By Arret Jatta
The system of Double-Shift Schooling (DSS), which accommodates two groups of students at different times in the day (morning and afternoon), widely practiced in most schools in The Gambia, is negatively affecting learning, a study has revealed.
Carried out by Dr. Amadou Jallow, a lecturer at The University of The Gambia, the study showed that attending a DSS system can negatively impact learning outcomes at both foundational and higher levels.
“The study was conducted on two critical education levels; the early grades (Grades 1-3, using EGRA data) and grade 12 (using WASSCE data).
The DSS system can lead to reductions in instructional time, browser time for extra classes and also limits the ability of teachers to cover the curriculum to some extent, especially in systems where they practice double-shifting of teachers.
“It can lead to teacher fatigue and also, there are some evidence that shows that it may also lead to student fatigue as well,” Jallow explained.
He further revealed that this affects private schools more than public schools, which could be due to the fact that private schools are profit-making institutions and therefore they prioritise their pockets.
According to him there have been increasing calls to reduce or abolish the DSS.
“However, abolishing it is costly both in financial and human resources”, he noted.
Mr Jallow recommended a gradual phasing out of DSS in private secondary schools where learning losses are most significant as well as caution in public primary schools where evidence of harm is less definitive.
He also recommended that there should be support provided to students in the DSS system such as after-school programmes, to mitigate DSS’s disproportionate impact on girls and underserved regions in public primary schools and to invest in teacher training, school infrastructure, and parental engagement to improve learning outcomes alongside access to expansion.
