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Screensize: 640 x 480 800 x 600 1024 x 768 1280 x 1024 UserName: Password: Format Mode: Basic  Help  Prompt  Format: Videos: Font Andale Mono Arial Arial Black Book Antiqua Century Gothic Comic Sans MS Courier New Georgia Impact Lucida Console Script MT Bold Stencil Tahoma Times New Roman Trebuchet MS Verdana   Size 1 2 3 4 5 6   Color Black Red Yellow Pink Green Orange Purple Blue Beige Brown Teal Navy Maroon LimeGreen Message: * HTML is OFF * Forum Code is ON Smilies [quote][i]Originally posted by Momodou[/i] [br]HON. SIDIA JATTA'S CONTRIBUTION ON THE ADJOURNMENT DEBATE ON THE 19th SEPTEMBER, 2018 RANGING FROM GTTI, MDI AND GAMBIA COLLEGE TO TRANSFORM IN UNIVERSITY AND THE CONDITION OF OUR PRISON DEPARTMENT Thank you Madam speaker, am going to deal with two matters, but the Anthony General has just step out and I don't want to speak in his absent and the other one have to do with higher education, but the Basic and Secondary Education minister is here and for her sake I will talk which am sure you will extend it to your colleague at the higher education. Madam Speaker, names don’t change anything and they don’t add value to anything. Historically when Crab Island was constructed, it was called Crab Island Technical School. Because historically, it was supposedly meant for children who were not academically strong, so they should be given technical training. It was a wrong idea, but that was the situation. And as we went on, the name changed from Technical High School to Junior Secondary School, but it was still the same Crab Island, the same teachers, the same subject matters were being taught there, but the name kept on changing, thinking that changing the name will change the whole product of the school. But it did not change it and now it has become Crab Island Junior Secondary School, now it has disappeared. We were told before the President spoke about it, we had a discussion with the Ministry of Higher Education when he brought the bill, which was thrown away, it was there he said he was going to change GTTI into university of science and technology and MDI as university of management. That was what the president read in his speech and that was reported to him the president and that was brought here. Some members here are happy with that as if calling GTTI University of engineering and technology is going to transform it automatically. That is what exactly they said and that is what is exactly being done at the GTTI now. They are doing technology and engineering and they have a modern state of art equipment that is given to them by India, there is a huge I will say factory that they can create nails of any size, barb wire, these plastic bottles and many more. They can even build machines there, right now engineers are doing that there. It is not the name that matters, but what is taught there that is what matters. Given them powers and means to do what have to do, but not the name. Changing GTTI to a University is creating and compounding our problems. Being a university is a problem. It is a university in name, but not a university in practice. In a fully fledge university every department is headed by a professor. How of them do you have in the university Gambia now? One, two, most of the lecturers there are holders of MA or MAC, they are few the Vice Chancellor himself said it in my presence that few of them are having terminal decrees. Now if you say these two are trying to become universities, where going to get the lecturers? When already your university is faced with lack of lecturers professors with terminal decrees, fully fledge persons who are capable of lecturing. It is not that name. University of London is composed of several colleges, fleet of colleges, school of African studies is part and parcel of university of London, institution of education is part and parcel of university of London, Berbet college is part of university of London, Queen Marry College, which is one of the best medical school in the world is part and parcel of the London University. So the name does not matter, we think of something else, not names. And for me to match Gambia College into a University will be a tragedy of the highest type educationally speaking. Gambia College should continue to exist independently, but what you need to do is to empower it further, if you match with university you are killing the whole spirit of producing teachers. They should remain as they are and become part of the university, that is all what we need and then if you transform GTTI and MDI, what are you going to do with the staff that are there now? That is another question. Are you going to promote them? Are you going to upgrade them even whereas they don’t have the qualification? Are going to upgrade? Is how you are going to run these institutions? Let us not compound our problems. These institutions are apt and good the way they are, all that they need is give them the materials, the needed money, equipments and all that they need to do their work. The University of The Gambia is still a problem for us, let us try and solve the problem. That is what we should try to address not to compound the problem by making these university, university just to say Gambia have three universities for the sake of having universities when we cannot run even one. Honorable Speaker, I trust the honorable Minister of Basic and Secondary Education will talk to her colleagues about this matter, let us think about this critically the name doesn't matter, what matter we all know let us look and make these institutions effective and happy. Madam speaker the Anthony General is here, am happy you have come in when a person is convicted, the term of him or her conviction are stated and explained to him or her. Generally, they include like we sentence you to six months imprisonment with hard labour, but I never heard of any conviction amounting to sentencing somebody to bad bedding facilities, bad food, denial to access to education, imprisonment should not boil down to that. An imprisonment is not meant to dehumanize it is meant to humanize people. Is to make it possible for you to come back into the society rehabilitated, imprisonment is to help you to change to come even better than before the person was taken to the prison. But our prisons are dehumanizing, denying people food to eat. I think he would have been here I would have been happy if the Vice President was in, because he can attest to what am saying. He lived it for years and there is another member here who lived it. The food they eat, anybody who eats that food one year, two years, three years, you come back you become almost sick, because it not a balance diet and what type of bedding did they provide for you? The conviction does not say you should sleep on bad bed, it is not stated in the conviction, nor it is saying that you cannot have access to education, newspaper, or books. Why? We know that the man who had ruled Zimbabwe for over 30 years, acquired all his decrees in prison. But here why is it not possible why? I once went to the remand wing I cried, because I saw children there who have been there for one, two three years and the have been denied the joy of having education. Such children should be allowed continue to acquire education if they were in school and even they were not in school if they want to go to school, it should be provided for them. Why is it not happening in our society? We are now in a changed Gambia we claimed so everything must change with it and this is one fundamental thing that must change in the NEW GAMBIA. Prisoners are human being, they have a right to education, they right to good food, and they have right to good bedding otherwise when they come out of the prison they are dead, an imprisonment is not meant to kill, but it is meant to help you grow better, that cannot happen if the conditions are bad I hear the president saying the prison will change am sure that the president is talking about infrastructural transformation of prison, that's not enough it must change with all these things, otherwise there is no change. I have been there several times and see what is going on there and I know what am talking, am not saying am in prison there, but am saying i went there to see what's there. So let nobody go and misquoted me that Sidia said he was in prison. I was not there as a prisoner. I went there on my free will to see what is happening there, in fact somebody called to go there and wanted me to do something for him twice. But the remand wing, honorable speaker we need to go there and see what is there, it must change and must stop. Because it is killing those children, denying them the joy to have education, the joy to be changed and grow up as proper human beings, humanize human being if we don’t do that we are committing crime against our people. For me prison is not what people think it is. People think that if you are in prison, you should be denied everything that is not true. Your punishment is to do hard labor and be there, but not to eat good food and no good place to sleep, no law will say that. infact the prison should have minor hospital in case of emergency if a prisoner felt sick he can be rush to the place first, because if they felt sick before you reach at the hospital the person is half death, things have to change and now. I vowed that I will not speak on a particular Ministry if the minister is not here since they are the two am done. Thanks you. 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