The MOA was signed between the Chancellor of the Islamic Online University, Dr Bilal Philips, and Ms Isatou Ndow, head of the Gambia College School of Education at the college’s campus.
In signing the MOA, Ms Ndow said the agreement is meant to synchronize the two schools curricula, especially those in the Islamic section. This, she said, would make students find it easy to enter IOU to continue their education to a degree level and not to stop at a diploma programme.
“We will also work with IOU to look at our Intensive English Course and the Intensive Arabic Course for the madarasah students to improve their language skills,” Ms Ndow announced.
Dr Philips said they have looked at the offline teachings in terms of implementing the programme, some thing he said they might be able to do immediately, such as the Intensive English Course and the Intensive Arabic Course, because they are already offering them.
“For the degree programme, we can look at how we are going to offer it. If we have sufficient internet access here, we will look at the possibilities of even the first-year students taking our courses along with their courses, so that if they finish they will have additional credits which they can use towards the degree programme,” he added.
He also said they will also look into the content of the college’s School of Education’s current courses to see where they can add value to give it a university credit standard and without having to do separate courses.
The registrar of Gambia College, Aboubacarr Jallow, added that the Gambia College being the oldest tertiary Institution in the country is always committed to quality education, and this agreement will help his institution.
Ousainou Allen, the IOU Gambia representative, said this is a milestone in the education system of The Gambia, because the teachers who have gone through the Gambia College have made a great impact in the country, and now they are taking that to another level by empowering the teachers more and giving them more tools to give Gambians quality education.
