The competition challenged young people’s aptitudes on critical thinking and general knowledge

Afika Tikkun hosted its official quiz and debate competition in Braamfontein at one of the organisation’s centres — Uthando Centre. The competition was also in line with the organisation’s celebration of 25 years in partnership with South Africa.

The purpose of the competition was to test how much the contenders know about history, current affairs and general stuff happening in the country.

“With this competition we wanted to test how much these young people know. Not just in terms of conventional knowledge where you have crammed something and then vomit it. It’s conventional knowledge about being aware of what’s going on around you because in the world we live in, there’s 4th industrial revolution and knowledge economy. Knowledge is no longer about what the teacher has told you, it’s about problem solving, it’s about critical thinking, and it is about analytical skills and being aware. That’s what we were testing” explained Onyi Nwaneri, CEO of Afrika Tikkun Services.

The debate segment on the other hand was solely based on testing the contenders’ ability to engage, to present and to critically think about issues that affect them as well as to offer opinions around those issues.

One of the topics that was debated about was immigration, particularly in light of xenophobic violence that erupted in September.

Afrika Tikkun is an organisation that enables young people to become economically empowered.

“We want young people to be the best they can in every aspect of their physical, educational, leadership, citizen and career lives. We want them to excel as individuals and to enable that to happen, we have a model called a cradle to career model. We take young people from the time they are born or 2 years-old and we take them through every journey of their lives until they are 18. When they get to 18 year-old we help them to either go to tertiary or go to our skill programme. We support them post matric to get skills and afterwards transition them into economic opportunities” added Nwaneri.

The organisation also does career guidance by means of helping young people to determine what careers suit their personalities, their thinking styles as well as their aptitudes.

Afrika Tikkun has six centres in total across South Africa and reaches approximately 12 thousand young people. These centres are dispersed in Braamfontein, Diepsloot, Orange farm, Alexandra and in the Western Cape in a place called Emfuleni.

By Lwando Mqokweni