Introducing Innovative Thinking in School Curriculum
good afternoon
29 percent of south africans who are
actively looking for employment are
currently
jobless 55 percent
of young people who are below the age of
25
who are actively looking for a job are
currently
unemployed it gets worse even those that
are graduates coming from universities
and universities of technology 33
percent
are currently unemployed
this is primarily as a result of the
fourth industrial revolution
low economic growth that the country is
currently experiencing
the global economic sentiment that the
world is currently going through
historical imbalances which you are all
aware of
as well as the education standards now
my presentation
this afternoon is going to look at the
education in particular
what role can education play
to reverse this because if we continue
in this current trajectory things are
not going to be
looking good this is simple simple is
seven years old
sipo is currently in grade one
he’s going to have 12 years of schooling
three years of university
and in 2035 he’s going to be
23 years of age the question is
is people going to join the 55 percent
of young people
who will be unemployed things may even
get worse at that time
or if people go through university going
to
join the 33 percent who are currently
unemployed
the question is if we continue to do
things the way we are that number may
get worse
so we have to change the trajectory we
have to change
the future of foreseeable and that
relies
solely on you and me changing
i currently own artisan schools
and private schools throughout the
country
there are two very important skills that
i possess
from a young age one of them is
innovative thinking
and number two is entrepreneurship this
is me in 1992 when i was 16 during my
metric
grade 12 i was selling
hot dogs because the entrepreneurial
spirit
in me was there so i said i’m not going
to allow poverty
to work against me let me do something
and make money
this is me in 1999 three years into my
business
there was a graduation of counselors
having trained counselors for a year
jointly with one of you the universities
in south africa
this is me in 2001 partnering
with one of the four big global audit
firms
in doing consulting work for the
government
and this is me a few years ago owning
private school the point i want to make
is because of the two skills one of the
ability to in think innovatively
and number two my entrepreneurial skills
i was able
to get out of poverty and get to where i
am right now therefore i want you ladies
and gentlemen this
afternoon to think or imagine
a world where innovative thinking
is going to be part of the curriculum in
our schools
a world where entrepreneurship is part
of the curriculum
imagine what can we achieve as a country
if that was to happen
someone is saying really canta that is
not possible i don’t think we can
achieve it
i am telling you now we are already
achieving it
in all our schools in our schools we
teach in innovative thinking
through a particular concept which i
will share with you just now
and we teach entrepreneurship
mainstreamed
into the curriculum in other words there
is no new additional curriculum
whether it’s geography history
mathematics
english poetry or anything it’s already
infused
in the curriculum so entrepreneurship is
already
infused now someone might say what is
the difference between innovative
thinking
and entrepreneurship let me explain it
to you innovation innovative thinking
is basically seeing a problem finding a
solution
either through new invention or
improving what already exists through
productivity and more efficiency
on the other hand in our school we teach
our learners
all the way from grade one think of a
grade one simple
seven years old we teach them product
development we teach them
how to do market research we teach them
how to
market their businesses sell their
products or services
how to brand their businesses both
either online or any other
channel we teach them finances how to
raise capital
how to manage the finances how we even
teach them
the exit strategy from an age of seven
these learners
are empowered to do all these things now
we teach innovation through a
concept that you call see think
innovate what do what do we mean by that
it’s an it’s a harvard-based model
which i propose i i encourage you
to go and study it’s called project gold
it was designed by harvard so it’s not
our intellectual property
it’s open to everyone now it’s called
see
think innovate what exactly is that you
see
a problem whatever problem it could be
poverty it could be a porthole like in
this instance
it could be on your way to work on your
way to school
anyway it could be any kind of problem
you see the problem you think about it
you
spend time thinking about what can be
done in order to solve this problem and
then wonder
you then you say i’m wondering what can
be done to solve this problem
when you get to the wonder stage you’re
not thinking now you’re thinking about
the solution you’re not thinking about
the problem
but your focus is on bringing a solution
to those problems so it’s called see
think wonder
it could be anything you see it you
wander
and you you you see it you think about
it
and you wonder what can be done to solve
it i have three
children the first one is 13
the second one is 11 and the third one
like c4 is seven years in grade one
my son one of the days i asked them
because i asked them daily
what did you see what did you think and
what did you wonder
my son who is seven years old his name
is mihali
one day i was coming from a business
meet from a business
trip two days for two days when he came
back
i came to me and said dad i saw
something
i said my son what did you see i saw a
bed
okay what did you think i thought we can
manufacture or create or design a new
bad dad
i said okay why did you wonder i was
wondering
that if we can have we can design a bed
that is able to see when you’re getting
into the edge of the bed
and the through motion sensors and it
puts you back into the middle
you’ll wonder why did you think of that
it was simply because
he had fallen off the bed a night before
so see think wonder his problem my son’s
problem
was falling off the bed so out of that
frustration
out of that problem out of the change
that he’s facing
at that particular moment he was able to
think of an idea and then wonder what
can be done about it in other words
innovate something
and through that innovation we are going
to go into market
within the next six to eight months and
we’re going to be bringing
those beds in the market simply because
my son had a problem
he thought about it he saw it he thought
about it and he innovated
something i am saying to you ladies and
gentlemen
it is possible for a seven-year-old
to think innovatively it is possible
for a seven-year-old through proper
support and with
proper support to be able to be an
entrepreneur
what can we do to practically implement
this someone might say oh
your schools are private schools are
privileged schools
you don’t take how can we take this into
the into the public schools now here the
solutions
education i believe if we can
teach innovative thinking and how do
remember we haven’t
it’s not a subject it’s not an
additional subject it’s just a way of
delivering
it’s teachers asking learners after
every lesson
what did you see from this poetry lesson
what did you think of it
and what did you wonder it’s teachers
asking learners after every mathematics
class after every history class
after every geography class after every
essential class or any language or any
lesson asking them each and every
learner now remember
what did you see what did you think and
what did you innovate
out of every lesson there’s something to
innovate
effectively every child their world now
opens up
towards innovative thinking their world
now is not limited
to what they know their world is not
limited to what they’re used to
they are able to think innovatively so
the first thing
that you have to do is to introduce
innovative thinking
now through either this concept or any
other concept there are a lot of models
that you can use this design thinking
there’s quite a lot of them
but the most one of the critical things
that we have to introduce
we have to encourage sorry we have to
encourage
our learners to come up with crazy ideas
teachers must not limit learners to say
this is a crazy idea there’s nothing
such as a crazy idea and then secondly
obviously the introduction of
entrepreneurship
into into the mainstream
uh through from grade one finally
someone will say
santa let me tell you this is not
possible
as you can see the impact the financial
impact is very minimal
so there is no additional resources that
we need except
to retrain the teachers to let the
teachers under make the teachers
understand
that they need to give kids a space to
make the teachers
give the learners an opportunity to see
to think and innovatively can go with me
see
think innovate
that’s key it is very important now what
is the output
the country is currently sitting with
lots of minerals underground
but we are currently struggling to
beneficiate those minerals
we believe if we teach our learners from
grade one all the way to metric and
tertiary institutions
our learners are going to be able to
come up with solutions to beneficiate
those those minerals and secondly
we we believe that research and
development is going to strengthen
as a country and finally we will all of
a sudden see
fourth industrial revolution not as a
threat but as an opportunity
in the meantime the fourth industrial
revolution is a big threat
to the labor force however if we teach
our learners from day one when they
arrive at school at the age of seven if
we teach simple
from day one when he arrives at school
innovative thinking
i can tell you sibo will not be
threatened by the fourth
or the fifth or the sixth or the seventh
industrial revolution but he will then
see
it as an opportunity and drive in making
sure
that he takes it to the next and finally
we have a choice
it’s either simple along with the 12
million learners
that started grade one this year are
going to join the 55 percent
of young people in 2035 that are
unemployed
or will change their story how can we
change the story
by introducing innovative thinking by
introducing
entrepreneurship now all of a sudden cbo
is not going to be looking for a job
but ceo is going to become a job creator
one last point south africa
south africa’s employment is currently
driven by big corporates
in the event of corporate failure lots
of people lose jobs
however if we introduce innovative
thinking
and entrepreneurship all of a sudden we
are going to have
a lot of young people who are eager to
get into business
but not just eager to get into business
but trained
how to run their businesses as you live
this afternoon
ladies and gentlemen i challenge you to
go and influence at any level
whether it’s at government or at school
that will introduce
innovative thinking and entrepreneurship
and this country will never
be the same again god bless you
you