By Seedy Jobe
The Ministry of Basic and Secondary Education has begun a nine-month pilot program aimed at embedding a structured parenting course into the country’s pre-primary education system, an effort officials say could reshape how families support early childhood learning at home.
The initiative, developed in partnership with Lively Minds, seeks to equip parents with practical skills to nurture children’s development while strengthening classroom instruction through play-based teaching methods.
In a statement posted on the ministry’s official Facebook page, officials said the pilot would provide technical support to design and test a parenting curriculum intended to help families offer quality early learning and care. The program also aims to identify a model that can be scaled nationally using existing government systems and resources.
Central to the project is a train-the-trainers approach, designed to ensure the program can be sustained and expanded at relatively low cost. The ministry said it would develop teaching materials, tools, and technical capacity during the pilot, positioning the government for rapid nationwide rollout if the effort proves successful.
The inaugural meeting for the initiative was chaired by Roheyatou Kah, deputy permanent secretary for educational policies, and brought together task force members and key stakeholders. Participants reviewed the project’s scope and timelines and clarified roles and responsibilities, laying the groundwork for implementation.
Education officials described the pilot as part of a broader push to strengthen foundational learning and improve early childhood development outcomes across The Gambia.
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