Conteh make these remarks recently during the closing ceremony of a week-long internal training course for NEA inspectors, documentalists, Accountants, etc on data base management at the NEA’s documentation centre in Banjul. He called on the participants to be very practical in what they have learnt during the training

The trainers, Alieu Touray and Malick Sarr from the Ecological Monitoring Centre for the Natural Resources Management and Technical staff from Dakar, Senegal said training on data bases is a key instrument in this generation. They said that information technology is a vital component that cannot be left behind in our development endeavours, and therefore needs to be harnessed for the young workers. He further took the opportunity and call on the trainees to disseminate the knowledge learnt to others who did not have the opportunity to attend the training.

The training co-ordinator Dodou Trawally, Senior Programme Officer at the Geographical Information Systems of the NEA, said the success behind every institution is the training and capacity building of its staff.

On  Tuesday, as part of their continued nationwide tour of schools, the executives of the Young Journalist Association of the Gambia (YJAG) visited SOS Hermann Gminer Technical and Kotu senior secondary schools in Bakoteh and Kotu respectively.

Addressing meetings at the two schools, Demba Kandeh, Secretary General of YJAG, informed students that the purpose of the tour was to build relationships with press clubs, introduce the association to them and to help provide counseling on journalism to the country’s potential future journalists.

He used the forum to outline the aims, objectives and future plans of the association to students who were eager to know more about YJAG.

Musa Ndow, first vice president of the association, recalled the numerous activities carried out since the establishment of the young professional body some seven months ago. He also encouraged girls to consider becoming journalists noting that journalism is a noble profession for both men and women.

In his welcoming remarks, Mr. Hassan S.Conteh of the language department of SOS said that the school used to have what they called Radio SOS but this is not active any more.  He stressed  that they do have a magazine called TAMA, which usually contains all the information about the school in an academic year and stories written by their students.

For his part, Mr. Nfamara Jawneh, president of YJAG, expressed his happiness upon visiting his alma mater, SOS Hermann Gminer Technical senior secondary school.

The YJAG leader recalled that in his school days at SOS he served as the assistant head boy and president of the school press club known as Radio SOS. He said that Radio SOS used to be very active during his time and encouraged the school authorities to reactivate it in the interests of the students.

Mr.Jawneh advised the students to work hard and maintain the culture of writing and reading in order for them to become successful journalists in the future.  He concluded by urging the students to keep the flag of SOS flying high.

At Kotu Senior secondary school the strong leader of YJAG used the forum to once again clarify the differences between Young Journalists Association of the Gambia (YJAG) and Young People in the Media (YPM).

The two meetings were chaired by Assan Sallah, the Public Relations Officer of YJAG, who thanked both the students and their coordinators for the warm welcome that YJAG received.

At both SOS and Kotu students expressed their unshakable loyalty and support for YJAG.

The vote of thanks was delivered by Ebrima Saidy at SOS and by Awa Conateh at Kotu.

Abdoulie Conteh, Arts & Craft teacher with Charles Fowlis Senior Secondary School, is guilty of financial impropriety and the Kanifing Magistrates’ Court will decide his fate at the end of April.

Abdoulie is expected to be convicted on the 30th of April 2008, after accepting responsibility for diverting, into his own use, D13,150; money paid by students of Fowlis as examination fees.

Narrating the facts of the matter, 870 Touray, prosecuting, adduced that Abdoulie Conteh was given the money in contention by students to pay up for their fees for the Arts & Craft paper.

According to officer Touray, Conteh had instead used the D13,150 to pay up the school fees of his son. Thereafter, added Touray, the principal of the school lodged a complaint to the Kanifing Estate police station where Conteh confessed to stealing the money. Touray say that D2000 was recovered from him. The sum was tendered in court as a piece of evidence and was admitted and marked as an exhibit.

Meanwhile, Conteh was given bail in the sum of D13,200 and must provide a Gambian surety who fulfils the bail requirements.

His case resumes on April 30th.

Mr Abdoulie Conteh, widely known by his sobriquet, Lai, former Mayor of the Kanifing Municipal council, yesterday appeared before Justice Yemoa of the Banjul High Court.

Mr Conteh’s appearance in court was in respect of a criminal case filed by the state against him since 2006.

However the case was later struck out by the Banjul High Court, a decision the state appealed against at the Court of Appeal. The Court of Appeal upheld the appeal and ordered the state to amend the charge and continue with the case.

At yesterday’s hearing of the case, the court also ordered the state to regularise their case, before adjourning it to 2nd May 2008.