By Fatou Saho
As huddles hit the only nursery school in Bijilo, owned by the community, European Trade Union (UNISON), has aided the school with learning materials and established new classrooms to promote child education.
The head teacher, Mr. Babucarr Jobe, said they have been receiving complaints from some community members of Bijilo, whose children were not able to be enrolled in the school as a result of the inadequate classrooms.
“The school is owned by the community, and we have 25 kids per class. We used to have 30 kids in each class. This year we did not enrol more students and some parents are not happy with us because when they bring their children, we tell them that the classes are full, but with these added classrooms built by the UNISON, we can now enrol more students and also reduce the intake in classes from 25 to atlest 20 students per class,” Mr. Jobe Stated.
He extended gratitude to UNISON for their unwavering support to the community schools in Bijilo and added: “This is not their first time helping schools in need, they have also built seven classrooms at the Bijilo upper basic school and refurbished seven that are not conducive for learning and we are hoping to receive more support from them”.
The regional convener of UNISON, Wendy Nichols, said their organization, being the largest trade union in UK with 1.3 million members, represents people at work to look at their best interest and get pay raises for them.
She explained: “This is our sixth visit to the Gambia and we’ve done a lot. We want to help children in Africa, we want to give them a good start to life and we belive that is by giving them a good education. It is so important for us to engage in activities like this to promote child education”.
In addition to that, Jim Bell, also from UNISON, said they came to the Gambia to deliver humanitarian services, to help children in schools and to also work with trade unions in the country.
