The following press release was published in the Daily Nation, Kenya edition on 19 January 2020.

Currently, Africa has around 1.2 billion people, more than half of whom are under the age of 25. According to the UN World Population Prospect’s 2015 Revision, East Africa’s (Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda and Uganda) population comprises 28% people aged between 15 – 24 years, and 45% younger than 14. Many of these young men and women have successfully achieved their high school certificates and aspire to work for global organisations, either at home or aboard.

On 7 and 8 March 2020, the Association of International Schools in Africa (AISA), will host its inaugural AISA Invitational Conference (AIC), at Brookhouse School (Runda) in Nairobi, Kenya. The first of its kind in East Africa, the conference aims to arm school leadership, educators, and counsellors with the tools to prepare their students for academic and professional success after school in a globalised world.

AISA, which celebrated its 50th Anniversary in November 2019, has many years of experience and expertise in education and training on the African continent that is readily shared with its current membership of over 80 international schools across 37 countries; serving around 35, 000 students and 5,000 educators.

The AIC learning event will feature highly proficient, experienced facilitators; expert practitioners in education from the USA, UK and Kenya – each with invaluable, hands-on education experience in accredited international schools in Africa. As specialists who ensure critical thinking, global competence and academic success, the facilitators are at the heart of all the teaching and learning.

Conference delegates will be taken on ‘Deep Dives’ into what are cutting edge and globally important topics within education, such as the question of what a globally-competent student is, how to extend learners towards global citizenship, how to enhance student engagement and promote independent learning and how to design curricula through local, international and global lenses. There will also be workshops focusing on high school advisory and pastoral programmes, and school leader effectiveness.

The career potential and global possibilities of the delegates themselves will also be enhanced through the skills developed during the conference. All delegates will achieve an AISA training certificate on completion of the conference.

The conference will be preceded by a one-day child protection pre-conference to aimed at enhancing the quality of child protection policy and practice in schools throughout the region. Hosted in partnership with the Council of British International Schools (COBIS), it will be held on 6 March 2020.

Educators who continue to develop their academic and inter-cultural understanding on the world stage will be successful in an every-increasing globalised world. Knowledge is indeed power.