In response to Dampha, Dampha: <<If Famara Jatta (the Finance Minister) stands up and say that Gambians are getting POORER; we read in newspapers that children do NOT have desks and chairs in their classrooms; we also read in the newspapers that children are dying from minor injuries because hospitals are NOT equipped with medicine and ambulances – the list goes on.>> Dampha, add this Daily Observer story (see pasted below) to the List of woes Yaya has helped thrust on poor Gambian parents trying to get a decent education for their children. I wonder what Gassa's thoughts are on these poor 53 Grade 9 kids who have missed out on their final exams - assuming he musters the guts to speak out against this deplorable trend Yaya's mismanagement of the Gambian economy is introducing to Gambia society. The poor are getting POORER and POORER under the APRC. That is the FACT no one can spun. It is a FACT even Famara acknowledges in his last two budget speeches. ____________________________________ 53 Students Miss Grade 9 Final Exams The Daily Observer (Banjul) April 23, 2002 Posted to the web April 23, 2002 Chief Manneh About 53 students at the Greater Banjul Upper Basic School have missed their Grade Nine final examinations as a result of late payment of examination fees. Speaking to Daily Observer recently Dembo Jallow, who is in charge of exams fees said the school had made tremendous effort in receiving early payments in order to spare students the embarrassment of missing their examinations. He said their early warning for examination fee payment was made before January 18, 2002 upon the request of WAEC for submission and only 281 candidates paid out of 578 candidates. He added that the school authorities made an appeal to WAEC to extend the deadline to January 31, 2002 and only another 210 candidates paid. He said another extension was requested for the month of February and again only 35 students paid. Mr Jallow disclosed that some of the students parents were to be blame because enough time was given to them to effect their wards' payments . He said the examination was slated for March and the examining body accepting entries in February meant they have put in enough effort for their candidates to sit for their final exams. Vice principal Almameh Colley blamed the negligence of parents for the lack of early payment of the exam fees. _________________________________________________________________ Chat with friends online, try MSN Messenger: http://messenger.msn.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 To contact the List Management, please send an e-mail to: [log in to unmask] ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~