By Yunus S Saliu
In a bid to strengthen capacity of science teachers on the local appropriate technologies involved in the management, utilization and conservation of quality water, the Directorate of Science and Technology Education (DESTED) of the Ministry of Basic and Secondary Education in collaboration with the Gambia National Commission for UNESCO has trained fourty-two science teachers on water conservation to promote a more sustainable and responsible use of water for social equity and environmental protection.
Participants to the one week training held at the Rotary Centennial Science Laboratory, Kanifing were selected from the twelve UNESCO Associated Schools (ASPnet) coordinators and twenty UNESCO Club Coordinators from the six education regions.
The training as fully sponsored by the UNESCO believed that education could be a key dimension of the local response to water crisis, which therefore, seeks to address the issue of water conservation.
Among other objectives of the weeklong training is to equip ASPnet schools and UNESCO clubs with adequate knowledge and skills to form youth and young water groups for advocacy and campaign; create awareness at community level on the use and management of quality water, giving much emphases to girls; and also create an environment that will allow them to develop and manage small projects such as water harvesting, treatment and conservation.
Commenting on the training, Kaddy Bah, Senior Education Officer Science and Technology director MoBSE commended UNESCO-Natcom Gambia for sponsoring the training. She dilated on the importance of the training to the teachers, as they can in turn teach and train students in their various schools.
Also, she said the knowledge gained from the training on usage and harvesting of water if perfectly transfer to the students will have positive impacts in each community.
She disclosed that the school teachers that participated in the training were from lower basic, upper basic and senior secondary schools but from UNESCO Associated Schools (ASPnet) throughout the six education regions in The Gambia.
Madam Bah appealed to the Gambia National Commission for UNESCO to spread their tentacle to have more funds in order to train more teachers from other schools beyond the UNESCO Associated Schools (ASPnet) and UNESCO Club.
Lamin B Faal of Science and Technology – MoBSE dilated on the manual for the training which was prepared by stakeholders. He noted that the just concluded training was for the UNESCO Associated Schools (ASPnet) Coordinators and UNESCO Club coordinators from the six education regions who are to in turn train students in their various club levels.
In addition, he said the other activity is to see students from the UNESCO Clubs that will come up with a new develop prototypes/posters from what they learn and present them during a competition and drama relate to water management and conservation or uses of water
