By Lamin Darboe
Information Officer, MoBSE
The Ministry of Basic and Secondary Education (MoBSE) has announced the resumption of classes for grade 9 pupils this Wednesday.
Education minister Claudiana Cole told the press at her office in Banjul on Friday that the resumption date for grade 12 pupils will be announced at a later date.
This development came following the closure of all schools in the country due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Minister Cole said the closures have affected about 674,300 students in conventional and recognised madrassa schools from early childhood to senior secondary school levels, thus resulting to an said the closures thwarted the annual target of 880 school contact hours.
Two weeks ago, government relaxed the state of emergency restrictions in order to open and extend business operations and reopening of schools.
Minister Cole said MoBSE took a cue from the government and held a consultative meeting with the Ministry of Health, GTU, Conference of Principals, Association of Lower Basic School Heads, World Bank, Unicef, Unesco, and Natcom among others to map out the way forward in respect to safe re-opening of schools.
She highlighted that the outcome of the consultative meeting with stakeholders indicated that there is need for schools to re-open because continuous closure of schools will not help education sector and the country in general.
Minister Cole said the re-opening was in response to the concerns expressed by parents.
“In keeping with the WHO measures and the Ministry of Health guidelines, my ministry will be closely working with our regional education directorates to ensure compliance on the social and physical distancing and availability of Covid-19 personal protection equipment,” she assured the public.
