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Gambia Still At High Risk of Debt Distress
Sunday, 04 September 2011 23:08
(DailyNews) - The Gambia is still classified as high risk of debt distress even though the country received extensive debt
relief under the Highly Indebted Poor Countries and Multilateral Debt Relief Initiatives in 2007.This was revealed by a study report on the establishment of national civil society education fund to be validated this Thursday.
As at the end of 2009, external debt stood at 34 percent of country Gross Domestic Product (GDP) while total public sector debt was 54 percent of the GDP.
This has severe cost implications for the government and the economy as interest on debt alone consumed nearly 20 percent of government revenues in 2009.
The report further reveals that public capital expenditure was 3.6 % in 2009 but represented on average nearly 2.2 % of the GDP over the last three years. The country’s capital expenditure is largely supported by foreign funding through grants and loans and this represents 7 percent of the GDP over the last five years.
Poverty Rates Are High
The rate of poverty is high in The Gambia even though there has been a decline between the years of 2003 to 2008 from 59% to 56%, says the report.
To address this high rate of poverty, the government intends to shift the focus of its poverty reduction strategy towards increasing economic growth, employment and stepping up infrastructure investment.
To this end, the PRSP 11 (2007 to 2011) will be replaced by the Programme for Accelerated Growth and Employment (PAGE).
Sustainable Development
The elimination of poverty and progress towards sustainable development can only be realized with increased and improved levels of education.
The Gambia has demonstrated high political will and leadership backed by strong implementation and human capacity; long-term institutional reform of the education sector including devolution of responsibility and accountability to local levels says the report.
Literacy
A significant progress has been made in increasing enrolment in the basic education and secondary levels.
At the Lower Basic Cycle (LBC) level, the gross enrolment rate increase from 82 % to 92% from 2001/2002- 2007/2008 taking into account the “Madrassa” enrolment.
During the same period, the gross enrolment rate for girls increased appreciably from 80 % to 92% while the gross enrolment rate for boys increased slightly from 85 % to 87 %.
In the Upper Basic Cycle (UBC), the gross enrolment rate increased from 43 % to 65 %. However, the period 2005/2006- 2007/2008 witnessed a drop in the net enrolment rate for boys from 62 percent to 58 percent whilst that of the girls slightly increased from 56 percent to 60 percent.
According to the report, the gender parity index (GPI) in 2006 was 1.03 percent at the LBC and at the UBC was 0.91 percent.
Further more, there are demographic, wealth and education disparities in access. The further East one goes up country, the lower the completion and intake rates.
In terms of Primary Completion Rate, The Gambia has 73 percent completion rate which compares favourably with the sub-Saharan average of 69 percent.
Meaning that out of 100 children who attend Lower Basic School, 73 will be expected to reach Grade 6, 60 will reach Grade 9 and 26 will reach Grade 12.
This indicated that there is a pyramid effect - the higher one goes up the pyramid the more the figures reduce, says the report.
Gains
The quantitative gains have not been matched with quality gains. A number of studies including the monitoring learning achievement studies, the national assessment tests, the country status reports and the West African Examinations Council reports revealed that few students reach the minimum required standards in the core subjects.
Note: The Civil Society Education Fund (CSEF) is a major global initiative of the Global Campaign on Education (GCE) to secure more international support to sustain civil society advocacy for education.
During the study, it was noticed that there are gaps in the present aid architecture around education and thus proposed the setting up of the National Civil Society Education Funds (NCSEFs), as an effective way to fill those gaps.
By the end of June 2010, the CSEF covered 40 countries in Latin America, Asia and Africa. The Education for All Campaign Network-The Gambia (EFANet), was among the 40 countries that benefited from CSEF.
The report revealed that the Commonwealth Education Fund(CEF) and the Global Campaign on Education(GCE) advocated with the World Bank and a grant of $17.6 million was made available by the Committee of the Education Programme Development Fund(EPDF) in 2008.
The funds were to be used to ‘provide support to the core work of national education coalitions so that they can fully engage in the development of education sector programmes with governments and donors and track the progress of national governments and local donor groups working towards the Education for All (EFA),’ goals.
Written by Lamin Njie
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Comments
This is what starts Islamic fundamentalism.
We don't need this in the Gambia.
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