Only Primary School or Lower Basic School Kids! No Exceptions, please!
To the parent, guardian, or older sibling: Please help the kid cut out a piece of paper to write his/her name, date of birth, town/village/city, and then three sentences answering the question below.
Please help them understand the question but don’t write anything for them. If they misspell, just allow them to express themselves. Please take a snapshot of their paper and send it to our Whatsapp (001) 417-619-6943.
Essay Question:
If you are a judge at a beauty contest and the participants are Dou Sanno, Ebrima G. Sankareh, Fabakary Tombong Jatta, and Rambo Jatta; who do you think is best-looking and Why? Write three sentences to support your choice.
Parents should encourage their children to love reading and writing. In 2020, we introduced essay writing competitions among Gambian students in The Gambia, not abroad. Data analysts can tell you education and exam results have been deteriorating in The Gambia.
We will continue doing what we do. Years ago, this editor asked some Gambian high school students which books they ever read from cover to cover and the answer was none. Who do we blame—parents, schools, teachers, government, etc.,?
Around 1988 when this editor was in the third grade (Primary three), the Jawara government introduced The Gambia National Library in Brikama. The first staff included, perhaps volunteers (usually Caucasians from abroad).
A friend of this editor, thirty-seven years ago came to him one day at Kabafita Primary School and informed him of something he pronounced as, “Laye Bree.” He said people go there to borrow books after registration.
The registration fee, if memory served well, was around fifty-bututs. The “Laye Bree” rule required each student’s teacher to sign on the form which would be signed and stamped by the principal or headmaster as we called them.
Master Badjie (of blessed memory) of Kabafita Primary School signed and stamped the form after the class teacher. We would walk from Kabafita to opposite Gambia College (where the first Brikama Library was) and then to Brikama New Town.
The reading culture took off! It never disappointed this editor at Kabafita Primary. It never disappointed at Brikama Secondary Technical School. It never disappointed at Gambia High. It Never disappointed at the Daily Observer.
And certainly, it never disappointed in the United States where this editor won money among colleges and universities during both journalism and nursing schools. Yes, lust for reading and writing arms you both in the arts and sciences with degrees in both.
We want Gambian kids to feel motivated and enthused. We want you to love books—it doesn’t matter what subject. We encourage the STEM courses fervently. It was our plan to send winners cell phones. But too much screen time erodes attention span and book appetite. Please let’s read and write—for The Gambia, our cute country!
