By Nelson Manneh
The strive for quality education and helping students to identify their talents has made Ms. Angelic Isatou Mendy stand out as the winner of the 2025 Gambia Teachers Award.
Striving in a rural community where there are not many incentives for teachers, Angelic has become a testament to many. She not only teaches students to pass exams but helps them to become patriotic citizens who will strive and work and play.
Navigating through the troubles of students, Ms Mendy has shown that if students in rural communities are encouraged, they can perform like those in the city. She not only teaches but struggles to improve the lives of her students, allowing her to know their challenges and how to overcome them.
The story of Angelic Isatou Mendy not only won an award but also serves as a lesson and motivation to her fellow teachers.
“What a male teacher can do in terms of extra-curricular activities, a female teacher can do better,” she said.
Angelic Isatou Mendy, during the teachers’ award night, said: “It is an honour to be selected as the Regional winner of the 2025 Gambia Teacher Prize and subsequently emerged as the overall national winner of the Teacher’s Award. I am a person who believes in empowering women, and in gender equality and equity. When I was first posted to Pakalinding Upper Basic School in Region 4, I realized that female teachers were not taking part in any extra-curricular activities in the School.”
She added: “The male teachers were the only ones running almost all the activities in the School. During the first staff meeting I attended, I asked a question and told my former Principal that as female teachers, we are not only good within the four corners of the classrooms, but we are also good outside the classrooms. We can partake in extra-curricular activities just like our male counterparts. I spoke to some of my female teachers who were in the School and they said that they were not given the opportunities which were given to the male teachers. So I also enquired about what was happening to the opportunities that were available, and I encouraged the female teachers to take up some of these responsibilities. Indeed since then, the narratives in the School have changed. I coordinated different School Clubs and also initiated a new School Club for the girls. This new Club is referred to as the ‘Voice of the Young’. Basically this Club advocates for the rights of children, the vulnerable, the voiceless, and their fellow students.
My message to the public is that it is our collective responsibility to invest in education, if we want to attain the quality education we talk about, and for the country to develop, we all need to invest in this venture. Let the public support the Schools and the educators. In doing so, we are not only building the future of the children but instead shaping the future of the nation. Education is not a privilege. Education is a right.”
Mr. Kalilou Saidykhan, the Principal of Pakalinding Upper Basic School said Angelic Mendy is a complete teacher because she is the type who does not have reservations when it comes to learning.
Mr. Saidykahan said Angelic does not have reservations about issues that affect both her fellow teachers and students, and said this motivates her to even move out of the School campus to meet parents and discuss with them issues affecting their children, especially if a child has difficulty with his or her learning.
“Angelic was the first teacher who started helping students in Grade Nine (examination class) who stayed at the School for extra studies, and went ahead to even provide food for them,” he said.
Ali Touray, a student of Pakalinding Upper Basic School said Angelic is friendly to her students and has a good relationship with both teachers and students, and all the students like her.
“Any time students have issues with their teachers she always makes sure that it is solved without affecting either of them. Whenever a student misbehaves, she would call that particular student to a corner and advise him or her. She has done it for all of us in this School,” he noted.
