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Momodou
Denmark
11833 Posts |
 Posted - 15 Feb 2007 : 12:41:16
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Foroyaa Editorial
ADMINISTRATION AND STUDENTS OF THE GAMBIA COLLEGE
No need for controversy!! The new Secretary of State for Education and research is now faced with his first challenge; that is, how to maintain the learning, tutorial and social environment which have always existed at The Gambia College.
Foroyaa maintains that if anyone wants to know whether a university can be sustained in the Gambia one must look at the way the Gambia College is preserved.
Foroyaa has been receiving divergent views from the school administration and the student body on the closure of the college dormitories. Barely a week after the principal indicated that the college dormitories are closed for this academic year with the approval of the students, representative of the Gambia College sub-union had come to report that they are under attack for the story.
Foroyaa considers it unhealthy for students and administration to be at logger heads for a matter that they should hold common opinion.
To avoid fraction between students and administration, Foroyaa has decided to take an editorial position on the subject of the closure of dormitories at the college.
No Need For Closure of dormitories!!
It is evident that The Government of The Gambia claims to be committed to the provision of nine years of uninterrupted basic education. The umber of lower basic schools have increased to 400 and the number of upper basic to 149. It is claimed that the state department of education has trained 255 students on Higher Teachers Certificate and 355 students at Primary Teachers Certificate on a yearly basis. There is absolutely no doubt that the backbone of any education system are the teachers. One can have the best structures on earth but without teachers no effective learning will take place. There is claim everywhere that teachers are abandoning the teaching field because of the lack of motivation. There is call for a Teachers Service Scheme, increase in remuneration and provision of teachers' quarters, to serve as motivation.
What is surprising is the attempt to eradicate campus life for college students. One of the major complaints of the university students is the lack of a campus. College students have been protected from the distracting factors of community life because of the existence of a college campus. Such campus life promotes peer group educational exchanges, exposure to study facilities and reduction of expenditure on energy, travel cost and so on.
To negate campus life is to increase the socio-economic burden of the student and stifle the learning environment.
There is more to gain by maintaining campus life. Infact, what the state should have done is to increase the staff quarters so that the lecturers will be part and parcel of campus life. This would have enhanced the environment for socialization and prepare adequately to shoulder the burden of training up a new generation. A nation which neglects its teachers negates its future.
The new Secretary of State should establish a committee of enquiry to look into this matter with speed and solve the problem accordingly.
Foroyaa Newspaper Burning Issue
Issue No. 18/2007, 14-15 February, 2007
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A clear conscience fears no accusation - proverb from Sierra Leone |
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