Foundation targets young school girls for entrepreneurship, leadership trainings

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

The founder, Mrs Gulnar Vaswani, described the donations as the foundation’s new way of seeking to redefine the way students view leadership, and are being taught to face the 21st century challenges,  beyond the conventional  school curriculum.

“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.

Nothern elder advises Igbo on how to clinch Presidency in 2023

“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.

Mrs Vaswani also explained that the choice of the school was arrived at having 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 these equipment are properly and appropriately put to use.

Nigerian Tribune