The world today needs creative thinkers, problem solvers, effective communicators, decision makers — we need responsible global citizens who can lead us into the future.
Is our current education system preparing the students to meet these challenges? Are we equipping our students with 21st century skills? These are important questions that educators across the world are currently debating over to find plausible solutions.
The power and promise of 21st century skills in creating effective future leaders is undeniable. In line with its Mission & Vision, The Next Generation (TNG) School constantly strives to create opportunities for inculcating and promoting these skills through co-curricular and extra co-curricular activities. As a school, we believe in the philosophy that effective leaders are made not born. They learn from trial and error, and from experience. The job of educators is to provide students with the opportunity to experiment, fail and then learn from their experiences.
One such opportunity that we offer our students at TNG is the Youth Leadership Programme, an annual event hosted by the school. A platform which is solely designed to enhance and celebrate the leadership skills of the TNG student body. Over the years, the school has been experimenting with ways of making this platform a meaningful and effective experience. This year, three separate frameworks were introduced to guide the process, which targeted specific skill sets.
The first framework was designed for Kindergarten to year two students, with the theme, ‘The Leader in Me.’ Each year group selected a global issue or local theme that was of interest to them and explored it together as a group. The approach was kept inquiry-based, in order to inculcate creativity, resourcefulness and confidence among the young learners. While exploring the theme of their choice, students asked big questions, learned about the problems that our world is currently facing and tried to find answers to their questions. Students looked at themes such as: artificial Intelligence and its role in the future, sustainable Farming in Qatar, inventions of the future, and many more.
The second framework, ‘Little People, Big Dreams’ was designed to urge students in year three to year six to understand the part that they can play in this world – now and as future leaders. Students were encouraged to explore what motivates them and how they wish to leave their mark on the world. Through this critical thinking process, students developed three dreams: My dream for Myself, My dream for my Community and My dream for the World. However, that was just the first step. Along with the exercise on realizing their dreams, students also developed their plan of action, listing the habits/practices that they could adopt from today, to achieve their dreams in the future. During the event, students shared their thought maps and their journey to self-discovery.
The third framework with the theme, ‘Changing the world – Starts on your Campus – with You’ was designed for students in year seven to AS Level. While designing the framework, the school took inspiration from the SDG Students Program — a project that aims at engaging educational institutions across the globe to take action on the United Nation Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 2030.
The main objective of the framework was to engage the student body to transform their school into a hub of learning and engagement for the SDGs, so that students could become drivers of new solutions to problems that the global community faces. Students were challenged to design a project that addressed one of these problems, but within the scope of their campus. Now that they have designed and implemented their projects on campus, students will be given an opportunity to pitch their project designs to the #SchoolsForSDGs global campaign. A unique platform which will allow our student body to share their journey and learnings with the global community.
