“The second alternative is TVET, hands-on education. I said many quora (fora) that we need to have a system of containment,” the minister said in a MoHERST recent forum on higher education financing.
“Many are coming to this country for certain projects, but when they come, they go out because the engineers and some of the technicians are not Gambians. So, the mediums approved by the National Assembly will also go to non-Gambians and Gambian youths will be here, and they will say there was money here, they were brought to this country and they are not feeling it.”
“How can they feel it when they are not engaged? But you cannot be engaged if you are not ready for it. You need to be ready for it. That system of containment needs now a higher education response,” he said.
“That is the reason why as part of our policy, we are all out-going for TEVT centres in all the regions in this country. The higher education must be democratised. Everything cannot be contained in the Greater Banjul Area (GBA).”
Minister Gomez held that rural area is part of The Gambia, and they have therefore started the process. “We are now completing, thanks to our partners, with the long awaited Ndemban in Kanilai. In the coming weeks everything will be done, and very soon we will be going to inaugurate it.”
“We will also move to Mansakonko and also do the inauguration in different areas- auto mechanic, plumbering, tailoring and all those things; giving the youths skills, so that when you come out, you can function. You don’t need to wait to be employed by government.”
The ultimate objective of education, he added, is not for youths to come out and wait for government to employ them. “If that is the end results of education, it failed education. Education liberates the individual. Education gives the individual the authority to be independent, to stand up and be counted in society.”
“That is the ultimate objective. That is why beyond that we will go out and also have other programmes. Recently we are doing in CRR north and CRR south, Kuntaur. Some of you know what Kuntaur should be,” the minister added.
