By Fatou Saho
The Ministry of Higher Education Research Science and Technology (MOHERST) has received a delegation of ministries and standing committees from the People’s Republic of China.
Accompanied by the Chenese Ambassador to The Gambia, the delegation visit was meant to foster the existing bilateral relationship between The Gambia and China, especially in the areas of education.
Wang Weiping, a member of the Chinese Standing Committee and Head of Organisation Department of the CPC Guanxi Committee, expressed the delegation’s appreciation to the ministry for the warm welcome and their willingness to collaborate with China.
Mr Weiping said the visit will be of great significance as it aims to foster more cooperation and exchanges in education.
“We want to propose that the two countries work together to strengthen planning by providing more policy guarantees, promoting cooperation in vocational education, and discussing the possibility of operating in digital education and language training. We could also explore the possibility of establishing something like the Gambia-Guanxi vocational alliance under the framework of the China-Africa vocational education federation,” he said.
This, he added, will bring together vocational education institutions at China’s Applied Technology Universities and Colleges from both sides to collaborate on professional trainings, curriculum designs, teacher trainings, improving services for scientific research, standard setting, and other areas like civil engineering, construction, automatic manufacturing, and repair.
Responding to the proposal made by the Chinese Team, the Minister of Higher Education, Pierre Gomez, welcomed the proposal and commended China for their continued support to The Gambia.
He said the two countries have already signed an MoU on how to harness the opportunities provided by Technical and Vocational Education Training (TVET) in The Gambia.
“Today’s ceremony is a clear indication of the readiness of the two countries to work hand in glove to promote TVET and to give an alternative to the youths to take charge of their own destiny,” he said.
