The recent pronouncement by the leadership of our
country that by 2018 the government will introduce free university education in
The Gambia demonstrates a clear vision for national development, albeit the
vision still requires the ways and means of accomplishing such a target.
The importance of education cannot be overemphasised as it is the soul of a nation which determines its level and pace of development.
Seeing it in proper perspective, a truly intelligent and conscious individual must endeavour to acquire education both within and outside of the classroom.
Education should never be a luxury, but a necessity for human and national development, for a nation advances at the same pace as its education; hence it is a responsibility that society owes to itself.
If a nation wants to truly develop, it must endeavour to let its citizens acquire quality education, and this is what the President is working hard to achieve in The Gambia.
Really, no government should allow anything to stand in its way in providing education for its citizens, although some governments, mainly in Africa, have allowed state vices such as corruption, sectionalism, ethnicity, and policy discontinuity to prevent them from seeing the importance and relevance of education to national development.
All developed nations of this world have achieved such a state via the vehicle of providing massive education for their citizens.
So what our President is up to in ensuring massive education in The Gambia by declaring free university education is clearly a step forward to achieving a developed Gambia.
“Education, in the life of a nation, is the live wire of its industries and also the foundation of moral regeneration and revival of its people,” says E. Orji Kingdom, in his article ‘The Role of Education in National Development: Nigerian Experience.’
“It is also the force and bulwark of any nation’s defence and it has been observed that no nation rises above the level of its education,” he says.
“Seeing education in this perspective calls for proper funding from federal, state and local governments to make the sector produce the desired results which will stimulate national development.”
So it must be said that our leader has seen education in its right perspective, hence his declaration and expressed determination to ensure that his government provides free university education in The Gambia.
“Education is more than a luxury; it is a responsibility that society owes to itself.”
Robin Cook