By Yunus S Saliu
The Bundung Lower Basic School (BLBS) Friday held a graduation ceremony for over 200 students of the school that are transiting to different upper basic schools across the municipality.
It is the maiden graduation ceremony of the school since its establishment, as disclosed by Alagie E Jobe, the Head Teacher of the school the performance of the just-graduated students prompted the school management to hold graduation for them.
He disclosed further that their performances when they were in school were excellent “they did very well in their various classes.” Though, stressed that the girls performed better than the boys as “they had received five 6 more than the boys, even in some of the classes all the prizes for first, second and third positions were grabbed by the girls.”
As they are leaving the school to continue their grade 7 at the upper basic schools, he appealed to their parents to continue guiding them to the right path and “make them continue with the hard work they started with in this school to enable them to perform better because we want them to keep the flag of the BLBS flying high to greater height wherever they go.”
Mr Jobe, congratulated the students and thanked the teaching and non-teaching staff of the school for being steadfast and hardworking, especially in teaching and guiding the students as mandated by the school management.
He, therefore, appealed to the government to help increase the School Improvement Grant (SIG) support of the lower basic schools “because it is this SIG we are using to care for the school in terms of buying teaching and learning materials, conducting examinations, maintenance and it is too small.”
Karama Ceesay, a senior teacher from the grade 6 department also dilated on the good performances of the students noting that they did the core and supplementary subjects.
He said their performances were recognized by the school management while he urged them to continue in a similar vein in any school they get their admission as they are transiting to grade 7.
Mr Ceesay, however, advised them to respect their parents and their teachers and stop challenging their teachers so that they can become responsible students in society.
The guest speaker at the ceremony who was also a former student of the school residing in the States, Dr Haddy Njie, expressed delight to be invited as the guest speaker for the first-ever graduation ceremony of “a school that I hold dearly in my heart.”
She implored everyone to thank all teachers for their invaluable service towards the development of The Gambia saying “they are educators, doctors, nurses, engineers, pilots and others in professions that are contributing to the betterment of human lives because there are teachers who are willing to impact knowledge in their students even when they sometimes tend to work in very difficult circumstances, and their services are usually not attractively remunerated.”
She expressed that teaching is a noble profession and it must be recognized and appreciated that many teachers are teaching not because that is the only thing they can do to earn a living; but “they are teachers simply because of the love and passion they have for the profession.”
Dilating on the theme of graduation which is ‘the role of teachers and parents in a child’s education, she said “teachers, your roles in educating a child are enormous. You assume parental roles and responsibilities once students enter your classrooms and sometimes even outside of the classroom as it is common for parents to report their children to you if they have done something wrong because they have confidence in you as adults in their lives to correct them.”
“You also educate and model good behaviors for your students to emulate to name just a few. Given such monumental roles in our societal development, I want to encourage teachers to think about the profound positions you occupy in society and by so doing, I hope that will continuously motivate you to be the best you can be for your students and The Gambia at large,” she added.
Speaking about the roles of parents in their children’s education, she emphasised that parents should recognize the value of teachers and their immense and selfless contributions to their children’s lives.