The Ministry of Basic and Secondary Education, in collaboration with in-country and external partners, on 13 June 2011 commenced a five-day Joint Donor Review and Supervision (JDRS)
Organised at the Regional Education Directorate in region one, Kanifing, the event aimed at improving accountability, transparency and results for the education sector in The Gambia.
Speaking on the occasion, Fatou Lamin Faye, Minister of Basic and Secondary Education, said the forum is meant to look at what is being done and how it can be strengthened to ensure quality education delivery.
“It is an opportunity to put our heads together to address the gaps and put our needs to mobilise resources for us to achieve our targets by 2015,” said the minister.
The education sector is a wide programme, she said challenging the participants to give the meeting their best, “as we continue to see the quality of education we all want for the children of this country”.
The forum is not limited to basic education alone but also higher education, she said, adding; “We cannot talk about quality education without looking at the teacher’s welfare,”
Speaking earlier, Baboucarr Bouy, permanent secretary at the Ministry of Basic and Secondary Education, admitted that the forum is held twice a year to avail themselves the opportunity of looking at what the sector has been doing together with stakeholders in the business of education.
“We appreciate what we have been benefiting from development partners as a sector,” said Mr Bouy.
The five-day gathering will include among others reviewing of the sector’s envelope, funding gap and resources constraints as well as suggesting possible remedies.
They will assess the implementation status towards the attainment of the objectives of the education sector’s strategic and medium-term plan.
Participants are expected to undertake school visits and to update reports on sector-wide programmes and reviews of the salient issues highlighted on the last joint aide memoire of the December 2010 JDRS Mission.
