By Yunus S Saliu
Deliberating on the Comprehensive Health Education midline research findings presented before the National Assembly Select Committee on Health, Women, Children, Refugees, Disaster, and Humanitarian Relief, among other recommendations, the members recommended to the Ministry of Basic and Secondary Education (MOBSE) to include the Comprehensive Health Education (CHE) in its upcoming draft budget.
The members of the National Assembly Select Committee on Health, Women, Children, Refugees, Disaster, and Humanitarian Relief who spoke in unison made it clear that the National Assembly does not formulate budget or policy but only screens and approves “so in the upcoming draft budget that the Ministry of Education and Secondary Education will bring before the National Assembly they should make CHE part of the contents of the draft budget for the continuation and sustainability of the CHE in school.”
The dissemination of the Comprehensive Health Education midline research findings report delivered to members of the National Assembly Select Committee on Health, Women, Children, Refugees, Disaster, and Humanitarian Relief on Friday, 13th October 2023 was a continuation of the dissemination of the midline findings started since on the 24th July 2023 by the Curriculum Research, Evaluation and Development Directorate (CREDD) under Ministry of Basic and Secondary Education (MoBSE).
Mr. Micheal Hamadi Secka, at the dissemination forum, spoke on behalf of the Director of CREDD, Mr Momodou Jenghighlighted the importance of the midline dissemination of research findings to the CHE project and the MoBSe.
He commended the researchers for a job well done while apprised the NA Select committee member that in the past there was POP/FLE but was not an examinable subject so teachers were not taking it very seriously. Also, the word sexual raises some eyebrows from the religious leaders within the Islamic and Christian societies.
But now he said it is Comprehensive Health Education and “research has been done and it is not a position paper but a full research conducted and everything about it is true and that made it very fundamental.”
However, Mrs. Phebian Ina Grant Sagnia, Principal Investigator for the CHE Project made a full presentation on the update of the project while Dr. Thomas Senghoredelivered comprehensive presentations on the CHE Midline Research Findings.
Sequel to that was over an hour of deliberation on the dissemination, questions, answers, and recommendations.