By Adama Makasuba
Dr Cherno Omar Barry, vice chancellor of International Open University (IOU) in The Gambia, has touted online education could be the country’s education future.
Dr Barry made the observation during a media briefing at the IOU headquarters on Kanifing and encouraged young Gambians to further their education, as the market is getting saturated with degree holders.
“First of all, access for secondary, primary or basic cycle has really proven to be happening even though we have a lot of spots in the rural Gambia where people have to walk distances in order to get access to education. From basic cycle to secondary school, we can say we have really met access to a very close to hundred percent. Our problem now is, post-secondary education, university education,” the top educationist said.
He observed that almost all the universities and tertiary institutions are built within the Greater Banjul
“If you ask me, sincerely I will tell you online education could be our future because the International Open University I preside over has demonstrated that if you want to give access to higher education, you can do it through online education. E-learning is becoming the norm everywhere now in the world. As I speak to you now, I am going to E-learning conference in Rwanda and all African educationists are going to meet there and what we are thinking about,” he added.
Meanwhile, he continued: “Let me give you an example, when we were going to high school if you have A Level, you look for job and the moment you look for a job, they give it to you. If you have O’ Level and there is an A Level guy, they don’t even look at you, they will take the A Level guy. So, meaning you have to struggle to get A Level to get a good job. And then most of the Ministers and permanent secretaries who have been in the civil service before, that’s how they get into the civil service. When you get A Level you are immediately appointed, no question is asked.
“And later now, if you don’t get a Bachelor degree, they don’t even look at your grade 12 result, when you look for a job, they ask you whether you have a degree. And I am telling you these bachelors are going to be so saturated they will start asking you whether you have Masters Degree.
We will get there. So that means every one of you should aspire to grow your education pursuing otherwise, one day you will see yourself lacking behind and lot of people going for masters and they will saturate market [and] they will be the preferred candidates for good jobs. In case if you are going for white coloured jobs, but I think you should for skills.”