By Olimatou Coker
Education For All Campaign Network-The Gambia has recently embarked on education in emergency campaign held in CRR North at Medina Lamin Kanteh Wassu.
The campaign intends to raise awareness of key stakeholders and to call on the government for the safety of the students, dialogue with education authorities on the current situation in education and influence redesigning of eduction policies.
Speaking, Pierre Bah, the chief, said he is very happy to have such a gathering in his region.
Cheif Bah said everyone knows that education is very important and its importance cannot be overemphasized.
Omar Jarjusey, the National Coordinator of EFANet, said Covid -19 is real and it is happening all over the world. He said since schools are opening, the protocols developed by Mobse and MoH and other stakeholders should be followed.
He said a lot of schools are not observing the protocols.
Mr Jarjusey said for them at EFANet, they believe that education is for all and it cannot wait so therefore everybody should be there.
Bakary Badjie, the Board Chairperson of EFANet stated that the Coalition has been in existence since 2000 and they have been always advocating for education, and to make sure everyone goes to school. “But our main programme today is to make sure children are safe with the back to school issues”.
Chairman Badjie call on people to believe that Covid-19 exists, saying the virus can be fought only if people believe it.
Lamin Fatty, National Coordinator of Child Protection Alliance (CPA), said the theme ‘education in emergency’ is very important and people should not allow Covid-19 to stop the children from going to school.
“The leaders of the world have put forward the right of children to be educated and in the 1997 constitution and the Children’s Act 2005, it’s clearly stated that every child has the right be educated,” he said.
Lamin Sonko, the Deputy Regional Education Directorate of MoBSE, spoke on the role of MoBSE in promoting education in emergency situation like Covid-19.
He said despite the fact that schools were closed, it didn’t stop them from using other means in teaching children.
He also thanked GTU for their support and the teachers who also did their best in teaching the students. “We conducted an outreach programme using our community platforms and it also helped us to conduct our exams peacefully. It is said that health workers are the front line workers but they are not the only frontliners; teachers are part of the frontliners.”
