Excellent idea Karamba. I hope you will stay on top of the logistics to
completion. I am wholly behind your efforts and it does not take an alumnus
to recognize a splendid effort.

Once you have figured out the modalities (discrete fund or regenerative e.g.
interest-yielding), let us know. I imagine the L community considers this a
highly commendable effort and one worthy of our support. Once in a while
solicit suggestions from G-L'ers on aspects of the effort so that you may be
afforded the benefit the expert and energetic brothers and sisters whose
conversation we enjoy daily and keep us informed on your progress.

I am of the impression that the D200.00 I spend on carbonated drinks monthly
may have found better bargain. Soon Armitage will not need unreliable
subsidy from government, present or future. The idea may sound premature,
but it would help to shoot toward a goal for your efforts: for example-self
funded, and run by an independent board of governors and officers who are in
no way beholden to the whims of any government save for property tax short
of land-grant status by government.

This will go a long way in solidifying democratic institution.

In the same breath, I wish to commend MLJassey Conteh. He has embarked on an
effort to aid opposition parties in order to make the imminent electoral
process truly competitive. I urge all G-L'ers to give such efforts their
support and encouragement. Such is what improves our lot.
All cultural communities of the world have garnered respect and legitimacy
from internal philanthropy: B'nai Brith, Arab league, Irish Commons etc. Ba
qu'est ce que vous attendez?


>From: [log in to unmask]
>Reply-To: The Gambia and related-issues mailing list
><[log in to unmask]>
>To: [log in to unmask]
>Subject: Destroying Armitage High School
>Date: Wed, 27 Sep 2000 21:41:08 EDT
>
>Since it's inception in 1927 Armitage has for the most part fulfilled it's
>core mandate of providing basic education to the rural poor who would
>otherwise have much diminished opportunities in their quest for a bright
>future. Throughout the years it's graduates have gone on to become
>distinguished in their chosen fields both within the country and overseas.
>As
>a wholly subsidized boarding institution it entirely relies on government
>subsidies to maintain a good academic standard and also provide for the 400
>plus kids boarding. Tragically the last several years has left this great
>school teetering on the brink. As in the rest of the high schools,
>standards
>have fallen markedly, producing graduates that with such poor results that
>they can't be honestly called functionally literate. This year for example
>close to three quarters of the high school graduates failed the core
>subject
>areas of Math's, Physics and Chemistry and biology. Yahya Jammeh's gov't
>has
>essentially embarked on defunding education by starving it of the minimum
>resources needed and instead shifting the little money in the treasury for
>personal angradisement. Their entire approach to education is to churn
>Gambian kids into mediocre high schools who for lack of attention and
>resources can never attract good teachers or materials. The situation is
>even
>grimmer for the tens of thousands of kids who can't get into high school
>and
>have to settle for what they euphemistically call 'skill centers'. They are
>nothing more that dens of ineffectiveness and an utter waste of time. How
>can
>you send kids to a center with a few anvils, hammers and nails and expect
>them to acquire any lasting marketable skills?.Through no fault of theirs
>these kids come out of these centers poorly trained, and enter a moribund
>private sector that provides no opportunities for them? This government
>does
>not care about what happens to the Gambian people. Even as they are
>literally
>planning on producing an entire generation of kids who would not be
>equipped
>to fend for themselves, they are always shamelessly touting what they call
>high transition rates from primary to secondary school conveniently
>neglecting the dismal final results which are the only indicators of the
>kind
>of education they are getting. This government simply wants to leave our
>nation poor, sick and uneducated so that a large segment of the population
>can more easily be put on a charity leash with Yahya Jammeh portraying
>himself as principal benefactor and pulling them by the neck and
>occasionally
>giving them the drips of their resources he has taken from them. Sickening
>and utterly unacceptable but that is the current state of affairs. List
>members would agree that it spells maximum peril for our people.
>       All of these severe hindrances are amplified for Armitage and it's
>students. With  the drastic cuts in funding, the school simply can't hire
>good teachers or even maintain the few they have on staff not to mention
>equip it's labs and stock up the library. Academic excellence is almost
>entirely predicated on these aspects. The school must also house and feed
>it's student body, an undertaking that greatly impacts on the ability of
>the
>kids to excell.Afterall they  have to eat something everyday. They school
>has
>tried to stay alive by trying to make up for some of the revenue denied it
>by
>charging the student's boarding fees far in excess of what their parent's
>can
>afford. For list members unaware, over 90% of the students enrolled in
>Armitage come from extremely poor backgrounds with meager or none existent
>resources. Most can't afford bath soap. Currently cost per student averages
>about D2000 per year. For a poor farmer who subsists on a few acres of
>groundnuts and corn, this is a bill he cannot pay under any circumstances
>especially if you add to that the fact that most have earned no money for
>two
>successive years because there was no trade season to market their
>groundnuts. Those with a few livestock or with relatives abroad may make
>the
>hefty bill often after leaving the family penniless. Those who can't pay
>are
>simply asked to leave school. If the thought of seeing kids perfectly
>willing
>and eager to get education being priced out of a basic high school
>education
>is too much to stomach, I 've news for you. The government is even
>proposing
>a steeper increase in the fees Armitage students would have to pay because
>the  already tiny subsidy would again be slashed. Apparently this
>government
>can find in excess of D2million for Yahya Jammehs' allowance for his
>inappropriate travels but can't find a butut to save hundreds of children
>being thrown out of their high school classrooms. They have no qualms about
>ruining innocent lives.
>Ultimately our basic human instincts require us to do what we can to help
>ameliorate the situation to the extent that we can. To this end, I would in
>the coming weeks try to develop data on 50 of the most neediest students at
>Armitage. Once the information is gathered, I would write to GESO and
>Gambia
>Support Group( two outfits that specialize in helping needy students) to
>request use of their existing organizational infrastructure to mount a
>drive
>for these kids. If they agree I'd suggest we use them as repositories for
>the
>'Armitage Student Aid Fund'. The aim would be to compliment their overall
>stated objective of helping needy students. The only difference is the
>apparent acuteness of problems facing these Armitage kids at this time
>hence
>nessicitating this school specific drive. It is indeed a modest number
>considering the great number in need.  I am  nonetheless hopeful that with
>a
>stretch of a hand, atleast not all of them would be sent packing.
>
>Karamba
>
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