Following her announcement the general reopening of schools in the country, the Minister of Basic and Secondary Education (MoBSE) has reiterated that “education is everybody’s business”.
Claudiana A. Cole was speaking on Wednesday during her Ministry’s routine National Bantaba held at the Ministry’s premises in Banjul. The day’s national forum was witnessed by the SMCs Conference of Principals, GTU, school heads, stakeholder, students and Ministry officials.
Minister Cole reminded the gathering that for seven months there has not been formal face to face teaching in the schools adding that whatever her Ministry afforded to do, in terms of providing education was done remotely.
She thanked God for giving space to grades 9 and 12 students to sit to their transitional examination without any reported case of coronavirus infection among the students.
Minister Cole noted that Government is spending huge amount of money towards the provision of basic education in the country and that needs to be recognized and appreciated by the general public. She therefore enjoins parents and guardians to contribute their quota more than ever before since lots of school time has been wasted within these seven months.
Basic education boss, Claudiana A. Cole further highlighted that when it comes to the provision of quality education, it should be a concerted effort for everyone.
“What we use to have as normal schooling before will not be the same anymore because we will use different strategies in the schools to make sure we provide quality education to the children when they go back to schools.
On the sitting arrangement of students in class, Minister Cole explained that no class will accommodate 50 students anymore like in the past. We are going to have a maximum of 30 students in a class or less this is why we decided to extended the school day and time.
She said Covid-19 talks about physical distancing and students thus the reason now that they (students) will sit in class of 1 meter because we want all students to have an opportunity to sit comfortably in their classroom. The forum ended with discussions, questions and answer sessions.