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this.
13. EDUCATION
The education sector employs 6,800 staff. 262 million dalasis was spent on
education in 2005. 265 million dalasis is to be spent in 2006. The Development
budget for education was 102 million in 2003 and 293 million in 2004. The
monies were loans from World Bank, OPEC, Islamic Bank and so designed to
increase access to education by building schools. Most of the recurrent budget is
spent on salaries and other expenditures. Only 5% go to purchase learning
materials. This is why the quality and relevance of education are still
questionable
No modern society is conceivable without the building of educational
institutions that help shape the powers of the mind, prepare the citizenry for the
division of labour in society and educate them with civic rights and duties
and the values that enable them to be productive and contributive members of
society.
NADD is conscious of the fact that education is a right to all citizens. It
should therefore be accessible, affordable and relevant to the individual and
society.
NADD aims to carry out the following programmes to promote education at the
tertiary, secondary, basic and pre basic levels.
a) Tertiary education:
Ensure that the University of The Gambia is housed in a campus within a year
of the establishment of a NADD administration by transforming the building
housing the Department of State for Information and the hostel and stadium
complex at Bakau into a University Campus.
Negotiate with the MRC to house a teaching hospital
Transform the current A.G. Chambers and the whole GPMB complex into a law
school
Transform the MDI into a branch of the University to offer degree courses in
public administration and accounting
Transform the GTTI into a polytechnic with a view to training and producing
farming implements and other intermediate products needed for farming,
processing or manufacturing
Ensure that tertiary institutions provide the skills and knowledge necessary
to satisfy the human power needs of the country.
b) Secondary Education:
NADD shall
Ensure that secondary education is affordable and accessible to all those
who have the potential to go beyond the 9 year basic compulsory cycle in
education.
Ensure that all secondary educational institutions are equipped with all the
learning and teaching materials necessary for relevant education.
Ensure that all students have the same standard text books, class
environment, same financial obligations and exposure to the same opportunities for
learning.
c) Basic Cycle
NADD shall
ensure that the basic cycle of grade 1 to 9 shall be compulsory and free as
required by the constitution. Neither girls nor boys shall pay.
Ensure that the expected learning materials are clearly mapped out and
Gambian experts are encouraged to produce learning materials for our basic cycle
schools.
Ensure that all schools offer the same standards and duration of learning to
guarantee equal opportunity to all pupils or students
d) Pre Basic or Early Childhood
Pre Basic cycle education provides the starting point for formal learning in
an educational institution.
NADD shall protect the right of the child to early childhood education. It
shall therefore make
a. early childhood education accessible, affordable and universal
b. conduct research as to the best standards to be adhered to, to make early
childhood education institutions relevant for transmitting knowledge,
learning skills and values in preparation for learning at the basic cycle level.
NADD shall upgrade the institutions that are left behind, eradicate both the
classification and grading of teachers and establish a programme for being a
certificated teacher and being paid a salary above the poverty line, upgrade
learning and teaching materials, create equal opportunities for learning,
provide adequate and relevant learning and teaching materials, ensure proper
sanitation facilities and create a Teachers Service Commission to look after
the welfare of teachers.
14. HEALTH, SANITATION AND THE ENVIRONMENT
The health sector comprises five major referral hospitals, major health
centres, minor health centres, dispensaries and outreach stations. 218 million
dalasis was put in the health sector as recurrent budget in 2005. 204 million
dalasis was spent on the development of the health sector. In 2004 the budget
for health and social welfare was 221 million dalasis as recurrent budget and
164 million dalasis as development budget. The development came as a result
of loans and the expenditure went mainly to expand access. Quality and
affordability of treatment are still major concerns of the sector. The Bamako
initiative designed to guarantee accessibility to drugs by the rural community has
failed miserably. Now drugs are inaccessible and unaffordable by the rural
community and the urban poor. The slogan health for all is far from being
realised.
NADD intends to address all the components of preventive, curative and
rehabilitative approaches to health.
NADD aims to take an approach to health service which will combine National
Campaign for environmental sanitation and disease prevention that is
participatory and voluntary and not one that is militaristic and coercive. It aims to
introduce environmental education in our school system and media, give home
based education on how to segregate waste, place receptacles in strategic
places to promote environmental cleanliness, ensure that the councils play their
legitimate role in the collection and disposal of waste, develop a culture
of recycling and ensure breeding grounds for parasites like mosquitoes are
completely eradicated.
NADD conduct health education on how to prevent illness caused by Malaria,
HIV/Aids, TB and other diseases. It shall make preventive health the corner
stone of its health policy.
Curative Health
In the area of curative health NADD shall ensure that each administrative
area in the country gets a well equipped referral hospital. These referral
hospitals shall be served by major health centres in major villages and minor
health centres in small villages.
Finally, these health centres shall be backed by village dispensaries. These
village dispensaries shall serve as the basic foundation for primary health
care service delivery institution.
They shall be equipped with the necessary equipment, drugs and staff to ease
pressure on minor and major health centres.
The referral hospitals shall be equipped to provide services of high quality.
Counselling and rehabilitation centres shall be established to promote
rehabilitative health.
15. PENSIONS AND SOCIAL SECURITY
The creation of employment and the separation of the employee from ownership
of any means of income outside a salary or wage have made the aging person
vulnerable. To ensure protection a social security system was established
whereby both employee and employer contributed a given percentage of the income
of both to secure the employee at old age. What is evident under the regime is
the total disregard of the plight of the pensioners. Most receive starvation
stipends at the end of each month. The vast majority become beggars to
survive.
NADD aims to formulate a comprehensive pension scheme that will enable
pensioners to reap benefits from their investments during their days of active
service.
It shall enter into negotiation with Social Security and Housing Finance
Corporation to ensure that workers’ contributions are secure and that
investments of workers’ money will go into low cost housing and other schemes that will
benefit the employees themselves.
It shall also enter into relations with foreign governments to secure the
pension earning of Gambians abroad.
16. WATER
It is internationally accepted that water should be accessible to all human
beings as a matter of right. None should go more than 100 metres without
getting clean water. There are places in the urban areas and rural areas where
people cannot get access to clean drinking water because of contamination of
wells. In some villages the clay in the water from wells has to be allowed to
settle down before water can be used for taking bath, for cooking or for
drinking.
NADD shall ensure that the right to have access to water shall be adequately
protected.
A comprehensive survey of the country shall be made within one year of a
NADD administration to map out the areas where scarcity of clean drinking water
poses as a menace and develop priority plans to eradicate such shortages.
17. HOUSING
Gambia has clay, wood and many building materials that can offer each
Gambian dignified shelter. In many parts of the world cooperative building
societies had emerged to ensure that proper housing is guaranteed to all.
NADD shall Commission the Social Security And Housing Finance Corporation to
develop a low cost housing scheme from its contributions.
In this way each pensioner will be able to have equal opportunity to own a
house.
NADD shall also work with the Department of Community Development to build a
model house in the villages to encourage all villages to utilize the model
building as an example of how to transform simple huts into houses fit for
human beings.
18. RECREATION
Work and leisure are two sides of the same coin. Where there is work there
should be leisure. The Department of Youth and Culture received 12 million in
2004 and 21 million in 2005. The Development budget for Sports and Youths in
2004 was just 695,000 dalasis. In 2004 it rose to 5 million. In 2005 it
dropped to 3 million. There is no strategic planning for the building of cultural
centres in the communities for recreational facility. All the land in most
places has become occupied without any social or recreational facilities.
NADD shall reverse this process and ensure that in all communities a place
for recreation is established.
NADD shall pioneer the establishment of a financial facility to sponsor
sports and artistic creation which can all yield benefits to individuals and the
society at large within one year of the establishment of a NADD
administration
19. LAW ENFORCEMENT, DEFENCE AND SECURITY
What is visible in the budget is that a total of 57 million dalasis has been
spent on defence in 2003 and 84 million dalasis in 2005. The Department of
State for the Interior had a total budget, recurrent and development combined,
of 88 million dalasis in 2003 and 129 million dalasis in 2005.
A country needs law enforcement, defence and security to be able to create
peace and stability. NADD however is committed to the retraining and
redeployment of members of the law enforcement agency, the army and security forces.
1. Law enforcement: The functions of a police force are to preserve law and
order, prevent and detect crime and serve the population generally. A police
officer is required to be disciplined and competent. He/she should display a
high degree of honesty, fairness and impartiality in their dealings with the
members of the public.
NADD intends to build a police force of integrity, one that will never
detain people without trial for more than 72 hours.
It will order the redesigning of all police cells to be fit for human
beings. It will ensure that the police force exists in harmony with the people and
their communities and must act on the dictates of the law and not of persons.
2. Security and Defence
The Gambia shall maintain a small professional army for defence. They shall
be required to protect the sovereignty, territorial integrity and the rights
of the people.
NADD shall give short term training to current members of the army to enable
them to be ready at all times to defend their nation and the people.
NADD shall create a patriotic army and security force that will never
perpetuate atrocities to be indemnified.
It shall ensure a training programme for most of the members who may wish to
serve short terms to make them acquire skills and trades to enable them to
return to contributive and productive civilian life after their service.
NIA
The National Intelligence Agency shall be given a new orientation.
Its members shall be trained to be honest and loyal to the people’s interest.
It shall not engage in any inhuman and degrading punishment and would not
meddle in anybody’s life.
They shall investigate cases that require high grade intelligence to
succeed.
22. FOREIGN AFFAIRS
The external policy of a NADD administration shall be based on the principle
of collective sovereignty.
It is premised on the realization that all peoples are embodiment of dignity
and worth and none should oppress and dominate the other.
In this light, the collective interest of two peoples can be defended by the
collective initiatives of their governments. Herein lies the reason for the
following programmes
a. TWO STATES ONE PEOPLE PRINCIPLE
NADD shall build relations with its closest neighbour, Senegal, on the
principle of two states one people. It shall facilitate agreement on the movement
of goods, people and services.
The executive, national assembly, judiciary, media, civil society
organisations and all other sectors of society should develop close collaboration to
address the common concerns of the two states.
NADD intends to extend the people to people relationship to other countries
in the sub-region to promote the principle of African Integration.
b. AFRICAN INTEGRATION
The Recovery of Europe was done through the creation of a World Bank, an
International Monetary Fund and a European recovery programme which aimed to
boost up European productive capacity and inter European trade. The African
Continent envisages the creation of an African Investment Bank, and an African
Monetary Fund. This should be complemented by an African recovery programme.
NADD is convinced that the ultimate economic emancipation of Africa lies in
the integration of its institutions to guide the destiny of its peoples.
NADD shall participate fully in adopting and implementing all measures that
will enhance African Integration.
A Department of State for African Integration and International Cooperation
shall be created to promote continental approaches to unity and development.
NADD shall encourage all nationals of different countries in the Gambia to
form associations and elect representatives who will liaise with the
Department of State for African Integration and International Cooperation to resolve
all their problems that are associated state institutions.
c. A NEW INTERNATIONAL ORDER OF PEACE
No country or continent can live in isolation. No nation can therefore be
secure unless its neighbours are secure. That is the fundamental lesson to
learn from the trouble spots in the world.
NADD therefore aims to contribute to international peace by promoting the
following programmes
a. Redefine the foreign policy of the country and place it on the
table as soon as the NADD administration commences work.
b. Work towards the awarding of debt cancellation to free
resources for development
c.Restore international confidence to access the 115 million dollars pledged
by development partners in 2002 which have been lost under the APRC regime
because of bad governance.
NADD aims to make Gambia a jewel in Africa and the world in its adherence to
respect for fundamental rights and freedoms and justice in managing the
affairs of the country and thus earn the integrity necessary to promote world
peace and development.
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