By Lamin Cham
It is not everyday that a civil servant married to his institution for four decades, leaves with the same vigour and sharpness that he started with. The professional journey of Buramanding LJ Jammeh encapsulated in an emotional farewell on Friday, typifies the ideal civil servant who not only grew on the job but went ahead to add value to both himself and the job. Buramanding entered the civil service as an unqualified teacher in 1981. This week, he is retiring as Director of the Curriculum Research Evaluation and Development Directorate, CREDD. In between, he bagged a master’s degree, multiple post graduate diplomas and a PhD. His strongest passion is education planning, where he excelled so well that his footprints are found in all spheres of academia in the Gambian education system.
His juniors at CREDD on Friday called a farewell ceremony in his honour and paid tribute to his exemplary character and professional tutelage.
Demba O Khan, a research fellow and senior education officer at CREDD, described Mr Jammeh as one of the best premium, craftiest and dedicated educationists in the history of the then ministry and department of education, now MobSe. “Buramanding served in different capacities at different times and eras and a doyen of CREDD. He has played his role well in calibrating formal and non-formal education from one level to the other,” Khan said.
The Permanent Secretary at MoBse, Louis Mendy described Mr Jammeh’s achievement as an inedible legacy ever relevant to members of his profession. He urged Mr Jammeh to continue putting his vast knowledge at the disposal of the nation as he so diligently did in the past four decades. The PS urged CREDD staff to embrace the incoming director, Mr Jeng and accord him the same level of support and cooperation they have given to the retiring Mr Jammeh.
A host of their colleagues at CREDD, the senior management team at MoBse and his family celebrated Mr Jammeh for his devotion to both service and family.
Typical of the teacher in him, Mr Jammeh used his farewell speech to highlight the many tangible innovations and inventions made in the development of curriculum which has made syllabuses and subjects relevant to the country in the past, now and in the future.
Mr Buramanding Jammeh was born in Badibbu Kinteh Kunda in 1960 and attended Kinteh Kunda Primary, Nusrat High school and the University of Sierra Leone. He also obtained an international diploma in educational planning in India, a Master of Arts at the University of London and PhD at the University of Sheffield, in the United Kingdom.
