By Isatou Jawara
The Minister of Basic and Secondary Education Claudiana Cole has said her ministry intends to include the Child and Social and Financial Education in school curriculum for children to be better prepared to overcome numerous emerging societal challenges ahead.
The Minister mentioned this at the opening ceremony of the consultative meeting for the integration of child social and financial education held at Ocean Bay Hotel Cape Point.
The event was attended by educational stakeholders from across the country.
“The children must be provided with requisite knowledge and skills to be able to successfully cope with those challenges. To achieve this, the Curriculum Research, Evaluation and Development Directorate of my Ministry is currently revising the school curriculum in line with the dictates of the Education Policy 2016-2030.
“The Curriculum review exercise is being formed by the findings of our curriculum research which was concluded in 2016. This research, among other things established the content of Basic education in terms of competencies of knowledge and skills as perceived by a cross section of The Gambia initiatives.
“Entrepreneurship education is revealed as a requirement in the school curriculum. The Child Social and Financial Education (Aflatoun) as we know, provide a social foundation for Entrepreneurship. This is one of my Ministry’s justification for embracing the Child Social and Financial Education initiative” she said.
“The Gambian children will be exposed to the rudiments of financial management, which can be pursued as a career. In this instructional area also children will learn among other things,the importance of savings and investment and to be able to generate income for a or son well being,” she concluded.
The UNICEF Country rep speaking at the event said: “The Gambia, like the governments around the world are working towards successful implementation of the Sustainable development Goals with the target to achieve 17 goals targets by 2030. UNICEF in The Gambia is providing specific support and building partnership with education sector to deliver on the 10 targets of SDG goal 4, which focuses on inclusive quality education and lifelong learning.”
The Child fund Country Director Musu Komma Bah, said: “Child fund The Gambia has remained committed to improving the well being of the vulnerable children living in The Gambia for the last three decades been working closely with civil society organizations, the Government and the community to contribute to the development of the children.
“The Child Social and Financial Education Project was implemented in four classes that is grade 3 4 5 and 6. In each class, thirty students were selected with equal gender representation to form clubs and be part of activities implemented.”
