The Ministry of Basic and Secondary Education through its technical department of Curriculum, Research, Evaluation and Development, over the weekend concluded a week long training for Teachers, Cluster monitors and school heads on multi grade teaching.

The training which was held at the Regional Education complex curriculum conference hall in Kanifing, was aimed at training teachers, head teachers and cluster monitors in a bid to provide them with knowledge and necessary pedagogic skills for the overall improvement of multi grade teaching  in schools.

The training for Emily Foon Sarr, director of CREDD  is a clear manifestation of their interest, willingness and support for the multi grade teaching in The Gambia. She revealed that it is a recognizable fact that multi grade teaching will be a part of the Gambian education system for years to come and therefore deserves some attention. She disclosed the reasons why we multi grade hinge on some glaring realities, noting that in the model, children of different grade levels and abilities are combined in on class under the supervision of one or two teachers and the model mostly arises from situations are scarce educational resources or non-availability of teachers.  “In sparsely populated areas, the model works to ensure access to schooling by bringing education closer to our homes and children do not have to travel unusual long distance to attend a school that is centrally located,” she noted.

According to her, other reasons that lend support to the need for instituting multi grade include teacher transfers, frequent teacher absenteeism in remote areas.  She said the aware of this reality; DOSBSE is taking action to ensure that multi grade teaching and learning is improved and rural citizens are not short in terms of educational service as it pertains to the multi grading. “Giant Steps to address multi grade teaching occurred in May 2008 with the introduction of the learning Initiative for Rural Educational Project (LIRE) project”, she said.

According to her, the LIRE was a joint initiative of the DOSBSE in collaboration with the University of Massachusetts funded by the World Bank.  Furthermore, it was designed to address multi grade teaching in schools in low-density areas generally characterized by teacher shortage and insufficient school resources.

Sarr noted that it is anticipated that the small-scale pilot project will yield desired benefits that can be replicated at a national level and sustained. She added that the country’s report on the MDG (2005) stipulates that based on the current trend The Gambia will have a net enrolment rate of 80% thus falling short of meeting the MDG target. In addition the national policy on education lays emphasis on a teacher pupil ratio of 1:45 meaning schools in low-density areas are in need of multi grade. “Multi grade has therefore become a necessity and will remain a part of the education system for some sometime in the future”, she stated, adding that the project objectives seek to assist in developing the required tools for teaching and learning, develop and implement action research approaches, provide support to teachers in demonstration schools and renovate multi grade teaching in schools overall.

For Yorro Bah, cross cluster monitor of Kudan at Region 5, adopting multi grading it will help economise resources and proper utilisation of personnel among others. He added that it will help the trainers to gain a lot of things which they did not have any prior knowledge of such as curriculum adaptation, scheme and lesson preparation for multi grade class and the using multi grade teaching strategies and the importance of worksheets in multi grade classes.