‘Nigeria’s education intervention in Gambia paying dividends’

The Minister of Higher Education, Research, Science and Technology of The Gambia, Prof. Pierre Gomez, has conveyed the Government of The Gambia’s gratitude to Nigeria, saying Nigeria’s intervention in their country’s education sector is paying dividends.

The Minister, who disclosed this on Wednesday during a visit to the Nigerian Technical Aid Corps (NTAC) in Abuja, described how pleased the President of their country was at the glaring impact of the injection of some Engineering Professors of the NTAC into the running of the University of Applied Science, Engineering and Technology (USET) of The Gambia.

According to a statement on Thursday by Nkem Anyata-Lafia, a media aide to the DG of NTAC, the minister also revealed that the Nigerian Professors have changed the narrative in the country’s higher education concerning skills, innovation and enterprise development, such that enrollment at the USET has increased from 47 to over 200 in the last academic season.

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While commending the professional astuteness of the volunteers currently serving in The Gambia, Prof. Gomez informed that the engineering professors were championing a new wave of thinking out of the box that is aimed at fashioning out self-funding initiatives for Universities that had, hitherto, depended solely on government’s subvention.

The Minister, who also informed of the establishment of a new University of Education in his country, said they had looked towards the direction of Nigeria to help in fostering the University into a place of excellence since all Universities must be seen as places of excellence and Nigeria has all it takes to foster such demands.

“Today we are here again to request the help of our big brother, Nigeria. This is because your volunteers have performed greatly well in our country. The great dynamism they have brought into our country’s higher education is changing narratives everywhere and we cannot but request for more hands to mentor our teachers and administrators to get things right.

“You gave us all we needed before. The engineering professors you gave to our country are more than anyone can ever ask in terms of their productivity and results on the ground. But here we are again, we are begging your professionals to come and mentor our people in the area of education, a different area from what the engineers are already doing,” he said.

While assuring the people of The Gambia of the continuous support of Nigeria in the area of her educational needs, the Director General of the NTAC, Yusuf Buba Yakub, said the whole idea was to fill such gaps among brother nations in the ACP countries.

Buba pledged to immediately set in motion the process of offering the requested assistance to The Gambia in the weeks ahead, stressing that the impact of today’s decision on the country’s teaching and learning needs would reverberate positively in the sector in the next twenty years.