Scientology Initiative to Help Educators Empower Their Students

Seminars for hundreds of educators hosted by the Scientology headquarters in South Africa over the past two months launched an initiative to tackle a crisis affecting the country and the entire continent.

As UNESCO observed Africa Week May 22-25, officials at the Education World Forum 2022 in London brought home the urgency of reversing the educational crisis affecting the continent. An estimated 53 percent of children in low- and middle-income countries cannot read or understand a simple story by the end of primary school. In poor countries, the level is as high as 80 percent. And despite the continent’s abundant resources, 34 percent of African families live below the poverty line. 

 

In South Africa nearly half the country lived in poverty in 2015, a situation that has only worsened with the pandemic.

The Church of Scientology, seeking to tackle this crisis, began a series of seminars held at Kyalami Castle, Scientology headquarters in South Africa, over the past two months.

Teachers from all levels of South Africa’s basic education system and representatives of the Gauteng Department of Education and the National Department of Higher Education attended. And they were thrilled with what they learned:

A recent graduate who has just received her teaching degree wondered why she was never taught these skills before. “It makes so much sense,” she said. “This will change my entire way of teaching and helping my students.”

“The way the seminar was presented to us is exactly the way we need to conduct our training,” said a life orientation programme coordinator from the Gauteng Department of Education. “Your presentation is so interactive and this is what we are lacking…everyone needs these skills.”

The program equipped the educators “with the teaching techniques we need to help any student understand and apply what they are studying and it will make us better teachers,” said a life orientation and inclusion specialist for the Department of Higher Education and Training.

The program is based on Study Technology, methods developed by Scientology Founder L. Ron Hubbard for the training of Scientology religious counselors, which has tremendous application in the secular sphere. Based on a comprehensive understanding of the actual barriers to effective learning, Study Technology provides precise tools to overcome these barriers, ensuring the ability  to learn and apply any body of knowledge. A free introductory online course on Study Technology is available in 18 languages including Zulu through the Scientology website. 

It is the ability to impart this knowledge to their students that revitalized educators attending the recent seminars, because with these basics their students can learn the skills they need to escape poverty and set a new course for themselves, their communities and countries.

For more information on the practical application of this technology, watch an episode of Voices for Humanity on the Scientology Network on the work of Dr. Olatunde Odewumi whose program to train educators in Nigeria has introduced this new method of education to hundreds of thousands in his country.

Castle Kyalami serves as a home for the community and a nexus for all who share the goal of bettering the lives of individuals and strengthening communities across the region, nation and all of Africa. Mr. David Miscavige, ecclesiastical leader of the Scientology religion, dedicated Kyalami Castle on New Year’s Day 2019, reaffirming the commitment of Mr. Hubbard that “from Southern Africa will spring the next great civilization on this planet.”