SOHNA EDUCATIONAL INTERNATIONAL CONSULTING ENTERPRISE, LLC

INTRODUCTION

SOHNA EDUCATIONAL INTERNATIONAL CONSULTING ENTERPRISE was established December 3rd, 2015, to promote, reward, support, enhance and effectively provide viable solutions to some of the major prevailing problems of the educational enterprise. The enterprise will carefully select competent students and award academic scholarships annually based on academic excellence, good moral conduct, financial need, community service, and sportsmanship, as described below.

I. Academic excellence: The ability to maintain consistent and good academic record and fulfill all State standardized tests and examinations.
II. Good moral conduct: Disciplined, hardworking, and willing to understand and adhere to all academic requirements, school policy and procedures.
III. Community service: The ability to recognize and volunteer whenever it’s deemed necessary to serve the individual and collective interests, for example, providing tutoring assistance to boys and girls who may need academic support.
IV. Financial need: An attempt to resolve a fundamental and pressing problem regarding the education of the overwhelming majority of boys and girls in villages and sometimes, in the rural areas especially, the education of girls and orphans.
V. Sportsmanship: The ability to persevere, exercise good conduct, understand and apply appropriate rules of competition.

“A mind is a terrible thing to waste” are words of wisdom to be promoted through the curricula. This venture is wholly directed toward the preparation of students with the ability to analyze, evaluate problems critically, and provide viable solutions.

SOURCES OF PROJECT FINANCING:

I. Appeals to philanthropic organizations for donations
II. Government grants and Contracts
III. Donations from Institutions of Higher Learning to include in-kind contributions; for instance, computers and other equipment beneficial to educational process
IV. Corporate donations

As a professor of education with expertise in this field and a strong record of over thirty- five years of teaching experience and expertise in teaching distance education courses (online courses), I have become profoundly convinced of the need to effectively contribute and enhance the humanitarian efforts of the century. In this context culture is clearly another area of great importance, especially in the preparation of students for interacting successfully in the international system of trade, investment, economic growth and development. Indeed, culture could be an enhancing and stabilizing force for corporate interests and investments in Africa and Asia.

Education in general is an umbrella term and should be understood contextually. This therefore, raises the following questions regarding critical thinking, within the context of Primary, Post-Secondary, and University Education, as fundamental agents of economic and political change:

I. Why should children be educated?
II. What type of Curricula should be adopted?
III. What type of student should the school system produce?
IV. What scope of knowledge is required for democratically-elected governments?
V. Who decides military efforts?
VI. What is the role of work?
VII. What is philosophy of education?

These and similar questions reveal the fundamental reality of the human condition. Namely, the primary purpose of life is an attempt to consistently identify, analyze, evaluate, and provide viable solutions to the prevailing problems, dilemmas and challenges of our time. A philosophical perspective that articulates organizational structures and learning methods should guide this process, along with curricula geared more effectively toward preparing critically minded students.

Education, as a fundamentally, collaborative intellectual undertaking, is predicated upon various assumptions. Sometimes these assumptions are clear and explicit. At other times these assumptions are obscure and implicit. Whether explicit or implicit, these assumptions’–ideas regarding the nature and purpose of the educational enterprise–provide the justification for educational opportunity. Assumptions also frame the process of education, those steps and methods chosen to provide information and training. These assumptions are based on answers to philosophical questions. Is human nature fixed or modifiable? How should learning proceed? What is the relationship between education and culture? What values should be promoted? Should truth and educational ideals be taught as transcendental or as relative? Should teaching be authoritarian or should it encourage inquiry? What should be the role of philosophy in designing the educational curriculum?

In-depth examination of these and similar questions is what is meant when we speak ( “of the need for a formal philosophical framework, a philosophy of education.”) The following categories represent the primary functions of a philosophy of education:

I. Critical Evaluation: The ability to analyze and assess the worth of an educational theory or practice before accepting or rejecting it as a means to resolve problems.
II. Norms: The established standards and goals that guide and lend purpose to the educational enterprise.
III. Speculation: The ability to venture into realms of possibility that go beyond the status quo; the ability to experiment and move forward in realizing ideas despite the exigencies of “real-life.”
IV. Culture: A shared way of life, a means of transferring values and legacy from one generation to the other. Culture has the unique ability, through the medium of language, to foster the necessary understanding for international trade, investment, economic growth and development. Properly directed, culture can be a formidable vehicle of progress and opportunity.

Sohna Educational INTERNATIONAL Consulting ENTERPRISE is fundamentally designed to create an educational structure that serves the purpose of effectively promoting the learning process for children, young and older, within the context of modernity and globalization. Modernity is the key factor that defines how the targeted population of children and adults are educated and in what manner their education would determine their place and role in society. Considering the impact of science and technology on the life and activities of human beings, this company seeks to be the guide to the perplexed and desperate areas of the general population. Parents and students who wish to secure a place in modern Gambian, African and American society are encouraged to enroll in the projects, programs and other modernizing objects of the company. Hereunder are other very relevant considerations that prompted the establishment of this company, namely:

I. Globalization is another factor in the creation of this company. While acknowledging the activities of other enterprises throughout the world whose projects, programs and initiatives are affecting Gambians and others elsewhere, this company is primarily interested in transferring knowledge with the distinctive abilities to train young people who are familiar with their history and relevant information to operate as critical thinkers with the ability to learn and earn a living simultaneously.
II. This combination of modernizing strategies with factors leading towards globalization speaks much about training, location, systematic and effective motivation of young people who are looking for a better understanding of Gambian/African and Global challenges for example, social and economic changes.
III. Another recommendation is related to the reliability and manageability of the consultancy in the preparation of enrolled students. Our reliability is going to depend on the demands for our services and our determination to provide them effectively and meaningfully.

The company wishes to function as a guide to the perplexed for educational choice and opportunity. People today seem to be confused over the content and purpose of education, especially regarding its role in solving the problems of modernity. Effective education provides the tools to address these problems: the original Bloom’s Taxonomy, a groundbreaking work in education theory, defines the process of education in tiers. The first tier of education, the focus of primary education, starts with acquisition of knowledge, moves to comprehension and understanding, then to application (use of acquired knowledge). The second, more complex tier, the focus of secondary and post-secondary education, takes knowledge, comprehension and application and builds skills of analysis, synthesis, and ultimately, evaluation–or to paraphrase, ‘judging the value or worth of ideas.’ In other words, for all practical purposes, the primary function of Critical Thinking as an enterprise, a process or an instrument, is designed wholly to identify, evaluate, analyze, and solve problems and dilemmas. Hence addressing the SEVEN QUESTIONS mentioned as agents of economic and political change can only be accomplished through the effective and consistent application of Critical Thinking. Similarly, Analyzing experience critically is perhaps, the primary reason why one of the most important institutions of the twenty first century namely, the United Nations, a demonstrable example of what the world can accomplish through Critical Thinking, was formed with the expectation to hopefully, and ultimately usher world peace and stability. Education is fundamentally the gradual and systematic ‘reconstruction of human experience.’ It is critically important that this perspective on education be understood if we are to resolve the urgent and pressing issues of our time.

In building an educational structure whose building blocks are derived from critical learning and participatory engagement between tutor and pupil, professor and student, SOHNA EDUCATIONAL ENTERPRISE seeks collaborators from government and private enterprises. Consulting will focus on a NEW APPROACH grounded on the SEVEN major areas of interest articulated above. All relate to the most important skill assisted by education: Critical Thinking.

Sources: Forehand, M. . (2005). Bloom’s taxonomy: Original and revised. In M. Orey (Ed.), Emerging perspectives on learning, teaching, and technology. Arthur Fletcher, former Head of United Negro College Fund, July 17, 2005, 12 am ET. Weekend Edition, Sunday. (Notable Quotes/Goggle.)