The anonymous source said the person who was taught mathematics to the pupils gained to the University of The Gambia since October 2020, and since then the school had no trained teacher to teach mathematics.
“There is no qualified person to teach the grade seven, eight and nine students on mathematics. The school’s management has been contacting the Region Four (4) Directorate Office to provide a mathematics teacher, but Region 4 officials said they do not have a qualified teacher to deploy to the school,” the source said.
The source argued that the lack of a mathematics teacher has seriously affected the pupils, and noted that the school’s management has to hire unqualified students to teach the children mathematics.
The source argued that in this condition the grade nine pupils will find it difficult to pass mathematics in the forthcoming examination, adding “even with a mathematics teacher, students find it difficult to credit mathematics talk less of a lack of a teacher for that subject.”
He called on Region Four (4) Directorate Office to provide a mathematics teacher for the school, saying the subject is core in the syllabus.
AboulieBondy, principal education officer for Region Four (4) Directorate Office, said his personal office was never contacted about the lack of a mathematics teacher at the said school.
However, he assured to contact his Human Resources (HR) officer who he said travelled to Kombo to get more information. “I do not receive any report from the school about the lack of a mathematics teacher and I do not want to give anything that is not clear to me,” he said.
In a subsequent conversation, Mr. Bondy said generally mathematics teachers are a problem in the country, saying The Gambia College recruits few mathematics teachers to serve the entire country.
He vowed to speak more on this matter in future interviews.
