Set in contemporary Gambia and England, UK, “Reading the Ceiling” by Dayo Forster is a riveting novel that centres on the experiences of a Gambian female student who epitomises many of her generation. The narrative style being the simple present tense of the first person singular, the discerning reader would notice that the story is a representation of a typical experience, especially among career girls, though to some extent it deals with prevailing attitudinal realities.

Forster skillfully depicts an adolescent schoolgirl who, after transiting from the innocence of childhood into adulthood by dint of an amorous adventure, comes to realise the enormity of the challenges of the life of a grown-up. The task of making potentially far-reaching choices among a host of alternatives, after having been already prejudiced for the wrong or right reasons, confronted the main character, Ayodele, both at home and in far away England. In both phases the story shows how impressionable and, by extension, susceptible she has been, especially as regards romantic relationship.

The book details an account of the escapades of the average school-goer, particularly the outgoing, socialite girl who, out of curiosity and sheer bravado, goes against the proprieties and ends up exposing herself to complexities she is ill prepared to deal with.

The diction, having a blend of local terminology, readily appeals to the comprehension of the indigenous reader while at the same time makes for the understanding of the non-Gambian reader with accompanying explanations of such terminology, amounting to definitions of sorts.

The challenges and demands that marriage life poses, particularly to the female party in the Gambian social set-up, are portrayed while simultaneously the effects on the social status of the female being single, regardless of economic position, are spelt out.

Aside from vivid descriptions of The Gambia’s maritime scenery, the author also treats the reader to graphic accounts of objectionable realities in Gambian officialdom as she sees it while showing the opportunities that are up for grabs for well-performing overseas-educated returnee graduates.

An all pervasive thread that runs throughout the story is the comparative merits of relationships, both conjugal and casual, a comparison which in the denouement tips the scale in favour of married life in spite of the odds.

The book, available at Timbooktoo Bookshop, is compelling read for students with career ambitions, career people, notably women and all interested in following current trends in social intercourse.

The SBEC International School, in Bijilo village Western Region, has organized a literacy learning week, which got underway last Monday. The week aims to help people increase their knowledge with a special emphasis on reading and writing.

In his welcoming remarks, the PRO of SBEC International School Mr Lewis Brown said the importance of literacy in learning to grow cannot be over emphasized. He added that the ability to read and write helps us to keep records. According to Mr Brown we read and write to know how life is and, consequently, children in his school will benefit greatly from the tutelage they are receiving there.

The PRO went on to explain that in 2001 the school was officially opened by President Jammeh and is now in its sixth year of operation. The school consists of both nursery primary and high school but the high school stops at form one.

Figures disclosed by Mr Browne show a school population of about six hundred pupils and thirty members of staff. Both French and English are taught at the school.
For his part Mr Bolong Landing Sonko said that SBEC International School remains one of the most important institutions involved in promoting literacy and knowledge in general.

He continued saying that while our education systems continue to receive a substantial portion of government and donor funds there still remains much work to be done. In conclusion Mr Sonko said that it is peoples responsibility as Gambians, and Africans, to address our development needs and priorities successfully. He expressed the view that our present predicament is the result of our inability to take full advantage of the large body of knowledge already in the marketplace. 

With formal education systems crumbling in much of sub-Saharan Africa, educationalists are looking more to informal systems of education taught in local languages.

"Every child and adult should be able learn in their own language, especially in the face of staggering failure rates from the French education system," said Sonja Diallo, director of Associates in Research and Education for Development (ARED), a non-profit group based in Senegal that promotes learning in African languages.

She points out that it takes about 300 hours to make a student literate and learn basic maths skills in their own languages, whereas reaching grade six in the formal system takes a total of 7,000 hours.

The type of education that people get in their own languages is also more practical. “People here have found the confidence and skills to keep accounts and organise themselves,” said Ousmane Mamadou Ba, who went through a non-formal education programme in the northern Senegalese town of Podor and now teaches in his native language of Pulaar subjects ranging from animal health to AIDS awareness.

“We've been able to improve farming in the area by teaching farmers how to get the most from their crops. And newly literate local leaders are encouraging our youth to educate themselves about Pulaar culture,” he said. “People have become really interested in reading and learning about themselves."

ARED has produced over 150 fiction and non-fiction books in Pulaar and five other Senegalese languages.

Learning in local languages has gained new impetus and was one of the issues discussed in a meeting organised by UNESCO earlier in September in Bamako to promote global literacy.

The formal system

For Diallo, who presented a paper at the conference, "[Families] sending children to formal schools is a bit like playing lottery with their lives."

"In rural areas families scrape and save to send their kids to school, knowing quite well that they probably won't make it past the sixth grade," she said. A staggering 75 percent of children fail the seventh grade entrance exam and are forced out of the system, she said.

Learning in a foreign language is a big part of the problem, she said. "What we must understand is how incredibly difficult it is for most Senegalese students to succeed in the formal system. A great number of them enter primary school not speaking the language of instruction," Diallo said.

"They are destined to fail from the start," she said.

Moreover, with massive unemployment in formal sector jobs in Africa the formal education system is teaching students skills that are not uthey need to further their lives. "It’s great for those who will make it to formal sector or urban jobs,” educationalist Molly Melching, director of Tostan, a non-governmental organisation (NGO) supporting non-formal education in West Africa, told IRIN, “but for those returning to rural communities they are left with skills they may never use."

Alternatives

Proponents of non-formal education are not calling for the formal education system to be replaced, but for people to be given other options. "Non-formal education is not concretely opposed to the French formal system," Diallo said.

“Instead, it provides an alternative for people who have very little chance of succeeding in a top-down system.”

The alternatives should be designed and structured by local communities, to meet local needs, the proponents say. The education programmes start with literacy in local languages and basic maths skills, and then cover human rights, gender equality, health as well as agricultural issues.

"Communities choose subjects that apply to their lives," Diallo said.

While the programmes do not lead to a degree or certificate, advocates of the system say they are crucial to community driven development.

"It gives them the tools to drive their own development, which is entirely more sustainable than any development initiative imposed from the outside," Melching said.

'Faire-Faire'

In Senegal the government has had a plan in place for more than a decade to revitalise the country's education system through the use of national languages and promoting local cultures.

The plan, called 'Faire-Faire' (make happen), is intended to provide community driven education outside of formal schools. It is an idea that has spread to other countries in Francophone Africa, including Burkina Faso, Niger, Mauritania and Mali.

Fary Ka, a former adviser to the Minister of Literacy in Senegal who now works as a consultant and researcher on non-formal education, has called the programme "an alternative to the failed mirage of formal education which creates civil servants, elites and intellectuals".

Yet of the 18.9 percent of the US$3 billion Senegalese state budget that goes to education only 1 percent of that is directed towards non-formal education programmes.

"It's amazing that more money is not directed towards these programmes," says Diallo. “Non-formal education plays such an essential role in levelling the playing field in Africa.”

Community Radio broadcasters recently concluded a three-day training course sponsored by UNESCO Breda at the Paradise Suites Hotel.

Eight participants drawn from community radios concluded the training course which aimed at improving their skills on both news gathering techniques, writing, reporting, reading as well as internet news awareness.

Mr Bora Mboge, Course Coordinator, urged the participants to make good use of the knowledge they gain in order to better serve their respective communities and abide by the ethics of journalism.

Sainey Dibba, from Farafenni Community Radio, on behalf of the participants, thanked Mr Mboge for his expertise and assured him that the knowledge gained from the training will be utilised effectively.

The Burkina Faso government will distribute millions of free books to primary school students and launch a pilot project to give no-fee schooling in a push to curb the number of people in the country growing up without even basic education.

“This is the end of the time when reading and maths textbooks are seen as luxury items for parents,” pledged Odile Bonkoungou, minister of basic education and literacy, on 27 August, launching the free books project.

Some 10.5 million books for primary school children in reading and maths classes have already been ordered, according to Bonkoungou. Of those, 3.5 million will be distributed this academic year.

The programme will cost the government 1.5 billion CFA francs (US$3.1 million) in 2007, and 1.2 billion CFA francs (US$2.4 million) every subsequent year.

Burkina Faso’s education ministry is also experimenting with no-fee schooling in 45 departments around the country this academic year. The initiative will be extended to the rest of the country in 2011. The project is in line with a push from the World Bank and the UN to encourage free education in developing countries worldwide.

“Education is the most important factor to eradicate poverty and studies have shown that a farmer that has not been to school has a 90 percent chance of reproducing a child like himself,” Prime Minister Tertius Zongo said in an interview with state media.

In 2001, the Burkina Faso government launched a 235 billion-CFA francs plan for the development of basic education (PDDEB), meant to raise the national primary education rate to 70 percent by 2010.

So far the primary education rate is 41 percent for girls and 53.8 percent for boys, and overall literacy is at 32 percent, according to government figures. The country is not expected to meet the UN Millennium Development Goal on education.

In some parts of the remote northern Sahel region, and in the east of the country, less than 20 percent of girls go to school.

A three-day Pan-African Literature Festival, which brought together both local and international renowned authors, writers, poets, literature-lovers, academia from England, The Gambia, Ghana, Nigeria, Kenya, among other countries, recently ended at the Sun Beach Hotel in Cape Point, Bakau.

The forum was meant to serve as a meeting point for the participants to brainstorm on burning issues that affect growth, promotion and preservation of the spirit of reading and writing in Africa and the world at large. It is also meant to mould and expose young prospective writers, intellectuals, etc, to the new trends in the world of literature.

The literature forum showcases exhibition of books, newsletters, magazines, etc authored by both local and international writers.

Kadija George-Ceesay, founder of SABLE Magazine based in the UK, speaking to Arts and Culture, noted that the first literature festival was held in the UK in 2005.”We decided to organise the literature festival outside London so that it can benefit African writers, that’s why we decided to come to The Gambia. We chose The Gambia, due to the beautiful location of the country,” she noted.

Mrs George-Ceesay acknowledged her association’s desired to have link with the bi-annual Roots Home-coming Festival and what they can do for the Gambian writers, depending on what they want and the type of support we can give them.

Swati Khurana, Indian born international artist based in the USA hailed the literature forum as a right step in the right direction towards developing, promoting and preserving the spirit of reading and writing in Africa and the world at large.

She expressed profound gratitude and opportunity accorded to her to participate in the forum. The Indian born artist described literature as the bedrock of any meaningful development, noting that art is a creative and noble profession which ought to be inculcated in children at their tender age.

She expressed optimism that the forum will have positive impact on both participants and outsiders. She then commended their Gambian counterparts for accepting to host the event.

Dorothea Smart and Andrea Enisuoh, writers, poets, cum journalists working for the New Magazine hailed the forum as a wonderful idea meant to re-enforce the spirit of writing and reading in Africa people and the world at large.

They jointly gave a brief overview of the association.