By: Momodou Justice Darboe
The US ambassador to The Gambia Sharon L. Kromer has stressed that education is one of the US’s top priorities in The Gambia as the Gambia’s Kora impresario Jaliba Kuyateh and the Kumareh Band released a single ahead of the 2024 Teacher Award.
Founded by The Namie Foundation, the Teacher Award takes centre stage on 15 February 2023, at the exquisite Sir DawdaKairaba Jawara International Conference Centre and it’s organized in partnership with the Gambia Teachers’ Union (GTU)and Ministry of Basic and Secondary Education (MoBSE).
The Teacher Award single by the Kumareh Band extols the virtues and contributions of teachers to all facets of development.
Speaking on the significance of the award, the US ambassador said teachers need to understand the “huge” impact they have on young people, adding that education in The Gambia and elsewhere across the globe remains one of the US’s topmost priorities.
“Education is one of our top priorities here in The Gambia and elsewhere across the world. We’re spending about 28.7M dollars over the next three to five years on school feeding programme inbasic secondary schools. We would touch on over 50,000 students, helping them to improve their nutrition and therefore, their learning outcomes. We would be training Gambian teachers onhow to teach reading with comprehension. That is a huge investment of US government’s resources by the Department of Agriculture governmental programme,” the US diplomat explained.
She emphasized that teachers need to understand the “huge impact” they have on young people.
“It’s the teacher that is teaching young people to thrive to want tobecome a doctor or lawyer. I think people should think about who they nominate for this prize. Teachers encourage children to thrive and become their fullest selves. Its teachers that make students purposeful, cherished, feel empowered to live their dreams and they’re people that children will never forget,” Ambassador Sharon recognized.
The new single can be listened to on Kumareh Band’s Facebook fan page.
