FORT Education Africa upholds FAITH as one of the core values of true education. We will collaborate with like-minded people and organizations to provide conducive environments and necessary resources for learners to develop faith in God and show steadfast loyalty and trust in Him, because “Without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.” Hebrews 11: 6. 

FORT Education Africa believes that OBEDIENCE is a demonstration of FAITH in God, to whom “ye yield yourselves as servants to obey,” and whose “servants ye become when ye obey.” (Romans 6:16). Obedience to God’s commandments and living according to His will, is core to true Christian education and prepares learners for true sanctification.

FORT Education Africa subscribes to the principle that true education must aid in learners’ character building “till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ.” Ephesians 4:13. In her book, Education, E.G. White states that the restoration of God’s image in man is the object of true education and that the realization of this divine purpose requires that true education promote the development of body, mind and soul until Christ is formed within (p. 15 par 3). “Higher than the highest human thought can reach” says the prophet, “is God's ideal for His children. Godliness—godlikeness—is the goal to be reached.” (ibid, p. 18 par 1). In the book Ministry of Healing, she reaffirms that, “The only education worthy of the name is that which leads young men and young women to be Christlike, which fits them to bear life's responsibilities, fits them to stand at the head of their families. Such an education is not to be acquired by a study of heathen classics.” (p. 444 par 3). At FORT Education Africa, Christlikeness is the ultimate goal of education.

FORT Education Africa believes in the Bible as the foundation of true education and the basis of true sanctification (John 17:17). The “scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness.” (2 Timothy 3:16). The importance of the Word of God in training and true education cannot be overemphasized. As stated by E. G. White in the book Child Guidance, “The Bible should be made the foundation of education.” (p. 310 par 1). 

In a world that often values success over ethics, living a life of integrity can be challenging. Nevertheless, the Forum for True (FORT) Education Africa upholds INTEGRITY as the fifth core value of true education. The Bible affirms that “the integrity of the upright shall guide them” (Proverbs 11:3), therefore, learners should be encouraged to live lives that reflect the character of Christ, maintaining a high standard of conduct even when no one is watching. In the book Education, E. G. White states that “the greatest want of the world is the want of men” men of integrity, “men who will not be bought or sold, … whose conscience is as true to duty as the needle to the pole, men who will stand for the right though the heavens fall.” (p. 57 par 3). FORT Education Africa believes that true education is the most effective channel towards the alleviation of the need.

It is our firm belief that the model school instituted by God at the very beginning of human history remains the most effective model of true education even in the end times. In this model, “The Garden of Eden was the schoolroom, nature was the lesson book, the Creator Himself was the instructor, and the parents of the human family were the students.” (E. G. White, Education, p. 20 par 1). In another book E. G. White states: “Next to the Bible, nature is to be our great lesson book.” (Child Guidance, p. 45 par 1). FORT Education Africa is convinced that FARMING is the most intimate means of interaction with the book of nature and qualifies as the sixth core component of true education as envisioned by the Forum. In view of this fact, inspiration states: “Study in agricultural lines should be the A, B, and C of the education given in our schools.” (Testimonies for the Church, bk 6, p. 179 par 2).

It is worth noting at this point that FORT Education Africa’s mission is motivated in part by the prevailing status of Adventist education. In the words of E. G. White, “The education of most youth is a failure” (Christian Education, p. 17.2). She attributes this failure to a neglect of practical training in a system of education in which students “overstudy, while they neglect that which pertains to practical business life.” (Ibid). According to the prophet, the exclusion of practical training is a direct consequence of the absence of school-based industries when “In connection with the schools should have been agricultural and manufacturing establishments. There should have been teachers also of household labor. There should have been a portion of the time each day devoted to labor, that the physical and mental might be equally exercised.” (Ibid, 18.1). 

In their attempt to correct the omission, the pioneers of Adventist education established the Madison School in 1904 as a model school system based on the inspired blueprint. An article entitled “Self-Supporting College,” that was published in the May 1938 issue of the Reader’s Digest, reveals an unquestionable emphasis on practical training as a component of education implemented at the school: “Madison’s curriculum includes 27 industries, run by the students to support the college and themselves. Every student is required to work for at least half, and preferably all, of his academic expenses. He can enter Madison … complete a four-year standardized college course for a Bachelor of Science degree, … He will receive no outside financial aid in all that time. And he will leave college equipped to do not one job but several.” (Reader’s Digest, May 1938). 

FORT Education Africa endeavors to established schools based on the blueprint; schools in connection with which INDUSTRIES are set up to facilitate labor practical training as an indispensable component of true education. In the words of the prophet, “If the youth can have but a one-sided education, and it is asked, which is of the greater consequence, the study of the sciences with all the disadvantages to health and life, or the knowledge of labor for practical life, we unhesitatingly say, The latter. If one must be neglected, let it be the study of books.”

FORT Education Africa holds a strong belief that education, rightly implemented, should prepare learners for service to humanity and service to God. In this regard, EVANGELISM is held as the eighth core value of true education. In following the example of the Macedonian churches and the church at Corinth (2 Corinthians 8:1-7), the Forum endeavors to avail resources and opportunities that will enable learners to “excel in everything—in faith, in speech, in knowledge, in complete earnestness, in love and in the grace of giving.” In the book, Counsels to Parents, Teachers, and Students, E. G. White makes a statement that clearly identifies the place of evangelism in the education of the youth as understood by the Forum. She says, “It is not enough to fill the minds of the youth with lessons of deep importance; they must learn to impart what they have received” (p. 545 par 1).  

She further states that “Wherever possible, students should, during the school year, engage in city mission work. They should do missionary work in the surrounding towns and villages. … They are not to look forward to a time, after the school term closes, when they will do some large work for God, but should study how, during their student life, to yoke up with Christ in unselfish service for others.” (p. 547 par 2). 

While the harvest is ripe and the workers are few, the time is short within which an army of youth must be prepared to finish the work. FORT Education Africa endeavors to support and establish schools whose curriculum must include local and/or international evangelism opportunities for the students in the course of their studies, with the ultimate goal of sending them out to diverse places at the end of their studies as well-trained missionaries to occupy till our Lord Jesus comes to take us home.

DISCIPLESHIP, as exemplified in the ministry of Jesus, is the Forum’s ninth core value of true education and the most effective means of learning at the feet of Jesus, the Master Teacher. The Forum will collaborate with Christ-centered institutions to provide conducive environments for making Christlike disciples (Luke 6:40), an army of young people who will in turn become disciple makers for Christ in diverse places on the globe. 

In heeding the prophets call, the Forum endeavors to “establish schools after the Madison order,” schools that “not only educate in the knowledge of the Scriptures but it gives practical training that fits the student to go forth as a self-supporting missionary to the field to which he is called,” schools in which learners will obtain “valuable education for usefulness in missionary fields. In his student days he is taught how to build, simply and substantially, how to cultivate the land and care for the injured. This training for medical-missionary work is one of the grandest objects for which any school can be established.” (5MR, 280 par 1).