Mr. Lamin Fatajo was having an exclusive interview with the Information Officer at the Ministry of Basic and Secondary Education (MoBSE), Lamin B. Darboe at his Brikama office recently where he talks about the monitoring system, functional structure among other issues in his region.
“I am encouraging everyone to take education as their business because as parents, teachers and administrators all of us have a role to play in our education system,” says Director Fatajo.
“If you want to determine the future of any country, go to their education system, behavior and zeal for learning among others. This will help you determine what the country’s future would be tomorrow”.
He explained that when children are at home, it is not the responsibility of the teachers to take care of them but the parents, adding that parents’ responsibility is fundamental in the education of their children.
“Eventually, the role of parents when it comes to their children’s education is pivotal. So we cannot deter parents from our educational system,” Fatajo emphasised.
According to him, it is the responsibility of the teachers also to deliver when children are under their custody at schools, likewise it is also the duty of the administrators to give support to those teachers in order for them to get the right teaching materials and knowledge they need.
He appealed to parents to take the lead in the education of their children; thus lead them to prepare and support them (children) to become viable and responsible leaders in future.
In his region’s system, Mr. Fatajo said monitoring is among the key components of his office’s functional operations. He added that in his region, two teams went on monitoring at Upper Basic schools to see the arrangement, supervision, and invigilation among others about the just ended 2021Gambia Basic Education Certificate Examination (GABECE).
“The main purpose of the said monitoring at Upper Basic School level in this region was to get the general ideas as to what is happening at schools before said exams.”
According to Fatajo, his office was satisfied with the level of preparations ahead of the GABECE, while expressing his utmost satisfaction with the turn-out of students during this year’s National Assessment Test (NAT) in Region 2.
The Region 2 director revealed that his region will close schools on 13 August 2021 in order to recover the lost school contact hours due to the global Covid-19 pandemic.
He assured of putting in place similar monitoring mechanism come next month’s West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) to make sure things go well.
