Gambian foreign says some teachers lack requisite IT skills to deliver lessons online

Banjul, Gambia(PANA)- Dr. MamadouTangara,minister of Foreign Affairs, International Cooperation and Gambians Abroad, said here Wednesday that some teachers lacked the requisite IT skills to deliver lessons online.

He was addressing an Education Above All (EAA) foundation virtual forum on the theme “Education and Trying Times of Covid-19”.

Tangarasaid distant learning and home-schooling posed a great challenge as parents were unprepared, pointing out that there was high economic cost given that most parents could not work, as they had to take care of their children at home.

The minister said sailing through these new and unchartered territories of having to shift teaching and learning posed significant challenges to all stakeholders in the education sector.

“There is also the challenge of a stable supply of electricity. Statistics show that only half of the population of The Gambia has access to electricity as of 2019; 60% of the urban population is served with electricity and only 25% of the population has access to electricity services as of 2019,” he said.

According to him, most households lack the required facilities such as laptop, radio,television set and mobile phone. Besides, there is a challenge of ensuring that students are monitored effectively and efficiently by their parents or guardians.

“There is a challenge of meeting the target of 880 hours of instruction annually, challenge of supporting health and wellbeing of learners, increase level of risk of sexual and gender-based violence, especially on children and social and emotional isolation of learners (pair to pair interaction),” he pointed out.

He added that there was also the risk of high rate of school dropouts due to the long period of disengagement and high level of inequality owing to the socio-economic and regional disparities.

“We recognise the fact that thousands of schoolchildren in The Gambia are at risk of loitering in the streets and even selling in the streets to support their families to manage the loss of income.”

Tangara further stated that it was obvious that the global educational system continued to be affected by the Covid-19 pandemic.

“This impact is mainly felt in low-income countries and The Gambia by analogy is not an exception. As a result, this calls for concerted efforts in making sure that children and students in general, wherever they are, have access to unhindered education.

“There should be careful study of the pandemic and how it affects children before developing any policy for inclusive and equal access to education for all without discrimination. I, therefore, call on all stakeholders to join hands in supporting less privileged countries like The Gambia to mitigate the challenges caused by the pandemic,” he said.

He pointed out that, to address these challenges, the government of The Gambia employed a mix of innovative response strategies, including high-tech, low-tech and no-tech strategies to bring about this alternate platform.

The minister said students in all categories of public schools, namely nursery, lower basic schools, upper basic schools, senior secondary schools received their lectures through radio and television, as colleges, universities and international schools delivered lectures through online classes.

According to him, prior to the Covid-19 pandemic, The Gambia had been making significant progress on SDG 4 on quality education, especially in terms of gross primary enrolment rates.

“The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) report on the impact of Covid-19 in The Gambia states that school closures have affected 67,000 in The Gambia. This number only refers to children attending nursery to senior secondary schools and not including tertiary education where there are over 6, 000 students.

“The implications are that it will be difficult for schools to achieve 100 percent school contact hours in the 2020 academic year. The government of The Gambia, through the Ministry of Education, had to close all schools to minimise the spread of the pandemic.

This decision posed difficulties for students, schools, families and the government,” he said.

-0- PANA MSS/RA   8Jul2020