By Fatou Saho
In a country where girls living in the rural areas have little or no chances to go to school due to poverty or deep rooted cultural beliefs, it feels encouraging to see that the number of girls enrolling in schools has increased drastically, thanks to food.
As the saying goes, “an empty bag cannot stand”. This gives a proper justification on why food is considered an essence of life. It is a basic human right meaning, every individual has the right to have food for daily consumption, regardless of who you are or where you come from. But, this basic right, is not observe in many parts of the world including The Gambia.
The National Food Security Survey 2023 which was conducted by The Gambia Government and the World Food Programme shows that 53% of rural households in The Gambia, are experiencing food insecurity.
Majority of the people who fall under this number, cannot afford to feed their families with proper meals for breakfast, lunch and dinner on a daily basis. As a result, some find it difficult to send their children to school, whereas it gives others the option, to choose who to enroll from among their sons and daughters.
Some of the people living in the rural part of The Gambia fear enrolling their children in formal schools, with most of them harbouring the belief that it would bring them shame, by turning the children into bad persons.
But it seems food has changed minds and actions. This taboo that has existed for many years, has now faded away in almost all the rural communities in The Gambia.
In February this year, the Catholic Relief Service (CRS) in partnership with the Ministry of Basic and Secondary Education (MoBSE), the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), and civil society organisations, launched a massive project to eradicate hunger among school children and promote primary school literacy through nutritious food.
It is the US$28.5 million McGovern-Dole Food for Education Project in The Gambia and has been given a National name call, NDOKK meaning, “Nna Dinding’O la Karango Kunmayata” which translates to: our children’s education is important.
The head of the project in The Gambia, Mr James Kongnyui Njong, said implementation of this food programme started in October 2022 at Albreda Primary School and was rolled out to 186 lower basic schools across The Gambia, including a madrassa in the Upper River Region.
The results emanating from this food programme in schools are superseding expectations as alluded to by different communities, village heads, school mother clubs, teachers, and even pupils.
During the recent visit to the food intervention schools by the US ambassador to The Gambia, Sharon L Cromer and other project partners, speaker after speaker, in four communities, excitedly enumerate the benefits and windfalls the project has brought to their families, schools and villages.
These include high enrolments, improved academic performances, economic independence and creation of equal opportunities for boys and girls in the field of education. They pleaded for the programme’s extension beyond its five-year duration.
The headmistress at Tubakuta Lower Basic School, in Kombo East, Ms Mary Jabang, explained that since the inception of the free food programme in her school, the number of enrolment has increased from 300 to over 400.
When asked whether they have girls dropping out of school as a result of early marriage, Ms Jabang responded: “No! Now in this school, we have more girls than boys. We have 247 girls and 231 boys. Parents are not taking their daughters from school to marry them off. The last time we had that issue, our mothers club came, they notified us and then they went to the ceremony and brought the girl back. That marriage did not hold and that was the last time we had such an issue.”
At a community in the Upper River Region, Dalla Camara, a parent explained that the introduction of free food in schools has made everybody in his community, excited and eager to enrol their children, regardless of gender and at very early age, adding that: “Western education does not spoil any child.”
In the Education Statistics Summary Report for 2022/2023 by MoBSE, the gross enrolment rate for girls in the upper and senior schools showed a steady growth between 2019 and 2023 which the ministry indicates as an improved access to education for female students.
On the completion rate and gender parity index (GPI) of the same report, the GPI for primary schools increased from 1.13 to 1.20, 1.14 to 1.28 for upper basic schools and 1.13 to 1.28 for senior schools. The report indicates that girls exhibit higher completion rate than boys at all the educational levels.
The regional education director for URR, Lamin S Sonko, explained that his region does not only have an increase in enrolment but also in academic performances attributing it to the impact of the feeding programme in schools.
According to recent statistics, more girls are completing school and outscoring boys in examinations.
When the GABECE results came in October, MoBSE announced that 88 students scored aggregate 6 out of which 32 were boys and 56 girls. Similar results were announced in other 2024 WAEC exams.
This goes to tell that giving girls the opportunity to be educated and investing in them, does not only stop at schooling.
The declaration of “when you educate a girl, you educate a nation”, can be a clear manifestation to the countless rural girls who were taken to school as a result of the “free food” to bring salvation to their communities some day.
The free food programme currently in schools is an investment by the US Department of Agriculture and it is expected to last for a period of five years.
