Gambia-L: The e-mail below came from a source in the Gambia, and I am sending it as received because of limited access to the Net. Ebrima _______________________________________________________________ >To: [log in to unmask] >Subject: Jammeh's empty classroom blocks inhabited by goats and sheep says >Sir Dawda > > >Ebrima, >The former President has been away from his native land for over six years >but he is certainly abreast of developments in the Gambia. The Education >sector is indeed in a total state of flux. Education planning, as we know >it, cease to exist immediately following the coup in July 1994. The school >mapping exercise, which cost the government a bundle and generated wealth >of data to help the education planners identify where school facilities >were needed the most, was abandoned to accomodate the wishes of the new >military government. In the name of attaining cheap popularity, the >planning exercise was abandoned to be substituted by the wishes of the new >military boys led by the ill-educated Yahya. The catchment areas identified >during the school mapping exercise where ignored and the 22July Projects >co-ordinating Committee led by Yankuba Touray took charge of identifying >where the educational facilities where most needed. Of course, they went >for areas in the Foni's and in other areas where the APRC needed additional >votes. To help them suppliment the AFPRC funds dubiously raised from >Taipei, they cajolled SSHFC, GAMTEL, NAWEC and GPA into building schools in >the Foni's and in other areas where there were few school going age kids. >To the AFRPC and subsequently the APRC (the same thing), it didn't matter >whether there were enough children in the catcment area or whether there >were enough teachers and school material for these facilities, and more >importantly whether government could meet the recurrent cost of running >these schools. What mattered was the edifices to go up so that people could >see that the AFRPC was doing the job. Unfortunately, the strategy worked >for a while because people started saying how well the AFPRC was doing etc. >etc. Even up to this moment, some Gambians still cite the schools and >health facilities built under the present regime. The sad fact is that a >majority of these facilities are either redundant(because similar >facilities already exists within the catchment area), ill-constructed >(contracted without tendering the works and Yahya and Yankuba pocketing the >balance) or both. The Bwiam and Farafenni Hospitals, International Airport >and tens of schools are cases in point. Bwiam is incomplete because >"Allah's Bank" has apparently run out of money, thanks to the US Government >telling Taipei to stop aggravating the conditions of the ordinary Gambian. >Farafenni is so ill-designed that you have to see it to believe it. Pierre >Gujabi is not a health facilities architech. He designed the Airport, the >Arch 22, Farafenni Hospital and some concepts design for a Conference >centre and then took his "cut" and ran away. During the Transition, they >called it the MFDC solidarity shuffle; a cut for Yahya, a cut for Yankuba, >a cut for Amadou Samba, a cut for Pierre Gujabi and a percentage for the >FMDC solidarity fund. >I am afraid Sir Dawda is right when he says that sheeps and goats take >shelter in some of these schools because they are built so far away from >the center of the catchment areas where there are hardly any school going >kids. As for the much-touted Airport, it leaks when it rains. Infact, as I >write this piece, the terminal building of the airport is leaking seriously >after unusually heavy rains. It is poorly designed and don't be surprised >if you are told a year or two from now that the entire building is >structurally unsafe for passengers. It is sad to see some Gambians still >citing the Terminal building as an achievement of the Jammeh regime. As far >as I am concerned, it is the biggest rip-off of the Jammeh regime. > > ________________________________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L Web interface at: http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/gambia-l.html You may also send subscription requests to [log in to unmask] if you have problems accessing the web interface ----------------------------------------------------------------------------