An African-focused EdTech firm, Teesas, has partnered with an American-based education organisation, FranklinCovey, to hold a children’s leadership boot camp in Lagos.

The leadership boot camp curriculum is anchored on concepts from the bestseller, ‘The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People,’ which was also published by Franklin Covey.

For parents who face challenges keeping their children positively engaged during school holidays, Teesas and its American coaching partner provided a solution with the boot camp, which was held at the new tech-enabled Teesas learning centre in Lagos.

The two-week boot camp is designed to help children channel their energies, while schools are on break to build leadership skills towards achieving academic success, home-based and environmental productivity, and self-discovery.

The leadership curriculum covers the ‘Seven Habits for Kids,’ for children between ages seven and 11, and the ‘Seven Habits for Teenagers,’ for children between ages 12 and 18.

In addition, Teesas offers ‘Exam Prep’ programme for grade five and six pupils who are transitioning to secondary school.

Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Teesas, Osayi Izedonmwen, said the firm, launched as an online learning platform via the Teesas Education App, has a vision to offer 360 hybrid solutions that will liberalise access to education in Africa.

Izedonmwen added that the app would also deepen impact and create paradise that teaches children critical life changes.

He said: “The Teesas learning centre will help us actualise that vision through the provision of neighbourhood after-school coaching centres for children preparing for secondary and university entrance examinations, and critical skills such as leadership and coding.”

Vice President, Franklin Covey Education, Bill McInytre, said the centre currently has over 7,000 ‘Leader in Me’ schools around the world.

The ‘Leader in Me’ is a whole-school transformation model and process based on the ‘Seven Habits of Highly Effective People’ and on leadership in schools.

“Our focus is to help schools get measurable results in three key areas – helping children develop leadership and life skills, building a culture of safety and leadership and influencing the impact on academic achievements in the school,” he explained.

Teesas entered an exclusive partnership with Franklin Covey Education last year to deliver Franklin Covey’s suite of education-related products directly to students, schools and parents across Africa.

Speaking on the partnership, McInytre said: “Our reason for partnering with this organisation is their vision of taking these principles and building leaders of the future here in Nigeria and throughout the continent.

“Teesas is one of the up-and-coming leaders in EdTech and the Teesas Education App continues to add more of our content for children, youth and parents. The app is a big part of our vision to reach more children on the continent in addition to the schools that we are working with.

“The other reason for the partnership is the learning centres. Recent research suggests that the demographic forecast for the African continent is that by 2050, there will be one billion children in Africa, which represents 40 per cent of all children in the world. If we don’t take action now to build the future leaders in Africa, this will not only impact the region, it will impact the whole world.

“Our mission is to develop leaders with integrity that can lead in their communities, families, Nigeria, on the continent and in the world.”