John Gilmore’s LEAP presentation to the Canadian Club of Rome 2021-02-03
TITLE:
The LEAP Schools in South Africa have developed and apply a self-liberating curriculum supported by innovative instructional practice to address the extreme inequity including COVID-19 cellphone learning.
Summary of Talk:
LEAP Science and Maths Schools establishment of the LEAP African Institute is enabling the sharing of key learnings and training and development of educators and facilitators working to transform African education through commitment to consciousness development and activation of growth mindset within the values framework of UBUNTU to empower the development of young African global citizens committed to sustainable development. In COVID-19 times LEAP has developed a cost-effective cell phone educational support system that has enabled the students to make real progress against all trends for underserved communities in which LEAP works.
Marginalised populations (85%) in South Africa have to deal with institutionalized bias in the education system. LEAP challenges the assumptions that this bias defines the life success of children living in broken spaces. The LEAP hypothesis insists that any child can and will succeed if given an opportunity to explore learning in a loving, challenging school in which high expectations are embraced by all members of the school community. Teaching is often compartmentalized and currently the focus on teaching is highly theoretical and somewhat removed for the living contexts and is found to be insufficient to prepare learners for 21st Century living let alone the 4th Industrial Revolution.
“Of all regions, sub-Saharan Africa has the highest rates of education exclusion. According to UIS data, almost 60% of youth between the ages of about 15 and 17 are not in school. Without urgent action, the situation will likely get worse as the region faces a rising demand for education due to a still-growing school-age population.” UNESCO:http://uis.unesco.org/en/topic/education-africa
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