UNESCO. General Conference; 30th; Records ... - unesdoc - Unesco

37. The PRESIDENT:
I should like to thank His Excellency, the Minister for Education of Rwanda. It is good to hear that
UNESCO is of use in a country which has been through such terrible times, and I am sure that assistance will be
forthcoming next year, as that should be a critical year. I now call on the next speaker, Her Excellency Ms Ann
Therese N’Dong-Jatta, Secretary of State for Education of Gambia.
38.1 Ms N’DONG-JATTA (Gambia):
Madam President, Mr Director-General, Excellencies, members of the diplomatic corps, distinguished
delegates, Ministers, ladies and gentlemen, on behalf of the delegation from the Gambia, I bring you warm
greetings from the President of the Republic of the Gambia, Dr Alh. Yaha A.J.J.Jammeh and all the people of the
Gambia. I wish to join the others before me in extending our heartfelt congratulations to you, Madam President,
on your election as President of the 30th session of the General Conference of UNESCO. We are confident, as
you have already demonstrated, of your able guidance of the deliberations of this Conference. Our delegation
hopes that this will mark the beginning of more attention being paid to gender equity in appointments that will be
made at the level of the Secretariat, the Executive Board and other UNESCO bodies.
38.2 I wish also to be associated with all the kind sentiments expressed about how effectively Mr Federico
Mayor, the Director-General of UNESCO, has led the Organization since he took office. Mr Mayor has always
shown great support to the developing countries, especially those in Africa. The special attention he has always
accorded women’s and girls’ programmes has always been and will always be appreciated. We hope that Africa,
and the provision of education for all, especially for women and girls, will remain a priority and will continue to
receive the special attention they deserve by his successor. We all know the difficult circumstances the
Organization was in when Mr Mayor took over its leadership. I only hope and wish that all those who left the
Organization will now find it fitting to return and join forces with the rest of mankind to shape the future of the
Organization. It is easier to do this from within than from the outside. At this point please allow me, Madam
President, to welcome the Republic of Palau and the Federated States of Micronesia as full members of this
Organization.
38.3 Madam President, having appealed for all of us to work towards sustaining and improving this great
Organization, allow me to share with you the experiences and the expectations of the Gambia. As a nation, and
like most developing countries, we invest a lot of resources in education because of our belief that it is a useful
tool for socio-economic development. However, despite the efforts to improve and extend our educational
services, in particular at the primary level, the mid-term review of our educational policy reveals that a high
percentage of our population of primary school age outside the urban areas is not yet covered by the system, that
the population served by the education system often does not acquire the skills and knowledge considered
desirable for economic and social development at the local and national levels, and that the resources required for
the expansion of basic education, particularly for girls and women, exceed the financial capacity of our nation.
38.4 Madam President, as a result of these constraints we have developed an effective and financially realistic
means of meeting the basic education needs of both children and adults. We have defined basic education as it
applies to different target groups, and developed a framework for the analysis and diagnosis of basic needs,
which has led to the elaboration of our programmes to serve as a national agenda so that our development
partners can respond adequately on the basis of need. Strategies were drawn up to meet the set targets, given our
resource constraints, which included the double-shift system, due to urban population density, in which the same
facilities and resources are used for two different enrolment cohorts; a multi-grade system in rural areas where
enrolments are still low and in sparsely populated areas; and functional literacy, especially for girls and women,
since about 80 per cent of women and girls of 15 years and above are still illiterate.
38.5 Through this approach the gross enrolment ratio has reached 70% of school-age children, although the
enrolment of girls continues to trail that of boys at all levels. Thus we at present place the emphasis on the
provision of basic education, especially for girls, and on increasing their performance and retention.
38.6 Madam President, the focus of our efforts is on capacity-building for expanding access to and improving
the quality of education. In this context, emphasis is placed on improving teacher education, school supervision,
the development of learner-centred curricula and the provision of basic learning materials and suitable
educational facilities.
38.7 In the overall context of our efforts to achieve education for all, basic education is being generalized to
extend learning opportunities to all unreached communities. We have also established a basic education cycle
aimed at ensuring nine years of uninterrupted schooling. The objective of this subprogramme is to promote basic
skills related to real-life situations and to serve as a vehicle for more functional knowledge, skills, attitudes and
values directly linked to the objectives of the national socio-economic development strategy. It is also to serve as
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