The National Council for Civic Education (NCCE), in collaboration with Action-Aid The Gambia, on Monday ended a two-week nationwide sensitization of schools on basic human rights.
The tour took NCCE officials to various schools across the length and breadth of the country.
The sensitization that targeted thirty schools was funded by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).
The two-week intensive sensitization, which started on 20 June 2013, at Kinderdorf Bottrop Senior Secondary School in Brikama, was geared towards creating more awareness for schoolchildren on their basic human rights, rights and responsibilities of the child as well as the 1997 constitutional provisions on fundamental human rights of citizens.
Speaking at the last day of the sensitization at Bottrop Ansumana Yabo, a senior supervisor at the NCCE, said the purpose of the nationwide sensitization of schoolchildren is to refresh their minds to know more about their rights and responsibilities in school and beyond.
He also told students that the NCCE is a national institution established by an Act of Parliament passed in 1998 with a mandate to serve as an independent institution and non-partisan body to educate and enlighten the Gambian citizenry on their rights, among others.
Mr Yabo told the students that since the inception of the NCCE they have embarked on a lot of activities ranging from radio talk shows, to seminars and community sensitizations.
This time the NCCE deems it very necessary to focus on the schoolchildren, who form the majority of the population of The Gambia, to sensitize them on their basic human rights and responsibilities, he said.
He further noted that during the two weeks, the students have contributed immensely to raising their concerns, doubt and the way forward in seeking their rights to be respected.
He said this exercise will go a long way in helping the students to know their right and responsibilities, as during the lesson learnt students were sensitized in knowing their limitations as they begin to claim their dues.
He also used the opportunity to thank the Ministry of Basic and Secondary Education and the school heads for ensuring the exercise was successfully conducted.
For his part, Yakuba Daffeh, an Islamic teacher at the school, hailed the NCCE for coming up with the initiatives, which is very timely in educating the students about their rights and responsibilities.