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Janyanfara
Tanzania
1350 Posts |
 Posted - 17 Oct 2006 : 17:37:48
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Armitage needs help
Written by Musa Ndow & Abdoul Rahman Sallah
Tuesday, 17 October 2006
Armitage Senior Secondary School in Janjanbureh, established in 1927, is one of the oldest schools in The Gambia.
Most senior government officials attended the school as it used to be a prestigious educational institution especially in the pre-independence era. Presently the school has a total enrolment of six hundred students (600 students) and is presently under-staffed.
.The senior management team of the school told the Daily Observer that since the departure of the former principal, Mr. David Assue Haffner, the school started experiencing teacher shortages in major subject areas like English Language, Geography, Biology, Mathematics, Woodwork and other science subjects. According to the team, the school is presently without a vice-principal thus making recruitment of new intakes from grade 9 a major problem as none of them have been interviewed as yet.
Mr Isah Koroma, the Acting Head of the Science Department, disclosed that his department lacks a lot of facilities needed for the smooth running of the school.
The Acting Head of the Social Science Department, Gibbrila Camara, complained of the workload that they have to bear due to the lack of adequate teachers, a point echoed by the Head of the Modern Language Department.
The team also expressed dissatisfaction with the manner in which the Janjangbureh Clinic receives Armitage patients describing it as hostile. He said that the Department of State for Health should consider the issue.
For his part, Lamin Saho the schools’ Accountant/Bursar said, the school owed lot of money to creditors, whom he described as business partners for the past years. He said the biggest problem affecting his department is the lack of cooking utensils and the deplorable condition of the bakery. He stated that although the government subvention is forthcoming every month, that alone cannot sustain the school.
When contacted on the issue, the Educational Director for the area, Mr Yums Barrow, said the Regional Education Directorate are not responsible for deploying teachers to Armitage.
Oh my God is my old almamater about to close?
How comes one of Gambia's best school b4 is experiancing such a catastropy?Oh Armitage,Oh Armitage,may God safe you!
Peace
Janyanfara
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njucks
Gambia
1131 Posts |
Posted - 17 Oct 2006 : 18:06:06
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God will not safe her. this school as far as i can remember has always been complaining thats its forgotten or that. they should get their act together or it will close permanently.yeah it has produced many senior political/public figures but then perhaps you or them should do fund it.
Many other schools have successfully started in the last decades, some private others not and they are doing quite well.
Armitage is like this, every now and then they publish some sorry story looking for funding. Governnment is already paying them, they should charge the students for the balance.
where do they think the money is going to come from. God perhaps |
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jambo
3300 Posts |
Posted - 18 Oct 2006 : 00:09:31
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| what are the school fees for armitage |
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kobo
United Kingdom
7765 Posts |
Posted - 19 Oct 2006 : 01:18:42
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Jambo Armitage is a boarding school and would put up cost of a private school for contrast and for budgetary purposes.
Glory Baptist is privately owned or under a crusade missionary run by foreigners mainly; Nigerians, Ghanians or Sierra leones. It runs up to a Senior secondary standard, just like Armitage but its not a boarding school.
For this academic year, today the breakdown of fees for the academic year is basically as follows:
Application Fee D200.00 (Non refundable and with two passport
size photos attached)
School fees D7,675.00
Therefore D7,875.00 (TOTAL)
For a boarding school like armitage would budget roughly D10,000 to D15,000 per child. I would recommend D20,000 per child and government subsidy atleast 25% per child, for Recurrent and Development budgets. Another fact that should be appreciated is that unlike a private school like Glory Baptist Armitage caters for lodegements and bound to pay much higher overheads in terms of utilities bills and other amenities!
Hope this information is realistic and useful! |
Edited by - kobo on 19 Oct 2006 01:49:10 |
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kobo
United Kingdom
7765 Posts |
Posted - 19 Oct 2006 : 10:27:37
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Armitage must put the Administrative and Management structures in place to support the Parent Teacher's Assocciation (PTA. They need a proper Board of Directors manned by competent personnel including the Governor of the region (formerly commissioner), Head of Municipal councils , a mixed of other civil servants and expatriates working around Janjangbureh. Additional volunteers (Accountants, Finance and Mangers) to serve in the Finance and Administrative Committee.
The Finnce and Administrative committees work work out project proposals, budgets and financing plans. They can seek aid from other developments partners; like UNDP, UNCDP, UNESCO, EEC or EU, Charitas, Save the cChildern etc to support projects like revamping the Lab facilities and other assistance on developments. Assistance cound be in various forms either funding, in-kind or technical assistance.
They should not rely on the Head Teacher and a Bursar (Accountant)to fiddle with the books, irrespective of annual audits. They should be under the Finance and Administrative committee. |
Edited by - kobo on 19 Oct 2006 10:31:28 |
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jambo
3300 Posts |
Posted - 19 Oct 2006 : 19:08:32
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that's roughtly £400.00 pa, that is afortune in Gambia for secondary school education, for that I hopethe schools does better than it has been, Armitage is considered a top performing school what has happened.
for that school fee x 600 i would expect plenty of teachers |
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njucks
Gambia
1131 Posts |
Posted - 19 Oct 2006 : 19:32:24
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here's a suggestion. Armitage should be closed and turned into a regular upper basic school with daily attendance.
it was a colonial experiment lost with time and they're struggling to fit in today's systems. this is not the first story like this and will continue as what they're trying to offer is beyond most people.
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kondorong
Gambia
4380 Posts |
Posted - 19 Oct 2006 : 20:33:42
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It will be terrible to turn it into a day school. With over 500 students, about the size of the population of the town, and also an island, how would students cross to the island especially when half of the time, the ferry has no gasoline or broken down. Also the town too small to lodge the student. May be it could be a military barracks, but you dont need an army that is trapped on an island either.
Georgetown's history was tied to slave trade and with end of slavery and the collapse of GRT, and trading posts along the river, and also with no steamer plying the rivers, the town has become a shadow of its former glory.
If armitage closes, the town will grind to a halt |
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njucks
Gambia
1131 Posts |
Posted - 19 Oct 2006 : 20:43:28
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i dont think that the economy of jangjangburreh is directly linked to the school. if the school was so financially important we would not be debating.
the fundamental point as in all schools is that education is expensive. if daily schools are not even fully funded how do you expect to run a proper boarding school in the middle of nowhere.
it was built solely to educate the sons of chiefs. that era passed. then it was one or the only rural high school. that era has passed too. now there are more options but still not enough i agree.
either they charge the full cost, or secure an adepquate subsidy to fill the gap, or raise private funds or close it. the latter is more likely. with rising cost of living teacher are suffering too.
private schools are competing in the same way. many teachers are leaving to go to places like Marina. they have no choice but to raise the school fees to compete. |
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kondorong
Gambia
4380 Posts |
Posted - 19 Oct 2006 : 21:58:15
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The economy is very linked to the school. Tell people of the town. Sunday is the day when most sales are generated, the day students can leave campus to buy provisions. Imagine 500 students out shopping.
It has the largest number of paid employees than any department. The teachers are paid more than the prison wardens. Think about the expenditure pattern. Infact many traders come to the school basket ball pitch selling all kinds of stuff. The impact of armitage will be felt as soon as it closes. |
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ganbi
United Kingdom
20 Posts |
Posted - 19 Oct 2006 : 23:45:58
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| Well it will be a same to close this old school it being the only boarding school in the country. It does not only teach pupils maths and english but how to behave in society, discipline, lots of other professional trainings. It is like a small town with its sefolu, alkalos, imams etc. I think it should be cherished. The school has a difficulty is attracting teacher because of the low wages as compared to schools in the kombos and lack of Gambian teachers. The school is now run virtually by sierraloeneans, Ghanians and Nigerians and they are just looking for greener pastures just like us here, you go to a job that pays well. There are lots young Gambian brewing ATAYA and risking their lifes just to come to europe when they could engage themselves in something meaningful. The govt. should invest in education not just building school but to equip existing schools inorder to raise the standard of education in the country. |
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kondorong
Gambia
4380 Posts |
Posted - 20 Oct 2006 : 00:24:11
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Ganbi
This is a big truth. We dont need classrooms but schools. |
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jambo
3300 Posts |
Posted - 20 Oct 2006 : 11:16:45
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GANBI, IS THAT TRUE THE SCHOOL IS RUN BY NON GAMBIANS, i agree some sort of scholarship system should be done, but if everychild is paying their school fees, why is the school broke. |
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gambiabev
United Kingdom
3091 Posts |
Posted - 20 Oct 2006 : 18:40:39
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Many teachers in Gambia are non gambian africans. The work hard to educate Gambians, and then when they retire they get no pension because they are non Gambia. Or this is what I have been told.
Gambia needs to train more teachers. Gambia needs to pay these teachers well, so that they want to stay in the country. To be a teacher is to create the next generation of the country. Apart from being a parent I dont think there is a more important job for society. (of course, I am a teacher!!  ).
Can anyone tell me why the government moves teachers around so much? Do teachers have any say in that or do they just have to go where they are told? It is good for teachers to experience different schools, but it is also good to stay in one place for a reasonable amount of time. To gain the respect of the community and put down some roots. |
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kondorong
Gambia
4380 Posts |
Posted - 20 Oct 2006 : 18:53:03
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quote:
Originally posted by gambiabev
Many teachers in Gambia are non gambian africans. The work hard to educate Gambians, and then when they retire they get no pension because they are non Gambia. Or this is what I have been told.
Gambia needs to train more teachers. Gambia needs to pay these teachers well, so that they want to stay in the country. To be a teacher is to create the next generation of the country. Apart from being a parent I dont think there is a more important job for society. (of course, I am a teacher!!).
Can anyone tell me why the government moves teachers around so much? Do teachers have any say in that or do they just have to go where they are told? It is good for teachers to experience different schools, but it is also good to stay in one place for a reasonable amount of time. To gain the respect of the community and put down some roots.
You are right about pension to non citizens from public funds. This practice is also happening in europe. State pensions are for citizens. Gambia is applying the principle of reciprocity in international relations. Our nationals in other countries who are not citizens dont get pensions. May be scandinavia night be an exception as they are more liberal than the rest of europe. |
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gambiabev
United Kingdom
3091 Posts |
Posted - 20 Oct 2006 : 19:00:22
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It seems hard when someone has done a job for the country.
In Uk I think I am right that all teachers have the opportunity to pay into the fund and draw out on retirement. |
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