Banjul, September 22, 2008 -- World Bank Vice President for the Human Development Network Joy Phumaphi visited Gambia August 20-22. Her visit was geared toward witnessing progress in the education and health sectors.
Phumaphi paid tribute to the “passion for results” within the Gambian education sector.
She visited teacher training classrooms and materials-production workshops at the Gambia College, built with the support of the World Bank’s International Development Association. She also held a dialogue with trainee teachers.
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Gambia College
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During the visit, she heard a presentation on the country’s Early Grade Reading Assessment or EGRA. In its most recent report, which reviewed 1,200 children in 40 selected schools (34 public, two private, four mission schools), the EGRA highlighted poor performance in reading as a key barrier to learning quality.
Although overall results for boys and girls were roughly the same in reading accuracy and comprehension, there was a major gap between the private and the public/mission schools. Parents’ literacy status also had a significant impact. For each item considered by the EGRA (Pre-reading skills, Reading skills, Comprehension, Spelling skills), there was also great disparity between The Gambia’s six educational regions, with the more urbanized regions doing significantly better than the rural and more remote ones.
The Gambia’s government has undertaken efforts to address the country’s poor education quality, and the lack of continuity at the senior and secondary school levels. Though the EGRA showed poor results, the study demonstrated The Gambia’s growing ability to track reading progress and early grade literacy in the country, and the subsequent steps taken to address issues in the classroom.
“If we cannot find a solution to this, we should pack our bags and leave,” said Mr. Baboucarr Bouy, Permanent Secretary of The Gambia’s Department of State for Basic and Secondary Education.
Mrs. Fatou Lamin Faye, Gambia’s Secretary for State for Basic and Secondary Education, accompanied Phumaphi during her visit. The two were joined at several points by Mr. Malick Njie, Secretary of State for Health and Social Welfare.
The officials asked Phumaphi to give her strong support to The Gambia’s upcoming second application to the Education for All/Fast Track Initiative (FTI)/Catalytic Grant. If granted, the money would be devoted to improving the quality of teaching and learning and to strengthening management and institutional capacity at all levels of the education sector.
Throughout her visit, Phumaphi underscored the role of the World Bank and its effort to support, develop, sustain and protect human capital.
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