Education in The Gambia (written July 18)

Yesterday I had a very enlightening conversation with someone very familiar with the Gambian education system (let's call him Joe) and I wanted to share a few of the more interesting points. DISCLAIMER - I am merely paraphrasing what this person shared with me...I am NOT implying that all of it is true or that any of it can be generalized to represent all Gambians.

1) Teachers in The Gambia are paid very poorly and are not provided with accommodations, transportation, and generous hardship allowances the way other civil servants are. This is one of the main reasons for the extremely high number of teachers taking jobs in other fields after only a few years of teaching. If they stick it out for 15 years, they get retirement benefits, but that is only sufficient motivation to continue teaching that long for a small minority of teachers. This results in high turnover and wasted resources used on educating and training teachers who subsequently leave the field.

2) Sexual relationships between teachers and students (generally male teachers and female students, who often are in their late teens or early twenties even in middle school due to starting school late and/or failing grades) are a serious problem. The government recently cracked down on this issue and made a teacher impregnating a student a crime punishable with life in jail. While this seems like a positive step, the teachers feel unfairly targeted by the new law, since it only applies to teachers and not other civil servants who (according to Joe) are equally contributing to the problem. Joe also cited a couple examples of situations where female students very persistently "seduced" their male teachers.

3) In an effort to boost girls school enrollment, the government waives the school fees for every girl in the country Grade 1-9. School fees are often a barrier to attendance and girls' education is widely accepted to be a major element of development, so when I first heard about the policy, I wholeheartedly applauded it. However, according to Joe, many Gambians do not place value on things they do not have to pay for, so the well-meaning policy has actually exacerbated the problem of people not taking education, particularly girls' education, seriously. He explained that when a girl fails a grade, since her father does not have to pay for her to repeat it, it doesn't particularly bother many people. Joe also said that boys and girls perform relatively equally in school up to grade 5, but after that, the many girls get distracted by boys, start thinking about impending marriage, stop taking school seriously, and quickly fall behind the boys in school. Often they become pregnant and/or married and drop out before Grade 9. I asked what he thinks can be done to improve this situation and he had the following recommendations: a) increase teachers' salaries and benefits to the level of other civil servants to encourage them to stay in the field and do their jobs better; b) put more effort into educating parents about the importance of education, particularly stressing the role of parents in encouraging their children to do their homework; and c) only provide free education for girls through Grade 5, in an effort to get the older girls to take school more seriously. I would be concerned that c) could seriously backfire and result in girls who are serious about their education being pulled out for financial reasons, but it's an interesting thought.

NOTE - I recently had a follow-up conversation with a counterpart about this subject and I was happy to learn that the government is, in fact, aware of this issue and is responding with a change in policy that will make girls' free education contingent on their performance. Additionally, since the fee-waiver program for girls has achieved its targets for girls enrollment, now the waiver program will be extended to some boys as well.

4) Joe complained that development workers are always harping on teachers about these newfangled "students' rights" and trying to get them to stop using corporal punishment, the only form of discipline that the kids respond to. Teachers sometimes use other forms of discipline like timeouts, kneeling on the hard ground, etc and they are somewhat effective, but since beating is used so widely at home, often it is the only thing that works. I wish I didn't believe him...