We wanted to share a little text that Leo Igwe has sent us to report on the activities of his Critical Thinking Social Empowerment Foundation. We are very happy to support Leo's work in Nigeria and pleased to read what he did with our financial contribution.
Thank you AHA Luxembourg for the donation of 475€ in May 2023 towards facilitating our activities at the Critical Thinking Social Empowerment Foundation. This report highlights how your donation has been helpful to the foundation.
Our mission
Critical Thinking Social Empowerment Foundation works and campaigns to promote critical thinking in schools and the society. Our focus is mainly to facilitate the teaching of critical thinking in schools. To this end, the foundation organises workshops for teachers and students, pilots the teaching of the subject of critical thinking in schools, the establishment of thought laboratories etc. Since 2023, we have been able to accomplish the following.
Website
To further the goal of promoting critical thinking, the foundation set up a web site http://www.critthink.africa to highlight its activities and programs. And we pay 233.87 dollars annually to maintain the site. The website is work in progress and contains some information about our programs and activities. Two volunteers one from Denmark and another from Nigeria help to maintain the site.
Production of Critical Thinking materials
The foundation produces critical thinking learning aid materials. These learning materials are meant to make critical thinking fun and entertaining. They include charts and flyers (see attached). Since 2023, the foundation had produced 2 000 charts and 200 flyers. These charts and flyers were used at the training sessions in Lagos and Owerri.
Teacher training sessions
We conducted two teacher training sessions in Lagos in South west Nigeria and in Owerri in South east Nigeria. In Lagos, about a hundred teachers attended the physical training session. A virtual session had earlier been held for the Relentless Teachers Network. The foundation was invited to the Back to School seminar that the Owerri catholic education board organised. I facilitated a break out session on critical thinking skills for teachers
Growth and sustainability
There is a growing interest in critical thinking. Many schools have indicated interests in training their teachers and in extending the programs to their students. We are lobbying the state school boards to recognize and approve critical thinking as a subject. But that will take some time and efforts. In the meantime, the foundation bears the costs of training teachers and piloting the program in schools. We are exploring ways to share costs with other interested parties. So we will appreciate the continued support of AHA Luxembourg of our project to further critical thinking in the region.
Regards
Leo Igwe, Founder
Critical Thinking Social Empowerment Foundation
