Gambia

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Gambia in a nutshell

The Gambia, officially the Republic of The Gambia, commonly known as just Gambia, is a country in Western Africa. It is the smallest country on the African continental mainland and is bordered to the north, east, and south by Senegal, and has a small coast on the Atlantic Ocean in the west. Flowing through the centre of the country and emptying into the Atlantic Ocean is the Gambia River.

In 1965, The Gambia became independent from the former British Empire and joined the Commonwealth of Nations.

Its population is 1.7 million.

Banjul is its capital but the largest conurbation is Serekunda.

Education in Gambia

Since 2002, a new basic education programme has been in place. Lower basic covers Grades 1 to 6 and upper basic covers Grades 7 to 9. Senior secondary education (Grades 10 to 12) is for pupils between the ages of 16 and 18. At the end of Grade 12, pupils sit for the West African Secondary School-leaving Certificate Examinations (WASSCE). (1)

Further and Higher education

Higher education in The Gambia is provided by the University of The Gambia, created in 1999, which comprises four faculties and Gambia College which includes four schools: Agricultural Science, Education, Nursing and Midwifery, and Public Health. (1)

See the infoDev Gambia report (2007) at http://www.infodev.org/en/Publication.405.html

Education reform

A draft ICT Policy framework for State Education has been ongoing since 2002. It is expected to be finalised by the end of March 2007. Core elements of the ICTs in education policy include the following:

• Network all educational institutions and institute a mandatory computer literacy programme in all educational entities in the country coupled with continued training of all educators.
• Strategically position the newly established University of The Gambia by appropriately integrating ICT in all of its curricula.
• Forge alliances with a carefully built up “high-end” ICT training institution to be establishd by the public sector or in partnership with the private sector (or preferably by competent Gambian entrepreneurs with the support of government) and position it as an ICT training hub not only for the Gambia but also to the entire West Africa region. Information technology skills must be a mandatory requirement and carefully integrated in the entire curriculum of the entire educational sector.

The major implementation agency for the proposed policy is the Department of State for Education.

There is a proposed second policy for schools, sponsored by DFID, but it is at a very early stage of development. (1)

Schools

At the secondary level, a project by the Ministry of Education to provide a computer lab for all state schools in The Gambia has lead to 16 state secondary schools (out of 31) being equipped with state-of-the-art ICT labs. The schools received Pentium IV computers and were networked. The project was supported by the World Bank, but further funding has yet to be arranged for the other schools. Internet connection at these schools has remained a challenge with only a select few schools currently having access. Most of the schools have their connection through a private sector initiative or NGO support At the primary level, while there is no co-ordinated government initiative for ICTs, several initiatives by individuals and NGOs have helped equipped some schools with computer labs. (1)

Post-secondary

At the tertiary level, a computer lab with a high-speed Internet connection provided by the Government of Taiwan and the Government of Gambia is currently serving the university community with other private-sector initiatives. At the Gambia Technical Training Institute (GTTI) there are two networked labs connected to the Internet. (1)

Information society

The proposed Gambia National Information and Communication Infrastructure (NICI) Policy and Plans was designed to address the areas where ICT would facilitate the achievement of the Vision 2020 overall objective, which is to transform the nation into a middle-income country by 2020 through accelerating private sector development, restructuring economic management, developing the human capital base, and institutionalising decentralised and democratic participatory government structures, processes, and systems. The overall objective for the policy is to “leapfrog” several stages of development by establishing a participatory approach in building human resources and a conducive environment that utilises ICT as a platform to exchange data, information, and knowledge, and as a tool to implement applications and provide services to achieve higher growth rates in all spheres of socio-economic activities.

The policy addresses 10 priority focus areas or pillars:

• Infrastructure
• Regulatory issues
• Local governance
• Education
• Health
• Trade and commerce
• E-governance
• Agriculture
• Gender
• Media

The Department of State for Communication, Information and Technology is the lead agency responsible for implementing the policy. (1)

ICT in education initiatives

iEARN Gambia: involves teachers in about 20 schools in collaborative project work. Ogranisation(s)/funding sources: Department of State Education (1)

Lessons learnt

Generally there is a commitment to improve ICTs in education in the Gambia. There are three major obstacles however:

• Gender bias in access to ICTs
• High attrition rate of teachers with ICT skills
• Heavy reliance on donor support for ICTs in education (1)

References

1. infoDev Gambia report (2007) at http://www.infodev.org/en/Publication.405.html

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