The development came following the recent familiarisation tour embarked on by Professor Pierre Gomez, minister of Higher Education to various Arabic (Madrassa) Universities and Colleges within the Kanifing Municipality and the West Coast Region.
The objective of the recent tour was for the Minister to have first-hand information about the ongoing developments and challenges these institutions face, which would pave the way for his ministry’s possible intervention under the TVET programs for better service delivery.
The institutions the minister visited include College of Imam Bukhari Jabanjelly, among others.
In an interview with The Point, Amie Jawara, a 1st year student at the College of Imam Bukhari Jabanjelly who currently studies Hadith and its Sciences, and who spoke on behalf of the schools expressed their appreciations for the minister’s visit, stating that the minister’s visit to their College made them feel that they are all equal and play a pivotal role in The Gambia.
She said “both school managements and students appreciated and welcomed the minister’s tour to our College. When we heard that the minister was coming to our schools, everyone was eager to welcome him, because we have never seen a Minister visiting our Colleges.”
She took the opportunity to reveal the challenges the Madrassa Institutions face and appealed for the ministry’s intervention towards solving their challenges which range from scholarships to transportation and the need for teachers for the health field.
She revealed that “the challenges we are actually facing include lack of scholarships and lack of transportation, and I am saying this from experience. There was a particular day when we had a very important test and there was a particular student who could not make it to the school due to lack of transportation.”
“I normally try to find out the reason why a particular person is not in school. So when I did that, I found out that the person could not come to school to do the test due to lack of transportation. So, I try to give out the little I have to make sure that the person is not absent again,” she continued.
Madam Jawara pointed out that their tuition fee might not be too expensive yet there are some students who cannot afford to pay for it.
“I wish we could have a bus not only for our College, but for other Madrasa Colleges/Universities as well. There are students that came from UK, Senegal, Mali and Guinea and some have the idea of not going back,” she explained.
She continued that some came with their wives and children, stating that it is a big challenge for them to be taking care of their families and at the same time paying rent. “So the scholarship is really needed,” she said.
She further appealed to MoHERST to provide their schools with teachers from the health sector, saying that their school is trying to have a College of Nursing and Medicine to enable their students engage in those professions.
She explained that the school has tried in this area, but they could not have teachers in the field. She underscored that apart from being an Imam, there is a lot more they (the Arab students) can do. She concludes by calling for the need to upgrade teachers’ salaries.
