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GTU regional executive end tour of schools

Jun 8, 2011, 3:09 PM | Article By: Abdourahman Sallah in CRR

Ismaila Ceesay, Gambia Teachers Union Regional Chairperson for Central River Region, in collaboration with the regional Executive Committees of region 5 on 6 June 2011 concluded a weeklong tour of schools in CRR South.

The purpose of the visit was to obtain first hand information about the working conditions of teachers under his purview; and share best practices in the teaching arena.

The visit also serves as an avenue for Mr Ceesay to preach the ideas and aspirations of the Gambia Teachers Union to create opportunity for more membership in the union.

He revealed that membership into the Union is open to all practising teachers and there are series of benefits and advantages that the members can enjoy.  

According to Mr Ceesay, so far over thirty schools have been visited and there are still more to be visited in other clusters.

This visit took them to the furthest point of region Five South, which stretched as far as Jessadi in Niamina Dankunku.

Some of the constraints highlighted by the teachers included the issue of staff quarters, for which plans are in the pipeline to alleviate the phenomenon.

The GTU regional prexy shared his feelings and thoughts among the teachers and distributed documents on the new Public Service Commission (PSC) regulation and the Financial Instruction (FI) to all the teachers visited to enable them to be conversant with the instruments.

All the schools visited applauded this gesture, hence for the first time each teacher is opportune to have these two important documents as theirs, and carry them along whenever they move from one school to another.

Mr Ceesay urged teachers who are not members to join the union, for future benefits. 

For his part, Yahya Faal, principal of Bansang Upper Basic School, said that visiting schools is an ongoing routine activity for the regional executive committee.

This provides the Regional Executive Committee (REC) with the opportunity to get first-hand information of what is on the ground for better planning and implementation of programmes and activities at school level, he said.

According to him, the regional education office is working hand in glove with the Gambia Teachers Union to ensure teacher’s welfare is addressed.