Fatou Lamin Faye, secretary of state for Basic and Secondary Education has confirmed that a total number of 48,016 girls are enrolled in both the Upper Basic and Senior Secondary Schools based on the 2007/8 enrollment figures gathered by the Department of State for Basic and Secondary Education.

SoS Faye revealed these figures on Wednesday when answering a parliamentary question from Honourable Sedia Jatta, National Assembly Member for Wuli West.

Breaking down the figures, SoS Fatou Lamin Faye revealed that a total of 31,796 girls are enrolled in the Upper Basic Schools and 16,220 are in the Senior Secondary Schools. "In Banjul and KMC, 10788 girls are in Upper Basic Schools and 8818 in Senior Secondary Schools, a total of 19606 girls.

In the Western Region, 10465 girls are in Upper Basic schools and 3723 in Senior Secondary Schools, a total of 14188 girls. In the North Bank Region, 3688 girls are in the Upper Basic Schools and 1319 in Senior Secondary schools, a total of 5007 girls. In Lower River Region, 1710 girls are in Upper Basic Schools and 351 in Senior Secondary Schools, a total of 2061 girls. In Central River Region, 3453 girls are in Upper Basic Schools and 1506 in Senior Secondary Schools, a total of 4956. In Upper River Region, a total of 1692 are in Upper Basic Schools and 503 in Senior  Secondary Schools, a total of 2195. This total therefore shows a total number of 31796 girls in the Upper Basic schools, 16220 in Senior Secondary schools, making a total of 48016 girls enrolled in both Upper and Senior Schools" she explained.

However, these numbers according to her, exclude the female students enrolled in the Upper Basic and Senior Secondary Schools of the Madrassa system.

About how many girls are on scholarship and what the scholarships covers, SoS Fatou Lamin Faye stated that regardless of whether the schools they attend is public or private, most of these students receive some form bursary. "All female students in the NBR,LRR,CRR and URR at the Basic and Senior Secondary School levels benefits from the Scholarship Trust Funds for Girls. Thus, a total number of 14,222 girls benefit from this scholarship package, of which 10,543 are in Upper Basic Schools and 3,679 in Senior Secondary Schools" she said.

She added that the sponsorship covers tuition and examination fees for female final year students at the Upper Basic and Senior Secondary level, which is Grade 9 to 12. Within the Banjul and KMC, she said that 10,788 Upper Basic School students currently receive sponsorship from the President's Empowerment for Girls' Education Project (PEGEP). PEGEP she said pays school fees for the Upper Basic Schools students and contributes D375.00 per student at the Senior Secondary level.

She further explained that for the current academic year 2007/2008, in the Western Region, 800 girls from 12 Upper Basic Schools are being provided with uniforms, books, shoes and school bags from the Ambassador's Girls' Scholarship Project coordinated by the Peace Corps Office in The Gambia and disbursed by FaweGam.

Apart from this, she added, all the girls in Upper Basic and Senior Secondary Schools in the Western Region receive free text books but quickly urged the members to recalled that the the Book Rental Scheme was abolished with effect from January 2008 in all public schools-that is in all government and government supported Upper Basic schools in the country.

The Basic and Secondary Education Secretary of State further inform NAMs that complementing these sponsorship packages outlines, during the 2006/07 academic year, the Angels Trust Fund sponsored 276 girls in the Upper Basic Schools in the Western Region and this covered uniforms, book rental fees and the Gambia Basic Education Certificates Examination fees.

Responding to Honourable Pa Jallow, NAM for Jarra Central on whether there are any plans by her department of state in building a Senior Secondary School in Jarra Central, SoS Faye said the establishment of schools including Senior Secondary Schools, is based on a set of criteria that aim at an equitable school distribution to accord equal opportunities to all. "Therefore, in 2007 a Senior Secondary School was opened in Kaiaf to decongest Tahir Ahmadiyya Senior Secondary Schools in Jarra West, there are no immediate plans at the moment to establish a Senior Secondary School in Jarra Central. The arrangement is that these two schools serve the communities in the two constituencies" she concluded.