Here is what every stakeholder in Education should know about the โFoundational Learning Programmeโ supported by the World Bank under the RISE Project.
The Gambia’s education system follows a 3-6-3-3-4 structure, starting with 3 years Early Childhood Development (ECD), followed by 6 years Lower Basic Education (LBE), 3 years Upper Basic Education (UBE), 3 years Secondary Education (SE), and 4 years tertiary education (TE).
Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, foundational learning and foundational learning skills, which are typically developed in the Early Years of Education, mainly from Pre-Primary through the Early Primary Grades, from ECD to Grade 3, was already a critical bottleneck in The Gambia’s education system.
Data from Early Grade Reading Assessments (EGRA) 2016 highlighted the issue, with lower grade learners averaging only 20% correct answers in reading comprehension.
According to the Education Service Delivery Indicators (SDI) 2020, approximately 90% of 10-year-olds struggle to read and understand a simple text.
National Assessment Test (NAT) results from 2022 reinforce these concerns, with average scores of 40.22 and 38.37 out of 100 in English and mathematics, respectively, for Grade 3 learners in public schools.
Regional disparities are also evident, with lower learning outcomes observed in poorer, inland, and upper regions. These challenges have significant consequences, as learners with weak foundational skills are more likely to repeat grades, drop out, and face difficulties in further education.
The 2023 WASSCE results indicate that around only 20% of learners obtain 5 or more credits in English and mathematics, further underscoring the need for urgent action.
Achieving MoBSEโs policy goal of 80 percent of children meeting minimum learning standards requires a more comprehensive approach to improve foundational learning.
To this end, MoBSE has undertaken a number of initiatives.
One is developing a new competency-based curriculum that is ready to be piloted. This new curriculum offers a transformative opportunity to reorient and improve the quality of Basic Education, especially given its renewed emphasis on Early Grade reading and the proposed utilization of both national languages and English in the early grades.
MoBSE has also conducted a language mapping to provide comprehensive data on language prominence and distribution at the school level, alongside insights into key stakeholdersโ perceptions regarding the use of national languages as a medium of instruction.
Based on the language mapping exercise, the following national languages are proposed as medium of instructions in schools/ communities where they are most widely spoken across the country.
1. Mandinka 2. Pulaar 3. Olof 4. Sarahuleh 5. Serer 6. Jola 7. Manjack.
The biggest initiative taken to date by MoBSE is the engagement of Learning Masterminds, and its collaborating partners, as an implementation partner under the Gambia RISE projectโs Foundational Learning (FL) component to improve foundational learning outcomes for early-grade students (ECDโGrade 3) in The Gambia and strengthen MoBSEโs capacity for sustainable implementation and scaling.
The scope of the Gambia RISE FL project is nationwide, with a focus on ECD Levels 2 and 3, through grade (G3) of the Lower Basic Education , reaching 181,161 learners (disaggregated by 47% boys and 53% girls) in 601 public ECD centres, and 250,319 learners (disaggregated by 47% boys and 53% girls) in 641 public LBS in all 8 regions.
The MoBSE leadership is conscious of the fact that, addressing the crucial Early Years of Education Development and the Foundational stages of Lower Basic Education will help strengthen the Quality of Education during these formative years, laying a solid foundation for learners’ academic progression, lifelong learning and open doors for future opportunities.
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