THE CASE OF GAMBIAN TEACHERS

Date published: 13th August, 2024

Publisher: Information and Communication Ministry, EDUSA

By: Kebba S. Juwara, Third Year English Major, School of Education, University of The Gambia.

It doesn’t require extensive research to conclude that becoming a teacher in The Gambia is equivalent to signing a lifetime contract with poverty.

Everyone stands a chance to vindicate himself from poverty, as Vybz Kartel said in his song “Road to Paradise,” “Happiness belongs to every man.” In another song, he states that money is his happiness. If we make a logical deduction from this, we can conclude that his understanding of happiness is related to wealth. Now, my question is: Is this any different from what we all think? Absolutely not! We all consider money the ultimate tool for success. However, do teachers in The Gambia have a chance at this happiness? Well, let’s find out.

Firstly, let’s turn the calendar back one page. In early May, GBoS announced their final list of successful field officers for the 2024 Population and Housing Census. Shockingly, this came shortly after a dispatch from MoBSE announcing that they had reached an agreement with GBoS to remove the names of all teachers from the list. They feared this would affect contact hours in schools and invigilation for WAEC exams. Is that how authorities should act? The census, which has been popular among teachers, has been stripped from them because of a group of people who couldn’t negotiate with GBoS to delay the campaign period until the summer when schools would be closed, allowing teachers to benefit.

Authorities that genuinely care about their employees get tactical and flexible when their employees need it.

Additionally, in the last days of May, a student in Farafenni picked up a cutlass against his teacher. For whatever reason, is it ever becoming of a student to pick up a weapon against his teacher? But this is not the only incident; it’s not even the first or second time such an incident has happened to a teacher.

Where teachers are denied economic security, they at least deserve a safe working environment. However, neither of these is in place for Gambian teachers. So, I was not wrong when I said that being appointed as a teacher in The Gambia equates to signing a lifetime bond with poverty.

Article by: Kebba S. Juwara