The Gambia National Commission for UNESCO in collaboration with the Madrassa Unit of the Ministry of Basic and Secondary Education and the General Secretariat for Islamic Arabic Education, recently held a training of trainers workshop for Arabic Islamic (Madrassa) teachers and principals on the use and management of statistical data.

It was held at the Regional Education Office in Region One, and funded by the Islamic Educational Scientific and Cultural Organisation (ISESCO). The workshop brought together principals and senior teachers of several Madrassa schools in The Gambia, personnel of the Planning directorate of the Ministry of Basic and Secondary Education and staff of the Gambia College.

Speaking at the event, Yahya Al-Matarr Jobe, the acting secretary general of UNESCO NATCOM, disclosed that ISESCO has agreed to support this type of training because the need to start collecting data from the Madrassa institutions have become very important today, to drive policies and help to better document the important participation of the Madrassas.

For his part, Oustash Husainou Touray, the head of the Arabic Islamic School of Education Programme at the MoBSE thanked the director general of ISESCO and his staff for the gesture. He described the workshop as unique, as it helps to provide the necessary skills in data computing and management. He encouraged participants to play a positive role in the process and work hard in sharing their knowledge.

Oustash Essa Darboe, the secretary general of Islamic Arabic Education thanked ISESCO for the support, and UNESCO NATCOM for organising training. He renewed Islamic Arabic Education’s commitment in helping in the process of ensuring that all Madrassa schools start collecting data and sending them to Islamic Arabic Education.

He expressed hope that the Ministry of Basic and Secondary Education will also support further training to guarantee that there is much stronger understanding of data collection and processing within the Islamic and Arabic schools.

The director of Planning at the Ministry of Basic and Secondary Education, Muhammed Jallow emphasized the necessity for such training and welcomed the move. At the level of the MoBSE, he said it remains difficult to get accurate data on the Madrassa schools and that this affects all the planning that needs to be done for the Madrassa sector.

He revealed that the workshop will be one among many that will be conducted to train as many senior staff of the schools as possible in data collecting and processing. Jallow then reiterated the Ministry’s commitment to help so that in the very near future the data coming from the Madrassa will be accurate and professional.

Also speaking was Aboubacarr K. Darboe, the secretary of the Taddamum Islamic Centre responsible for analyzing the results, said that he attended several workshops but described this one as the missing link; andthen assured that he would share the knowledge gained to his colleagues.

For her part, Isatou Sowe, teacher at the Muslim Senior Secondary Islamic School expressed deep satisfaction in the workshop. However, she encouraged other women to take the chance, and appealed to the organisers to invite more women to such training.

The training was conducted and facilitated by Lamin Fatajo, system analyst and principal education officer; Muhammed BS Jallow, director of Planning; Ousman Senghore, senior programme officer - Education, UNESCO NATCOM; and Oustass Ousainou Touray, head of the Madrassa unit of MoBSE.