Salimatou
Foundation for Education (SaFE), a right-to-education civil society
organization that promotes and advocates for the provision of free, relevant
and quality education to all, has organised the first regional and national
spelling bee competition in The Gambia.
The
nationwide academic competition is set to be the first of its kind in The
Gambia, under the auspices of SaFE.
This
development was announced in a press conference held at the Child Protection
Alliance (CPA) Fajara on 15 July 2016.
Salimatou
Fatty, Executive Director of SaFE, said: ‘As a core objective of our
foundation, we believe that preparing children with the requisite skills in
learning new words is fundamental in their intellectual growth, adding that the
competition will foster regional cooperation, understanding and harmony as well
as boost the morale of students who more than often are very reserved to
showcase their talents and skills’.
Since
such an undertaking cannot be carried out successfully without the involvement
of the media, Mrs Fatty further stated that they plan to engage healthy media
coverage throughout the competition.
The
Executive Director also said they had budgeted an estimated amount of about
seven hundred thousand dalasis for the successful staging of the premier
nationwide competition.
She
called on all relevant partners, stakeholders and philanthropists to partner with
her foundation.
‘’All
individuals and companies from all spheres of the private and public sector are
welcomed to support us achieve the core objectives of our foundation, which are
all geared towards the development of education nationwide’.
Muhammed
Kebbeh, assistant to the CEO, said since the inception of the foundation, it
had always strived to contribute towards the development of education in The
Gambia.
He
added that the spelling competition is set to be annual as it targets primary
school students nationwide.
