Foundation targets young school girls for entrepreneurship, leadership training

A not-for-profit organization, Aksara Foundation has announced the donation to  Iyana Ipaja Girls Junior Grammar School, a refurbish ICT room set up, over 20 computers, security wall set up, air conditioners and scholarship for four students, in  tune with its vision of empowering the 21st century girl.

The foundation that is still in its infancy and conceptualisation phace took the initiative to raise the 21st century leaders in public school in Nigeria by refurbishing  the dilapidated computer room and expand it therefore, equipping the school with over 20 modern computer sets.

Speaking at the commissioning of the computer room, Mrs. Gulnar Vaswani, founder of Aksara Foundation, explained the Foundation is seeking to redefine the way students view leadership, and are being taught to face the 21st century challenges, beyond the conventional  school curriculum.

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“Aksara Foundation is talking about competencies, skills, learnings and paradigms that are not covered by most curriculums either at the university level or undergraduate level or high school level or junior high level,no one is taught  the skills,  needed to survive and thrive in today’s globally- complex technology connected world.

“Education is still teaching for the 18th century, students are still learning by exams, teachers are rating intelligence by the highest score, and they are still saying that the smartest girl or boy deserves the scholarship. We think differently,” she said.

While arguing that other drivers of success are not being captured by today’s educational curriculum, Mrs Vaswani stated that the purpose of the Foundation is to help build those skills, talents and competencies, and make the students understand that they are all leaders, with untapped potential to give.

Speaking on the choice of the school, the elated Mrs Vaswani who vowed to continue to give back to school with appropriate maintenance discipline, said the choice of the school was arrived at because it met certain requirements, set by the Foundation.

Some of the requirements, she stated, include the school having an appropriate number of students, a decent security record and being a public school.

“Selection started with when we said we wanted to partner with a school that has maximum of number of students and schools around our head office. Because we are in Ikeja and we tour schools around Ikeja and Agege axis and we found this school- Iyana Ipaja Junior Girls Grammar School, which is a big school with a large number of students and we chose to help the school,” she stated.

While urging the leadership of the school to ensure good care of the items, Mrs. Vaswani added that the Foundation would be paying unscheduled visits to the school to ensure that this equipment are properly and appropriately put to use.