About

Currently much of Africa still largely maintains the old-style European approach of “listen and repeat”. Eduction is an experience of being dictated to rather than being nurtured. Whilst this authoritarian method may be effective for memorisation, it does little for developing engagement, agency, critical thinking, self-determination, tenacity and excellence within students. We therefore need to overhaul this old approach and replace it with new delivery techniques which actively engage and inspire students. 

At the root of the education philosophy of the Academy is belief that children learn best through active participation in a subject, rather than solely behind desks. For this reason lessons are structured in such a way that students are required to actively engage in the subject by applying the information taught in the classroom to solving and dealing with real-life challenges outside the classroom. In addition to this, much of the work in Africa requires interaction with the environment in some way. It is therefore vital that children are taught to utilise, interact and master their environment within the context of their academic education. Students must be shown, not just told how things work in the real world. 

Due to the fact that we are reforming not only the curriculum but also the teaching approaches, we have two main challenges: 

Firstly ensuring sustainability for the new curriculum not just for the Academy but for the ultimate goal of being able to implement the curriculum into other schools in the country. Secondly we want to ensure that we mainly employ teachers from the local community rather than relying on foreign teachers. However the pool of teachers that come from our local communities have been educated in the very system that we wish to overhaul, hence it is challenging, time-consuming and resource-draining to train teachers from scratch to be able to deliver a new teaching approach effectively. 

These are challenges that Sona Jobarteh has been overcoming for the past few years, and as a result has led her to developing a curriculum resource kit which provides all the tools and requirements for teachers to deliver each subject to their students. This resource kit is a huge undertaking, however will provide a sustainable solution to the challenges which will ultimately undermine the important changes that need to be made within the education sector.  She is therefore calling on people from all over the world to come forward and help by contributing to the this resource kit that she is building. Whether it is contributing a lesson plan, or a course overview, or books/resources that can be used to teach a specific course, these are all much needed in order to make this project a realisation. 

The subjects Jobarteh is keenly seeking volunteers to contribute to are: English, Maths, Science, African History, Global History and Geography. Additional subjects not listed are also welcome.  If you think you can help contribute to this amazing resource which will be used to educate a new generation of African change-makers, please contact us!