Education is ket to eradicating ignorance
President Jammeh tells girl-students
by Malick Mboob of The Gambia Daily Observer
President Jammeh has told the sponsored girl students that through
education, Africans could get rid of ignorance, which, he said, was the
worst disease for the African people.
The president said this yesterday at the launching of the President's
Empowerment of Girls Education Project (PEGEP) in a ceremony held at State
House. He said if this trend of ignorance continued Africa would remain
backward and largely underdeveloped.
"One of the greatest challenges for Africa is to get rid of ignorance which
is the worst disease for the African people. At present, the continent is
riddled with conflicts and unnecessary killings. In spite of her wealth and
other resources, Africa continues to remain poor while the rest of the
world is moving ahead,"he said.
President Jammeh added that if there were educated women, the future
children would also be educated.
On the Education project, the president said, this was the beginning and
that more was in the pipeline.
He cautioned the girl students to take serious advantage of the opportunity
noting that if one started with the wrong priority one would end up with
the wrong result.
"If we sponsor a girl student and continue to fail, the sponsorship will be
transferred to a male student," he warned.
President Jammeh revealed that come September 2003, another education
project for boys would also be launched.
He said 3,001 girl students already met the requirement of enrolment and
were being sponsored, calling on school principals to send in the
requirements of four passport photos latest next week Friday.
He said all the girl students sponsored were his responsibility and if any
of them were given in marriage by their parents at an early age, "the fund
would be refunded to government. Some parents are giving the impression
that they are not interested in the education of their girl child. If they
cannot even pay for their passport photos, no sponsorship would be given,"
he stressed.
The president lauded the women for being engaged on development project in
order to meet the education requirements of their children.
He thanked the ambassador of Taiwan, Dr Edgar Lin for what he described
as "a generous support for the realisation of this project".
Speaking earlier, the vice president, Aja Isatou Njie Saidy said the
president's empowerment of girl education project would again boost the
educational development of The Gambia.
She said The Gambia was one of the 10 countries chosen by the World Bank
for the tremendous progress made in the education sector.
The veep urged the girl students to make good use of the gesture,
saying "you are expected to be at the highest level".
Therese Ndong Jatta, the secretary of state for Education said: "Its a
moment of joy for all the girl students in this country. There cannot be
development without an educated population and developing women means
developing a nation."
She noted that it was a laudable and worthwhile investment and cautioned
the girl child to rise to higher level in academic performances.
The students from the 13 schools in the Greater Banjul Area and Western
Division received their cheques from the president. Adele Sock, principal
St Joseph Senior Secondary School delivered the vote of thanks on behalf of
parents and principals, while Fatoumatta Ndure, head girl, Gambia Senior
Secondary School delivered the vote of thanks on behalf of all the girl
students.
Marcel Thomasi, director of press and public relations officer of the
Office of the President chaired the occasion.
--
There is a time in the life of every problem when it is big enough to see,
yet small enough to solve (Mike Leavitt)
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