By Tabora Bojang
Dr Habibatou Drammeh, the minister of Basic and Secondary Education has disclosed that about 48 percent of teachers in Lower Basic School levels in the Gambia struggle to deliver relevant content to students in numeracy and literacy.
Dr Drammeh said these findings prompted her ministry to introduce an employment exam for Gambia College graduates to ensure graduating teachers possess the minimum and requisite knowledge and skills to effectively teach at the lower basic level.
The minister who made her first appearance before the National Assembly plenary made the disclosure in response to a question asked by Latrikunda lawmaker Yaya Sanyang who inquired about the rationale behind the introduction of an additional assessment for college graduates and whether Gambia College’s own training and assessment processes are insufficient to determine graduate competency for teaching positions.
Minister Drammeh replied that findings stemming from a rigorous monitoring process of teaching and learning in the classrooms also revealed that lesson delivery was also found to be impeded by “weak oral fluency” demonstrated by the teachers.
According to her, the same challenge was also evident in the teaching of essay and letter writing marred by “wrong spellings, poor punctuations and incorrect structural layout”, prompting the need to address such a systematic issue from taking a national approach.
Minister Drammeh, a former director of student’s affairs at the UTG explained further that this new assessment will ensure that graduating teachers possess the minimum and requisite knowledge and skills to effectively teach at the lower basic level. “Given the critical role of teachers in shaping the future of our country, it is imperative that they meet a defined standard of competency before entering the classroom. The introduction of this assessment was bold, timely and necessary reinforcing the efforts of the Gambia College to uphold teaching standards and serves as a quality control measure ensuring that newly graduating teachers mastered the fundamental literacy and numeracy skills required to teach Grade 1 to Grade 7,” Minister Drammeh stated.
