20/12/2025
ILBC Africa 2025
Today at our training session our guest Speaker Amb. Christopher Touabili Executive Director of African Youth Leadership Institute lay emphasis on our THEME: FUTURE FORWARD: EDUCATING
YOUNG LEADERS FOR TOMORROW’S
PURPOSE.
A Radical Wake-Up Call he said,
Distinguished guests, respected elders, educators, policymakers, fellow leaders, and my fellow
young people— good morning/afternoon.
Today, I did not come to give a comfortable speech.
I came to give a necessary one.
Because the truth is this:
We are educating young people for a world that no longer exists.
We are training students to pass exams but not to solve problems.
We are producing graduates but not leaders.
We are handing out certificates but not purpose.
And until we confront this reality honestly, we will continue to prepare youth for survival, not
significance.
The future will not be kind to the unprepared.
The future will not negotiate with ignorance.
The future belongs to those who are intentional, equipped, and purpose-driven.
That is why this conversation Future Forward: Educating Young Leaders for Tomorrow’s
Purpose is not optional.
It is urgent.
He then went on to discuss the,
THE FAILURE OF TRADITIONAL
EDUCATION
Let me be radical and honest.
Our education systems have failed not because teachers are bad,
but because the system was never designed to create leaders.
It was designed to create:
Workers, not thinkers
Followers, not innovators
Job seekers, not problem solvers
We ask students to memorize answers to questions they will never be asked in real life.
Yet the world is asking:
How do we fix climate change?
How do we fight corruption?
How do we lead ethically?
How do we govern justly?
How do we build sustainable economies?
And our educational system responds with silence.
Education that does not teach critical thinking is dangerous.
Education that ignores values is destructive.
Education without purpose is incomplete.
If education does not prepare a young person to think independently,
then it has failed no matter how many degrees they hold.
Christopher Touabili Savannus Montgomery Patrick Wesley Sherman Browne Embassy of Sweden in Monrovia U.S. Embassy Monrovia, Liberia