EDUCATION. Gross Enrollment Ratio (GER)- 71.7% in 1998/99 from 59% in 1990. 61% of girls and 79% of boy of primary school going age are enrolled. Government junior secondary schools increase from 12 24 accounting for an increase in transition from 30% in 1990 to 70% by 1996/97. Gross enrollment rose from 22% to 39% during the period under review. Gross enrollment in senior secondary schools increased from 11% to 15% during the same period. The proportion of qualified teachers in primary schools has increased from 54% in 1991/92 to 67% in 19997/98. In 1992/93 53% of female teachers were qualified against 56% for their male counterparts. In 1997/98 the figure was 68% for female teachers against 67% for male taechers. Financing of education rose from 98 million Dalasis in 1990/91 to 174 million Dalasis in 1996/97. 5.2% of real GDP is spent on education over the period under review (Subsaharan Africa's average is 4.2%). Pre-school institutions increased from 55 in 1988 to 125 in 1995 and to 265 in 1998. Currently the university of The Gambia is enrolling about 300 students per annum. HEALTH. Infant and uder five mortality rate is 85 and 137 per 1000 respectively and are the lowest in the sub-region next to senegal (63 and 120 per 1000) which has a per capita income twice that of Gambia. Between 60 and 80 per cent of the population live within the catchment area of village health services while abou 90% live within 7.5 Km of a health facility. The number of Doctors for the population increased from about 10 in 1992/92 to 262 in 1998/99. There are 972 nurses for a population of about 1.3 million and a population per bed ratio of 872 in 1997. Acess to safe drinking water has risen from 23% in 1983 to 79% in 2000. Percentage of one year olds fully immunized against Tubarculosis stands at 96.8% while those fully immunized against Measles stands at 83.4%. The incidense of aids is at 0.42 per 1,000 people. overall the number of Aids cases has increased from 544 in December 1997 to 606 in June 1998 and 1,000 in 1999 showing a cumulative increase of 84%. So far about 1,000 people have died of the disease since 1986. With Maternal mortality rate of 1,050 per 100,000 of life births it is one of the highest in the world. Maternal mortality rate for is 577 per 100,000 live births in 1996. Between the periods of 1990/91 and 19998/99 total government expenditure on increased by nearly 61% from about 60 million Dalasis to about 96.5 million Dalasis in 1998/99. This represents about nine percent of total government recurrent expenditure. Have a good day, Gassa. _________________________________________________________________ Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com/intl.asp ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 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 and remember to write your full name and e-mail address. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------