Gambia Methodist Academy celebrates 20 years of existence

Since its inception, Gambia Methodist Academy has steadily emerged as one of the best schools in The Gambia in terms of academic performance and discipline.

GMA is the brainchild of the Methodist Church in The Gambia. The school was established by the Methodist Church in 1995 starting with a junior school and after three years the first set of students took their exams and formed the new set of the students of the senior secondary school, which is now in existence.

The first chairman of the board of governors of the school was Rev. Titus Pratt, who had returned to his home town in Ghana, whilst the first principal of the school was Mr Isaac J. Goode. He was succeeded by Mr Emmanuel before the present principal of the school Mrs Hannah Harding took over.

The school’s main aim is to mold and train students to become responsible citizens, and good men and women of integrity who would contribute to the development of The Gambia.

It has therefore from the outset insisted on instilling in students discipline and hard work, as well as good appearance both in and outside the school premises.

This is to ensure that the student’s education can be of use to the country and at the same time create opportunities for them to succeed in life.

The school is both junior and senior and both schools share the same campus, which is why they always try to maintain the appropriate number of students to realize greater academic output or performance of students.

According to the principal of the school, Mrs Hannah Harding, since the existence of the school they have seen great achievements in academic excellence.

She said that in 2011, they had about seven of their students with 8 credits, and two students with 9 A’s, which is “the best result so far in The Gambia”.

At the junior school level they have got a good number of students who got 9 A’s in all the subjects in this year’s WASSCE, she added.

“I expect the school to continue to grow from height to height and excel in performance,” Mrs Harding said. “I have served the school for seven years now since I joined the staff in 1999.

“I am now thinking of bowing out; so my wish and expectation of the school is that, who so ever succeeds me will be able to continue to work with the team of teachers so that the school will continue to excel.”

Mrs Harding also said the major challenge the school is faced with is space. She said they have continued to make frantic efforts at getting more land to expand the school, since both the junior and senior schools share the same campus.

“Right now we have limited space, so we cannot expand as we wish to. However, we are hoping that we will be able to have land somewhere given to us, perhaps by the Government so that the school can expand,” she said.

She thanked the general public, especially parents who have chosen to send their children to the school.

“Parents would never regret sending their children to Gambia Methodist Academy, as we have continued to produce good results and give students good training for now and posterity,” Mrs Harding noted, while calling on the general public to join them in celebrating the school’s 20th anniversary.