally, we are in the 21^st century, with its own set of challenges and peculiarities. The millennium was ushered in by a dramatic technological revolution. We now live in an increasingly diverse, globalized, and complex media saturated society. This has made students global citizens and digital learners with unprecedented exposure to knowledge. This means that for the students to be efficient, they have to be media literate, hence new curricula has to be designed.

  In the children’s story, “Alice in wonderland”, Alice reacts to everything with “it’s impossible!”. Many educators and policy makers respond just like her when challenged to adopt a new paradigm of education that is suited to the 21^st century; and there is no better time to reinvent schools for the 21^st century than now. But for such schools to ever see the light of the day, then cognizance must be taken of “21^st   century skills”.  Such skills include; critical thinking and problem solving, agility and adaptability, effective oral and written communication, and ability to access and analyze information. This is because students must be thoroughly equipped if they would be able to address a rapidly changing world filled with both new problems and possibilities.

   The 21^st century students should be research driven, not textbook driven; and focus on what they can do, not memorize discrete facts. This will be feasible only when a project based curricula is designed for students. As all manner of thought patterns and teaching pervade our society, students must be able to seek and apply truth for themselves, for it is the mark of an educated mind to entertain a thought without accepting it.

  The dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate to the stormy present. The occasion is piled high with difficulty and we must rise with the occasion.                                                                                                         

Ending Extreme Poverty and Hunger; The GIFTED Way

Business is a game I play, money is a tool I use, but people are my true passion. My waking passion each morning is to find a means to help combat extreme poverty and hunger; my commitment has been to empower youths around me, one person at a time. When a friend sent the link containing the Nigerian Empowerment Foundation’s challenge, I saw it as an opportunity to share my vision for Africa. My hope is that as many like-minded people as possible will see this and initiative and join me to see it come to pass. I chose to call this initiative the “Gifted Network”.

G.I.F.T.E.D is an acronym for Guided Information, Finance, and Technology for Economic Development.

Vision-To raise one million independent breadwinners across Africa by 2035

Mission-To impact economically viable skills in willing Africans and guide them with adequate information and finance to launch their private enterprise to full market scale

Africa has come to become the world’s symbol for poverty. Erroneously many have referred to charity as giving to Africa, a form of giving that has not in any way improved on the lives nor living standards of the African beyond meeting his immediate needs.

GIFTED Network is a program is programs that is focused on finding poor (under privileged individuals) with dependents (or would be dependents) who are willing to find and develop a genuine stream of income to fend for themselves and their dependents. Interested participants would be given a brief entrepreneurial orientation, introduced to multiple skill options to choose from and then attached to a skill coach practicing in the participant’s vocation of interest. The skill coach is paid (if not a volunteer) to transfer his expertise and knowledge to the participant and to expose him to diverse hands on experiences till he (the participant) becomes thoroughly groomed in the vocation to be able to practice independently.

The successful participant is then provided with a start-up capital to acquire the materials, personnel, etc. required to start-up his own enterprise. At this point, the participant must have met the following start-up requirements:

1.       Successful completion of the skill training

2.       Successful completion of the basic enterprise management training

3.       Registration of a business as a joint venture with GIFTED Networks (this is a period of start-up incubation period in which each participant is monitored and assisted till they are able to stand on their own); GIFTED Networks would be delisted after the successful completion of the GIFTED Networks program.

Successful participants who receive the GIFTED Network start-up capital are provided with business mentorship/management support from the GIFTED Network also using peer-patronage method. Some of the support systems to be provided would include:

1.       Financial accounting and book keeping

2.       Recruiting support and personnel management

3.       Tax advisory and processing support

4.       Raw materials sourcing

5.       On-net peer patronage ensuring that GIFTED Network members patronize other members of GIFTED members for their business and personal needs.

6.       Trade exhibitions

7.       Single digit interest rate on start-up capital of 4-9% at a comfortable recovery pace (tenure) as recommended by the GIFTED Network business Planning Advisory committee. Beneficiaries of the GIFTED Network start-up capital who default on repayment would lose the right to being signatories of the Joint Venture account and would then have an account office dedicated to their operations. This is to ensure sustainability of this project.

GIFTED Network Trustees will commit to finding ways to finding ways to motivate participants in performing beyond their expectations and in broadening their market horizon by offering additional trainings, cross market/cultural exposures, performance awards, additional capital inputs, waivers, etc.

GIFTED Network participants would be expected to serve as volunteer skill coaches to at least ten other interested persons per time, thereby helping to raise the next generation of empowered youths and thereby ending extreme poverty and hunger in Africa.

This initiative would require an initial two million naira. This sum would cover the cost of training the first set of participants and would be done in partnership with some financial houses and state governments.

The purpose of the GIFTED Network is to uplift one person who will in turn provide support to others and join in raising many more. It would be a revolutionary chain that will combat and stamp out poverty from Africa. It looks daunting, but so do all great projects; they appear impossible until you begin. The story of Africa may have been one of gloom and despair as peddled by the rest of the world, but we can still paint a beautiful picture of Africa through the GIFTED Network; if we act now!

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