DPS Jatta was speaking yesterday at the end of a year-end sector-retreat of the Ministry of Higher Education, Research, Science and Technology (MoHERST) held at the NaNA conference hall on Bertil Harding highway.
The retreat was in response to an executive directive for all government ministries to organize regular sector retreats, to bring together partners, stakeholders and academics from the tertiary, higher and technical vocational educational training (TVET) institutions under the purview of the ministry.
The DPS for training and scholarships at MoHERST, Madi O. Jatta, informed the stakeholders and partners in the dispensation and provision of higher education in the country that they had passed another test, as the tertiary and higher education policy was cleared by the National Assembly.
He said the end-of-year retreat is where they take stock of the achievements and constraints during the year under review, to help in planning for the upcoming year, 2015.
According to Jatta, three to five months ago, they took stock of what they had been doing for the first half of the year, and the recent retreat was another opportunity for them to look at the successes and constraints they had for the rest of 2014.
It was the mandate of the ministry to ensure that their stakeholders in the business of the dispensation of higher education programmes in the country come together to take stock of what they had done, how they did it, and what are the challenges and how to overcome them, he said.
According to DPS Jatta, for them at the ministry it had been a very challenging but “very interesting and prosperous 2014”.
He thanked all the stakeholders and partners for their support in the realization of the first-ever Tertiary and Higher Education Policy in The Gambia.
He further stated that in the same vein in 2015 they should be in a better position to have the science and technology and innovation policy going through the same process, and the quality assurance and the accreditation agency.
Jerreh Sanyang, DPS Administration and Finance, said that was another get-together by the Ministry of Higher Education; that it is a regular event they organize that bring the higher and tertiary education sectors together quarterly to discuss, review their programmes, get a common ground and plan ahead for the next three months.