By Samsideen Ceesay
The Director of Children Affairs under the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Welfare, Madam Bintou HK. Fatty was part of Office of the President-constituted delegation to go for a tour to study modern ‘Daaras’ in Senegal and adopt best practices for reform in our Arabic education system.
Director Fatty said the study tour was a follow-up to the inspection visit of the taskforce that was sanctioned by the Office of the President as one of its key reactions to a national tragedy in the form of a fire outbreak that struck one of the Tahfidh centres in the country. The incident resulted to the loss of lives of 10 children; thus, causing a lot of concern about the safety and security of children in the boarding schools.
She highlighted the objectives of the study tour as: to understand the relationship between Government and the Franco-Arab institutions especially in terms of existing coordination, funding, support and monitoring mechanism in place and to explore the existing curriculum of the Franco-Arab centres, in particular, how Islamic/Quranic education is delivered with secular subjects, the kind of materials and how they are developed, how teachers are recruited and trained on pedagogy, safeguarding protocols and child protection.
The Director further posited that the tour would avail them the opportunity to find a common minimum standard operational procedure for such centres in terms of care and protection; sustainable feeding of children, kitchen facilities, use of fuel wood/gas and whether food hygiene system in place.
The delegation comprises of the following: Mr. Abdoulie Jarra, Permanent Secretary, Office of the President; Mr.AsanTangara, Permanent Secretary Ministry of Interior; Mr. Essa Camara, Acting Director, Department of Physical Planning & Housing; Ms. Bintou HK Fatty, Director of Children Affairs, Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Welfare; Ms. Jamilatou Saidy, Deputy Director, Consumer Affairs, PURA; Mr. Essa Marong, Principal Assistant Secretary, MoBSE; Mr. Fakebba Darboe , Assistant Commissioner, Gambia Police Force; Mr. Amat Janha, Senior Divisional Officer, Gambia Fire & Rescue Service; Mr. Baba K. Suwaneh, Head of Tafiz, the General Secretariat for Islamic/Arabic Education in The Gambia (AMAANAH); Mr. Abubacarr Ceesay , Senior Assistant Secretary, Office of the President; Mr. Ebrima Barrow, Public Health Officer, Ministry of Health; and Dr. Burama L. J. Jammeh, Technical Assistant, AMAANAH.
