By Lamin B. Darboe
Information Officer, MoBSE
The Permanent Secretary (PS) at the Ministry of Basic and Secondary Education (MOBSE) has called on Gambians to support basic education especially in this trying time of Covid-19 pandemic period.
Louis Moses Mendy was speaking on Friday at a Bantaba forum organized by the ministry in partnership with its stakeholders thus meant to inform the public about the state of preparedness of the upcoming exam for the grade 9 students across the sixth educational Regions in the country.
He challenge Gambians especially the parents to continue supporting basic education, adding that his ministry did its efforts to provide Covid-19 basic needs for each student in grade 9, teachers and others.
“I am calling on all Gambians and non-Gambians alike in and outside the country to do whatever they can in order to defeat Covid-19 crises in our schools and make a year of academic success in both our internal and external examinations ahead,” PS Mendy stated.
Basic Education No. 2 man thanked the Ministry of Health, Regional Education Directors, ministry’s stakeholders, teachers and school authorities for supporting his sector for safe reopening of grade 9 classes.
According to PS Mendy, in addition to MoH and WHO guidelines on Covid-19, MoBSE has partner with the school authorities to develop set of guidelines for teachers and students during school contact hours.
For us at the ministry he added, we are satisfied with the progress going on in the schools especially at Kanifing Upper Basic School. They came up with their own Covid-19 guidelines which is worthy of commendation.
Director of Health Promotion at the MoH, Modou Njie assured MoBSE that his ministry will continue to closely monitor the implementation of the covid-19 guidelines in schools.
He expressed his satisfaction the way school authorities are observing the Covid-19 guidelines in their institutions. Let them (school authorities) continue the good work they are doing in their schools because they are complementing the efforts of MoBSE.
“We are also calling on other private organizations, individuals and others to come forward and give support to school authorities within their environment with Covid-19 Personal Protection Equipment (PPE),” Njie appealed to public.