Teach For The Gambia

I am an early childhood and education justice advocate. In 2016 started and run the first fully implemented Montessori School in The Gambia.  I have organised  three Montessori assistant certificate courses in Nigeria and Gambia to introduce parents, caregivers, teachers and policy makers to peaceful, holistic and emancipatory education. At the same time I have been working to understand the wider context of Education in The Gambia, engaging communities, stakeholders on education justice. I co-organised the first ever national dialogue on education. I have built strong relationships with the Ministry of Education, Stakeholders, communities and have an MOU to place Teach For The Gambia fellows in public schools across the country.  I received a public commendation from the deputy minister for assisting the Ministry with their Covid19 efforts. Prior to this work, I owned and recruitment firm serving clients in Africa, Europe and the Middle East.

Retaining most of it's colonial design, Gambia's education system fails to provide graduates with the contextualized practical, skills, knowledge and critical consciousness to transform our realities.  The education system upholds oppressive colonial systems such as power and cultural domination, socio-economic class inequities; and presents knowledge as an exclusively western concept.  High unemployment rates and abysmal pass rates, 80% of grade 12 students fail the high school exit exam are some of its outcomes.

TFTG trains high potential leaders, in contextualized critical pedagogy and emancipatory Montessori education.  In partnership with communities fellows will serve in public schools for a period of two years to transform educational outcomes for children, and harness the power and knowledge of communities to solve their most pressing challenges. Fellowship alumni continue to work within a global network to end systemic issues that affect education and our communities. 

Leading to greater individual and community self-reliance and self-determination 

The colonial design and purpose of The Gambia's education system does not serve our current reality. Designed to train subservient colonial government clerks, graduates of this system lack the skills, knowledge, or critical consciousness required to build tangible, independent solutions to our nation's problems.  We believe the education system creates a dependency on foreign aid our national debt is 81.8% of GDP; as innovation and divergent thinking is stifled in schools.  West is best is the pervasive thought, the education system relies on foreign aid, consultants, books and furniture. Our communities are equally dependent on aid for the ever-elusive development and the culture of learned helplessness is pervasive. Parents cite the lack of relevance to on-ground realities, and high youth unemployment rates (34%) for their loss of faith in conventional education as they do not realize a return on their investment. 1/3 of Gambian children are not in school.  Gambia is the smallest country in continental Africa yet has one of the highest economic migration rates in Africa.  TFTG is trying to solve is the lack of a decolonized curriculum, relevant and practical critical pedagogy which powers communities to come up with solutions to their problems.

We partner with communities to recruit a diverse range of potential leaders for our fellowship program.  Fellows are trained in critical pedagogy, leadership and emancipatory Montessori education.  They are then placed in communities and schools as full-time teachers for a period of two years.

In the two year period, fellows work in the classrooms to transform the educational outcomes for children.  Relying on holistic, education where children learn through practice, fellows develop the critical thinking skills, self-esteem, agency and leadership of children. Using critical pedagogy fellows center the experiences, knowledge and history of Gambia and the West Africa region. uring the two-year fellowship fellows are prepared for life long leadership through ongoing practical training in entrepreneurial, policy, community development or education leadership.

Fellows work in communities through adult literacy programs which are interwoven with parent education, skills training and community-led productive programs. 

Alumni of our fellowship movement become members of the global Teach For All network who are working to end systemic issues which affect the education of the children's potential.

TFTG provides various skills training for communities including garment manufacturing, organic farming and horticulture,food processing, bricklaying and essential oil production.

TFTG will serve students, youth, parents and communities, who have been socio-economically or ethnically marginalized, and are connected to schools we place fellows in. We adopt a holistic and systemic needs assessment, going beyond schools, to community gardens, youth centers, universities, activist spaces, workshops, hospitals and religious centers to listen to needs and probe to understand the deeper underlying issues. We have applied critical pedagogy in community group discussions on dogma, poverty and power, to visualise what transformation looks like and what our individual and collective roles are.

On the surface our communities may appear deprived, unconventionally educated and without traditionally recognised skills.  The communities we seek to serve reflect a wide range of aspirations and a wealth of knowledge and experiences.  Yafatou in the women's garden in Wassadou, had never been to school yet could teach a university class on organic pesticides and fertilisers.

Through community engagement we have shifted from a generic "quality education" leading to jobs and skills, to a more holistic model that involves critical thought, self-knowledge, service to the community, values, global awareness, action and indigenous knowledge which leads not only to work and skills but to self-reliance, self-determination and individual wholeness 

TFTG works to elevate educational opportunity, by re-imagining education as a means to self-reliance and self-determination for Gambians and Africans by extenstion.  We envision education as a community practice, involving the community as fellows, designers, co-learners but more importantly as key actors in the transformation of their reality.  We elevate opportunity for unconventional leaders who may not have excelled in education to bring a unique perspective and compassion to assist students who are struggling with learning.  We elevate opportunities for communities to share their knowledge and be remunerated for it. 

I moved to The Gambia in 2016 and started a Montessori School, at the tail end of a when  22 year dictatorship  While it was inconceivable at that time that Jammeh would be removed in my lifetime, I wanted to contribute to a generational shift in perspective of leadership from one of power over to collective collaborative, conscious and compassionate leadership.  I knew how we educate our children was the key.  

A few months after returning I began the ongoing engagement with  public schools and the Ministry of Education. I learned that system of colonial education we had retained had not evolved to suit our needs, that policy for education was predominantly determined by international donors, and there was a general lack of self-belief in autonomous Gambian designed and led development. 

I began to spend time in communities, in public schools, with teachers, I became a member of the Local Education group, I invested in understanding the thinking behind education design and implementation and the impact it had on communities, students and our economy.  I engaged Teach For All, understood their model, adapted it to our contextualized reality and TFTG is working towards partnership in their network.

As Gambian who has lived the impact of a people who are not self-reliant and do not have the power to determine their reality. I had to leave my country at 14, and subsequently watched my family fall apart because my father a anesthesiologist could not afford to provide for his family on his salary. Today I still see thousands of young people dying while trying to cross the Mediterranean for a better live in Europe.

Gambia is renown for child sex tourism, which is largely ignored by the government. In 2018 I caught a foreign diplomat having sex with a minor in the beach outside my school, but my government protected him because our country relies on aid to exist.

I am drawn to this work, because I truly believe that education through critical pedagogy is one of the key ways that Gambians, can be self-reliant  can truly begin to chart their own future. I think education that challenges us to think and act on our reality, one that celebrates who we are as a people, will increase our belief in ourselves and can restore the hope we have lost in ourselves and our ability to transform our country

I have spent the last 14 years as a social entrepreneur in training, development, education and recruitment.  This has given me insight into skills, knowledge, mindsets, awareness and attitudes for success. I have learned to learn usually from experience, to connect with people from different backgrounds.

In the Gambia i've travelled the length and breadth of the country meeting, learning and engaging with people. I have built strong relationships in communities and also strong allies in government, civil society, private busiensses, and politicians.  I have built a strong reputation of integrity and educational innovation.  We hold elections in 2021 and four of the major political party including the leading opposition party have asked me to contribute to their education manifestos.

I co-organised the First National Dialogue on Education in The Gambia, I also organised and co-funded the first two Association of Montessori International trainings in West Africa.

I engage a multi-prong approach to transformation utilising a combination of community immersed work, political activism, global networks and policy advocacy. I secured an MOU to place our fellows in public schools for the Ministry of Education.

I have employed critical pedagogy to change power over parenting attitudes to more child centered methods, incorporating Gambian culture into our classrooms, food and school traditions.  I have chosen to select teacher trainees who were failed by traditional education.  By providing them with Montessori training they discovered how to learn and we supported them through therapy and practice to build their self-esteem.

My school was shut down by the tourism authorities within a week of it closing, following three months of intimidation based on their claim that schools were not permitted in tourism spaces.  In the same week the Ministry of Education called me on an informal meeting, stating they had a received a call from the National Intelligence Agency (NIA) with was the secret police renown for disappearance and torture during the dictatorship'; and were thus recalling my school's licence to operate.  I asked to see the order in writing, and the education officials knowing the reputation of the NIA were scared to request for it. I went to the dreaded NIA headquarters and asked for clarification on the matter.  It turned out that NIA had no knowledge of my school, they summoned the tourism director and I, and asked us to present our cases.  I spoke about how the school was a great hope for the future of The Gambia, and how I had come home to invest in the future of our children.  Unbelievably the NIA director stated that I be given written permission to run my school in the location without issue.

Last year I was made aware that a teacher from the year before had physically violent to a child.  Although the child had left my school at that point, and the parents were not aware of the incident, I chose to tell his mother, who had left the school unhappy for unrelated reasons. 

I looked deeply into my role in the incident, I engaged existing staff in dialogue emphasising the difficulty of running a Montessori classroom, the unspoken pressure teachers faced in having to appear perfectly composed.  In the conversation I made it clear for staff to feel safe to say they were overwhelmed, or were struggling with a particular child or anything.  We began to work on a culture of responsibility as opposed to shame. 

I began to reflect on how my expectations were creating that expectation of perfection. I began to work on my ego's need for recognition and the impact that had on my team. I requested that my team call out instances when I was creating that unsafe space where they felt unduly pressured.

TFTG is disruptive as it is the first project to utilise critical pedagogy and Montessori in both a school setting and the community.  Previous education reform has been curricular, focusing mainly on what to learn as opposed to how to learn.  The use of practical, action-oriented, learning by doing and acting on our current realities is essentially new. 

Tapping into the pool of youth many who have not thrived in conventional educations as teachers is innovative, scientific learning through interest and by discovery of Montessori  will reignite a child like passion for learning in fellows, as they learn the tools of how to learn they discover that learning is indeed accessible to all. 

Another innovative aspect of our project is that we do not separate intellectual work from manual work.  Our fellows undertake skills training, they create their learning materials and it is through manual work with the community that they will conduct adult learning programs.

TFTG works on education for self-actualisation as opposed to education for skills, all of our fellows will be orientated as learners, they will go into the community and schools to learn as well as to be learned from.  This approach to valuing the inherent knowledge within our communities is also innovative.  Communities in The Gambia have resisted conventional education simply because they have felt pressured to reject their existing knowledge.   

TFTG is unprecedented in the Gambia as it helps learners develop a critical lens to examine power and oppression.

Activities: Recruiting, training and placing fellows in Public Schools for two years

Outputs: Engaged leaders in classroom can utilise Montessori training transform academic and socio-emotional outcomes for children in classrooms.

Outcomes: Students are academically stronger, have critical thinking skills and are pro-active learners with strong social skills. Lillard, A.S. & Else-Quest, N., “Evaluating Montessori Education,” Science 131: 1893-94 (Sept. 29, 2006).

Activities: Fellows work with communities to transform long term outcomes, through parent education, community impact and adult literacy

Outputs: Parents are more involved in their children's education and fellows gain better knowledge of their community

Outcomes: Community leadership increases,and communities come together to find solutions to their problems. Fellows leadership grows and they have deep understanding of the communities and can be part of systemic change (Teach For America Fellow Kaya Henderson was the DC Chancellor of Public Schools)

Our operations begin in 2021

We are currently serving 0 people

We will serve 1820 people in Year one

In Five years we will serve 12200

In the next year TFTG am planning to place the first cohort of 20 fellows in 5 rural schools.  At the same time we will be launching a year long garment making training for 40 women in the community.  

In 5 years we will place 180 fellows in 50 communities across the Gambia, and have trained 200 women in garment making, 1000 people in brickmaking, organic agriculture and toy/learning material making skills; in conjunction with our adult literacy courses.

During this period we will work to catalogue oral histories of the communities we serve and incorporate it into our training. We will work to catalogue, medicinal herbs and plants in the communities we work in

The financial barriers we face are fundraising during Covid19 especially for the  Montessori training which costs $60,000 .  Effective Montessori training has to be done face to face which presents a challenge.  Culturally we may struggle in the first few years with fellow retention, as many young people are constantly trying to leave The Gambia. 

Conventional education is being rejected by some communities especially very religious ones.  

Our program requires fellows to undergo a 12 week residential training, we expect this to be a barrier for some females from conservative families. By extension this will also apply to our female garment trainees.

If we fail to raise enough money to cover the training we will accept up to 5 private students who will cover the cost of training.

We are designing our recruitment to attract Gambians who want to stay and contribute.   We intend to pay a living wage to fellows so they can afford to stay in The Gambia and live in dignity.

We have learned that communities generally reject conventional education because it asks them to reject an aspect of their identity, be it religious, or cultural or ethnic beliefs.  While we will work with dismantling systems of oppression and bias, we do not go into communities with judgement, or that our way is better than what exists. Our approach is to value the knowledge that exists, and provide each adult/child learner with the skills to critically evaluate their knowledge through practice.

During the recruitment of our fellows we intend to engage members of their families to instill trust in the program so they can allow females to participate as fellows or garment trainees. 

We are working on partnering with Teach For All, we are an early stage entrepreneur.  Teach For All helps with organisational development and provides network learning opportunities.

Ministry of Basic and Secondary Education of The Gambia. TFTG is a member of the local education group. We helped immensely with the implementation of the Covid19 distance learning program and we contribute to policy design and teacher training.

Master G, we are working on a partnership to train rural women in dressmaking and equipping them with the skills to overcome systemic oppression.

Our financial sustainability will initially depend on grants however as an organisation working on self-reliance and self-determination we have outlined the following path to financial sustainability:

We intend to provide teacher training, set up a garment supply factory to provide pattern design and garment making services to Gambian designers, sell learning materials and toys and provide access to market for community gardens

$25,000 grant from the catalyst fund in October 2019