By: Kebba AF Touray
The Ministry of Basic and Secondary Education (MoBSE) has Tuesday validated a study that aims to ensure the delivery of quality education in the country’s schools.
Louis Moses Mendy, MoBSE Permanent Secretary, while presiding over the opening ceremony of the validation of a draft report called The Gambia Education Service Delivery Indicators 2020, said the study is one of the most important instruments that are at the core of the ministry’s transformation and reform agenda. This, he said, is part of their efforts to wipe the cries of the public in the quest for quality education.
“We want to restore back the glory days of quality education. Quality education goes beyond the number of people in the class, because there is the need to have the resources, quality teachers and an ideal infrastructure,” Mendy said.
PS Mendy said education is one of the goods that cannot be compromised, saying the study has been commissioned to look at a holistic view of what is needed as a sector to be able to work towards addressing the problem of quality education.
He said funds are limited globally and for one to be able to appropriate funds meaningfully for the good of the society, such studies are needed to inform the decision makers that funds are needed to finance a genuine course.
Mrs Sohna Foon Chorr, Director of Planning at MoBSE, said the study provided the stakeholders with a set of metrics for benchmark in service delivery indicators in the education sector of The Gambia. She added that the indicators measure the quality of service delivery in the education sector, as well as help track the successes registered overtime, identify the challenges and the gaps in the sector.
Mrs Chorr said MoBSE in collaboration with the World Bank and the ERNWACA conducted the study.
“The report also provides a snapshot of the quality of service delivery and the physical environment within which services are delivered,” she said.
Mr. Ebrima MS Njie, National Coordinator of Examination and Research Network for West and Central Africa (ERNWACA), said: “The Service Delivery Indicators Study provides a set of metrics for providing service delivery performance in education. With these indicators, one is able to identify gaps, track progress over the time countrywide.”
He explained that the implementation period of the survey was from October to December 2020, which involved the training of supervisors, enumerators, testing of the instruments used in the study, field work and data collection.
“A sample of 180 Lower Basic Schools and Madrasas, including both public and private schools were collected. Generally, the survey provides information on the efforts, knowledge and abilities of teachers and people and on key inputs such as text books, basic teaching equipment and infrastructure,” he said.
