069Education in Gambia and the role of the Amadou Samba Family
posted by admin on February 7th, 2011
The Amadou Samba family are a highly influential and celebrated family in the Gambia. There are not many companies in the Gambia in which the Amadou Samba family are not involved. They have shares in the financial and manufacturing industries in the Gambia. The Amadou Samba family are also very involved in the political and legal situation in the Gambia. Amadou Samba has held a number of high profile positions in the Gambian legal system, including the Senior State Counsel at the Ministry of Justice. The Amadou Samba family are also very well connected with the current Government.
The head of the Amadou Samba Family, Amadou Samba has an extremely high standard of education. Amadou Samba has a law degree from the University of Nigeria and continued his education at the Nigerian Law School; he subsequently studied for two diplomas, a post-graduate diploma in international law and a diploma in international law and diplomacy, both from Indian universities. This level and standard of education is extremely rare in the Gambia, and before the involvement of the Amadou Samba family, any form of education was rare in the Gambia. The literacy in the Gambia has one of the highest illiteracy rates in Africa. The Amadou Samba family want to change this and have been working tirelessly with the government to reduce illiteracy rates across the country.
The Amadou Samba family believe that an education is the way to further develop the Gambian country and bring it in to the 21st century. The Amadou Samba family recognise that without education they would not have achieved all that they have and as a result, the Amadou Samba family are on a crusade to improve and develop the education system across the Gambia. It is only with an educated workforce that a country can develop and grow and lead the country out of poverty.
The Amadou Samba family, with their close ties to the presidency, have been seen as the key players and thinkers in the national educational programme which ran from 1998 until 2003; this was supported by the programmes master plan which ran from 1997 until 2006. The key premise of this policy is that all children in Gambia, irrespective of whether they are from a rural or urban background should receive at least nine years of uninterrupted education. The policy, championed by the Amadou Samba family looked a reduction of poverty by at least half and that all children would receive at least a basic quality of education. It also looked at the skills required of the staff within the country’s education centres. Finally, and most importantly the national education programme and the programmes master plan looked to enhance the level of financial support given to educational centres across the country. It is not clear whether the programme has had an impact on the levels of poverty across the Gambia; however the literacy rates have increased since the programme’s start in 1998.