Malanding, I like your dream and I wish it was the only variable. Question,
what do we do with our current farmers, most of whom do not have formal
education and depend on their farms for survival? They have to live, in the
interim. The amount of foreign exchange we spend buying our food from the
outside at exorbitant prices is also not acceptable. Also, to achieve the
results your dream, the infrastructure (not buildings) to make the dream
needs to be in place.
I would also argue that corruption and embezzlement is the dead weight that
any government in the Gambia must shed first, because, the very resources
you want to rely on for your education dream will be sucked dry, the reason
why, forty years after independence, we still rely on the moon to see at
night for the most part; the reason why our classrooms are not equipped and
teachers not highly trained; the reason why the culture and arts are
neglected; the reason why folks are dying for lack of basic health care; and
on and on. This is the same story all over Africa. Corruption is all over
the world, but unlike other places that have checks and balances, and a
stick for punishment, ours is accepted and some how infused in our culture
and everything goes with no checks and balances, especially those at the top
of the food chain. Within the space of your projection, if we cut out
corruption and embezzlement but 50%, there is no doubt that we can begin to
get our act together. The APRC certainly will never address their corrupt
practices. Thanks for your thoughts.
Chi Jaama
Joe
>From: Malanding Jaiteh <[log in to unmask]>
>Reply-To: The Gambia and related-issues mailing list
><[log in to unmask]>
>To: [log in to unmask]
>Subject: A grand dream for a grand plan for Education
>Date: Wed, 13 Sep 2006 14:20:34 -0400
>
>If one is to go by the NADD Manifesto, The Alliance's Document and the
>statement by SoS Touray that the APRC government is to provide farmers 500
>tractors, looks like Gambians are poised for the same old, same old - dump
>more of our hard borrowed cash into the agriculture basket. By now it
>should be clear to all that the trouble in the agricultural sector is more
>than just lack of funding. Few would disagree that dispite two governments,
>aid from two Chinas plus the West and even Iran, countless Departments of
>Agriculture, projects (Mixed Farming, GARD, Jahali-Pacharr, LADEP)
>institutions and agencies (NARI, NADA), and billion of Dalasi, the Gambia
>is neither self-sufficient in food production nor has it increase earning
>from agriculture. Infact the contribution of agriculture to our national
>economy has been on the decline while all these is going on. Given the
>current state of the physical environment (climate and water resources) and
>economic environment (globalization and crop pricing), it is hard to
>imagine what agriculture can do for the Gambia.
>Given the above, I would argue that it is high time we take a second look
>at agriculture (represented by the Axe and the Hoe on our coat of arm) as
>the engine to national development efforts since independence. I would go
>a step further to ask the incoming government (APRC, NADD or The Alliance)
>to make a "put man on the moon" kind of declaration on education.
>Cornerstone of this would be immediate expansion of the University system
>and begining 2010 to train free of charge:
>
>2500 undergraduate degree and 100 graduates each year (2010 - 2015)
>5000 undergrads and 500 graduate degrees ( after 2015)
>
>In addition to free training, the government should negotiate with US, EU
>and other large economies to help provide these with temporary worker visa.
>In return the students will be required to pay through their employers 10%
>of their salary towards re-embursing the Gambia government. The idea is to
>borrow and invest in a product more marketable than peanuts.
>
>Some back of the envelop calculation:
>At the end of the fourth year, with 10000 students * $2,500 per year
>tuition is $25,000,000 (the cost of 500 tractors)
>suppose 50% of those landed in a job in the UK or US ($35000) per year.
>Remittance at 10% of salary is $3,500 * 5000 = $17,500,000. Nay Bad! and
>defintely more than what we get from peanuts these days.
>This would not include money sent home to family and friend, on vacations
>(knowing you do not have to worry about the visa office), on a retirement
>house or two (every Gambians wish).
>Infact we are losing that many to immigration as we speak. Just that the
>ones we are losing now are less prepared to survive in Babilon, with barely
>a driver license much more a high school diploma to compete the skilled
>labor from Poland or Mexico.
>
>Perhaps I am just dreaming. Certainly I do hope its a dream come true.
>
>Malanding Jaiteh
>
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