{"id":8764,"date":"2013-06-29T06:29:10","date_gmt":"2013-06-29T06:29:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/gambians-skeptical-about-jammeh-s-latest-free\/"},"modified":"2013-06-29T06:29:38","modified_gmt":"2013-06-29T06:29:38","slug":"gambians-skeptical-about-jammeh-s-latest-free","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/gambians-skeptical-about-jammeh-s-latest-free\/","title":{"rendered":"Gambians Skeptical About Latest Free Education Promise"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>{{Gambian leader Yahya Jammeh has declared that a free primary education programme be started next year.}}<\/p>\n<p>Under the arrangement, parents have been promised that fees will be abolished for all pupils, with a bursary scheme taking care of uniforms and stationery for needy girls, especially those in the rural areas.<\/p>\n<p>However, parents are wary because such promises have been made before.<\/p>\n<p>In fact, the constitution adopted in 1997 says; \u201cbasic education shall be free, compulsory and available to all\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>Progressive introduction of free secondary and higher education is also mentioned in the document.<\/p>\n<p>What President Jammeh has been good at is disbursing huge amounts of money for school parties for students.<\/p>\n<p>The President annually disburses millions of Gambian dalasis for distribution to schools to organise student parties.<\/p>\n<p>To many parents, however, the priority would be getting enough cash to pay fees and keep their children in school.<\/p>\n<p>A parent who pays school fees for six children captures the mood: \u201cIs this not wasteful expenditure, regardless of the source? I am not an administrator, though, but I will not distribute money among poor students who will later be driven from school the next term for not paying school fees.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>A high school student residing in Kombo North region suggests that the Gambian leader should set up a proper educational welfare fund rather than just throw money for food and dance.<\/p>\n<p>According to a teacher at St Therese\u2019s Junior Secondary in Banjul, the country has been transformed into a land of school carnivals and parties while the cost of living skyrockets.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhat children need is not partying. Standards in schools are declining. This is a very delicate problem that must be addressed sooner rather than later,\u201d said the teacher, who, like most others, preferred anonymity.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"spip-document spip-document-3099 aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/jpg\/vv-2.jpg\" alt=\"\" \/><\/figure>\n<p>{wirestory}<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>{{Gambian leader Yahya Jammeh has declared that a free primary education programme be started next year.}} Under the arrangement, parents have been promised that fees will be abolished for all pupils, with a bursary scheme taking care of uniforms and stationery for needy girls, especially those in the rural areas. However, parents are wary because [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[100],"byline":[170],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-8764","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-africa","byline-igihe"],"bylines":[{"id":170,"name":"IGIHE","slug":"igihe","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":8}],"contributors":[{"id":170,"name":"IGIHE","slug":"igihe","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":8}],"featured_image":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8764","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8764"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8764\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8764"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8764"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8764"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=8764"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=8764"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}