The touring students visited 21 schools, ten of which benefited from intensive teaching and sensitisation.
Modou Touray, chairperson of the organising committee, commended the participants for their dedication and described the initiative as timely and relevant for the realisation of rapid socio-economic development of The Gambia.
“This year’s tour was a success and it was unique in the sense that three different regions, LRR, URR and NBR, benefited from the intensive teaching exercises. Traditionally, only one region benefits from the teaching tour each year, but this year we have decided to have three regions. This was a great move towards recommitting ourselves to the cause of providing quality education to rural students. We have also done other important activities like community outreach and sensitising the rural students on education for sustainable national development”, he said.
Touray further noted: “The impacts of the tour are evident. There are still some problems in the level of performance in some subjects and we tried to get the statistics and some of the problems the provincial schools are facing which we will surely forward to the authorities to see how best the problems can be dealt with. Each year we embark on this tour, we always motivate students to come to the university. I have personally met five students who are currently in the university and said it was as a result of the inspiration they received from us that they enrolled. In the area of teaching, many of our colleagues are currently serving in the VSO programme all as a result of the tour. Some have not gone through the VSO but have decided to go to the provinces and teach. This will go a long way in ensuring that quality education is provided to all Gambians irrespective of their geographical locations and it will help reduce the poverty gap for the attainment of national development.”
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