By Seedy Jobe
The Minister of Basic and Secondary Education, Hon. Dr. Habibatou Drammeh, on Thursday outlined the government’s decision to prohibit graduation ceremonies for nursery and primary schools, citing the need to prioritize teaching and learning at the foundational levels.
Speaking on QTV’s This Morning program, Dr. Drammeh said the directive, issued officially via the ministry’s Facebook page, was intended to relieve schools of burdensome activities and redirect resources toward improving classroom instruction.
“We want to redirect that effort to enhancing teaching and learning at the lower levels,” Dr. Drammeh said. “The directive came out, so it came from the ministry’s official Facebook page, meaning it is coming from us, and we indulge all school authorities, especially at the level of the nursery, the ECDs, and the lower basic, the primary level, to abide by the regulation and focus more on teaching and learning so that we can enhance quality.”
She explained that the decision followed consultations with school administrators, parents, and students, who highlighted the challenges associated with organizing graduation events.
“During my school visitations, I engaged not only with school authorities but also with parents and, in some cases, students,” she said. “It became clear that certain activities undertaken by schools have become troublesome and burdensome.”
“During my school visitations, I had engagements not only with the school authorities, who are also engaged parents, and in some cases students,” she said. “Just to have a general feel of the perspectives of the people, and it came out very clearly that certain activities within or that the schools are undertaking have been troublesome.”
The ban applies to all educational institutions, including public and private schools as well as recognized madrasas. “So we don’t want any public, private, or madrasa in this country to conduct graduation for its ECD or primary school,” she stated.
Addressing concerns about alternatives for fostering public speaking skills, Dr. Drammeh emphasized that schools could organize such activities in other formats. “Public speaking events can be organized in several forms. I mean, you don’t only expect a child to demonstrate skills of public speaking during graduation. So it is part of the activities that the schools are doing to be innovative,” she said.
Dr. Drammeh also assured that the ministry would enforce the directive consistently, citing a track record of compliance with previous policies. “All the directives from the sector, especially between 2025 and now, have been abided by,” she said.
Responding to objections from private schools, she noted that these institutions rely on tuition fees and would not receive government subsidies for graduation events.
“You call them private schools, and the private schools, they charge fees; they collect fees from the students. And it is true that those fees that they use to run the school, so you don’t expect the government to subsidise or give a subvention to a fee-paying school.”
Dr. Drammeh concluded by urging all schools to focus on improving learning outcomes. “Let’s put more effort, like I said, in teaching and learning; we have done a lot of work in the sector, assessing school performances. We know the schools that are doing well. We know the schools that have poor performance. And we will get to all of them one by one. And we are going to be very serious about it,” she said.
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