PRESIDENT BARROW BRIEFED ON IMPLEMENTATION OF THE DEV.BLUEPRINT

Officials from the education and information ministries have briefed President Adama Barrow on the progress of the implementation of his government’s development blueprint, the presidency has said.

According to a press release from the State House, Barrow has received ministers of higher and basic education and information on Tuesday.

During the briefing, the basic and secondary education ministries gave an overview of their efforts to align gender disparities and rural urban divide by reducing access to schools from 3 to 2 kilometers.

The other issues raised in the presentation included quality of education and retention of girls to complete basic and secondary education.

The higher education ministry focused on scholarship awards at tertiary institutions, regional distribution of centers of excellence and prioritization of professional education.

The higher education spoke of plans to prioritise capacity development and institutional strengthening such as transforming the Gambia College and Management Development Institute to universities.

The higher education also spoke of plans to ensure technical and vocational education trainings are decentralized at the regions.

The information and communication ministry outlined it strategies with targeted timeframes to enhance e-government, Cyber security and liberalise the international gateway.

It also reported on progress on a National Information and Communication Policy and strategy.

President Barrow commended the ministries and urged them to improve. He added that the NDP is the guide to all government sectors and they should work to achieve its targets through innovative means.

The group presentations were followed by comments and contributions on the state of alignment of the sectoral policies and plans in line with the NDP.

It also provided opportunity to monitor the coordination of sectoral activities on cross cutting issues and cabinet decisions.

The three briefing sessions were witnessed by Vice President, Fatoumata Jallow-Tambajang, Secretary General, Habib Drammeh and technical staff from the Office of the President and the Ministries. The Secretary to Cabinet, Ebrima Ceesay moderated the meeting.

It has been three months since the National Development Plan 2018-2021 was launched.