UTG’s research findings on Things Fall Apart

The University of The Gambia (UTG) recently held a news conference on the findings of a research on Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart, at the UTG Campus in Brikama, aimed at honouring the late author’s work.

Speaking at the occasion, Dr. Omar Jah, the Deputy Vice-Chancellor of UTG, said it is always the students and the faculty that can make the campus lively.

While stating that those who live for themselves cannot be commended, he said, those who live for the sake of others should be commended.

For his part, Abdourahim Jallow, a team member, said Chinua Achebe was a great author for not only Nigeria, but Africa and the world as a whole.

“He published the novel,’ Things Fall Apart’ in 1958, which has sold more than 10 million copies and translated in more than 50 languages,” he said.

For his part, Dr. Alieu Faye, said 15 students took part in the exercise and 11 schools were visited.

He said they had consulted teachers and asked them about the tools of teaching the book; which aspects of the novel are hard for students to understand and why it is so.

He said 11 schools were visited and 64 classrooms were observed and the number of students they came in contact with was 463,71, all of whom, he said, were interviewed after classroom observation.

For his part, Alpha Bah, another team member, said among their recommendations is for them to relate what is foreign to a local context, and to teach the novel in relation to historical events, examine the literally devices found in the texts and to solicit student responses to the texts.