At best the vast majority of Gambian youths today face an uncertain future
and of those the overwhelming majority face an outright bleak future. The
tens of thousands lucky to be enrolled in the public school system are
increasingly finding themselves trapped in the functional equivalence of time
passing warehouses replete with inadequate resources, poorly trained and
illmotivated teachers. Recently in my hometown of Georgetown, up to 65
children were cramped in a single classroom because there aren't enough
teachers and the ones there have to contend with late salaries, low morale
and a general sense of dejection. The outcome for those poor kids is entirely
predictable in that they will get a mediocre grade school education hobbling
them for the rest of their lives. Most would simply drop out and become
trapped in the vicious cycle of poverty brought about by the lack of
education. Kids further out in the villages are in a much worse predicament
with far fewer teachers and even lesser competent ones. Even the kids who
manage to make it to high school numbering in the thousands every year face
similar conditions of overcrowding and resource depravation resulting a
precipitous decline in performance for the high graduation exams. In recent
years upto half of the kids sitting the exams outright failed. Those who
attend the socalled skill centers all of which are poorly conceived, managed
and funded come out with very little marketable skills and have no financial
infrastructure to help get established even if they have rudimentary skills.
With only a few spots for further education, the thousands of kids being
churned out by the high schools find themselves at a sad cul-de sac with no
prospects for continuing their education and even less chance for gainful
employment. Everything in the country today points to a future that bodes ill
for an entire generation that is being set up for failure. The gullible among
the youths are being led on the destructive path of charity conditioning in
which they are steered away from the natural human instinct of fending for
oneself and wanting to succeed on one's own merit and are instead made to
value sycophancy, intolerance and treachery. They will discover at a later
date that small cash handouts or empty slogans cannot substitute for a
lifetime preparation underpinned by a good education, a strong work ethic and
an overall environment that affords every Gambian an opportunity to be
whatever heaspires to be . I cringe at the thought of tens of thousands of
people reconciled with the thought  they see no future for themselves in the
land of their ancestors making them susceptible to social and religious
intolerance. We can see increasingly how these socalled Imams are gradually
transforming themselves into social critics making silly statements about
public policy issues they have little understanding of. What stands out in
the utterances of these activist Imams is not the absurdity of their
comments, it is the crusading undertones it attempts to carry . They pretend
to be speaking for God and tend to see their detractors as heretics who must
be run out of town. It is absolutely galling to hear Imam  Fatty the
spiritual mouthpiece of Yahya Jammeh try to lecture the Gambian people on
morality or matters religious when he is cuddling and financially benefiting
from a person he is certain is guilty of mass murder, torture, corruption and
God knows whatelse. He expects God to overlook such a glaring example of his
lies and hypocrisy. The real Imams are the ones who take their
responsibilities seriously and are driven solely by the precepts of the
religion. They strive to steer their congregants towards the righteous path
by insisting on the good and eschewing the bad. You won't see them GRTS or
some newspaper wading into issues they have little or no understanding of.It
is these good community leaders who have continued to nurture the good values
of our society .
Karamba

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