Brimawa holds prize giving, graduation ceremony

The prizes were provided by the school to award pupils who excelled in their academic works. The prizes given to the deserving pupils were a recognition of works done by the pupils over the years which has generated healthy competition among the pupils as well as the teachers.

 Mr. John Kemokai and Mrs. Isatu Kemokai, who are the proprietors of the school, spent many years of their lives in the educational sector as teachers and later desired to give opportunities to young people especially the financially disadvantaged children to access quality education right from Nursery to Lower Basic unto Upper Basic School. 

The couple, who have taught for 30 and 25 years at Nusrat Senior Secondary School, Ndow’s and Marina International Schools respectively, came up with the idea to give back quality and affordable education to all children especially to the less privileged children.

According to Mr. Kemokai, they believed that every child has the right to receive quality and affordable education irrespective of their financial status.

In the short-term, he said, the school adequately prepares children academically from Nursery to Lower and Upper Basic School for them to qualify at Grade 9 level in the Gambia Basic Education Certificate Examination (GABECE) to enter Nusrat Senior Secondary School.

Talking on the current developments that the school has registered, he said: “The community of Bundung and its environs are awakening to the positive impact Brimawa School is having rapidly on the lives of the children living in these communities.”

 “Though we do not have sponsors at the moment, but the school has never deviated from its original objectives. That is, to provide quality and affordable education to all children especially the less privileged.” 

Speaking on the challenges, he pointed out that despite the positive developments registered; the school is also faced with some challenges. 

“We have employed trained and qualified teachers from Nursery to Lower and Upper Basic School who are relentlessly committed to their duties. The teachers’ salaries and benefits are paid from the school fees that the school collects.”

 Moveover, he said: “Though our school fees are low comparatively, most parents are still not able to pay the school fees for their children. If we could have people or organisation that would help us pay the salaries and other benefits of our teachers, this would definitely guarantee the continuous provision of quality education at low cost.”We need our own land to operate. Currently, we are renting in all our locations and the rent is huge, “he noted.

The chairman of the occasion, Mr Mamadi Ceesay, said Brimawa School is an offshoot of Nusrat Senior Secondary School because the proprietor of the school is an outstanding teacher of Nusrat Senior School.

According to Mr. Ceesay, Mr. Kemokai is the first expatriate teacher Nusrat Senior School hired from Sierra Leone 31 years ago and as a result, he worked diligently with professionalism to becoming a vice principal of Nusrat.

Guest speaker Lamin Cham, the managing director of Gambia International Airlines (GIA), challenged the pupils to work harder in school so that their own generation will be better than the present.