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Welcome to the Albaraca Nursery School, Sukuta, The Gambia, West Africa The beginning of 2008 saw the 10th Anniversary of the establishment of the Albaraca Nursery School. Please go to the School News page to find out more about the celebrations.
The Albaraca Nursery School provides nursery education for 150 children between the ages of three and seven. It is located in Sukuta, a medium-sized town in The Gambia, West Africa. There is no state provision of nursery school education in The Gambia, so the Albaraca Nursery School provides an important service to the community. The word "Albaraca" means "Thank you" in the local Mandinka language. The school is funded almost entirely by donations and sponsorship in the UK and has been established as a UK Registered Charity since 2001. The Albaraca Nursery School was built in a number of stages between August 1997 and January 2007. In 2003, the then Secretary of State for Education for The Gambia, Mrs. Ann-Therese Ndong Jatta, opened the school officially. A brief history of the school The project started when Rachael Wong and her parents, Margaret and John Adnitt visited the nursery school (then called the Kalabantang Nursery School) in its previous premises - a disused garage. It was obvious that the school needed new premises. Rachael, with colleagues from Barclays Offshore Services in London, raised £3,500 from a fun run around St James Park. This was used to buy a small piece of land in July 1997. and by the beginning of January 1998 the 25 pupils and two teachers transferred to the first classroom. When Mrs Jatta, Secretary of State for Education, opened the school officially in November 2002 she paid particular tribute to Bakary Jobe, a Gambian friend of the Trustees, and a manager at Kololi Beach Club. Bakary has rigorously supervised the construction of the school buildings. At the opening the continued support of Madi Jatta, a senior education officer in The Gambia, was also recognised. Madi has taken a close personal interest in the school since it opened, and has given invaluable help at several stages of its development. Educational philosophy The aim of the trustees of the school are:
To fulfil these aims the trustees send regular shipments of clothing and educational equipment donated by the school's many supporters in the UK. They also charge an extremely low monthly fee for attendance at the school (the equivalent of 12p a month). Funding The school is financed by sponsors, who each pay a minimum of £25 a year to sponsor a child. Other sponsors support the training of teachers. Sponsorship pays for the annual running costs of the school, principally the payment of teachers' salaries. Additional building and other capital projects over the years have been paid for by fund raising events and additional donations from private individuals and organisations in Norfolk and many other parts of the country. Fund raising events have included Gambian Evenings in the village hall at Stiffkey, where many of the Trustees live. These have included Gambian food prepared by some of the Trustees, and Gambian drumming by the Jole group of musicians from Norwich. Teaching Styles Traditionally teaching at all levels in The Gambia is very formal and relies on whole class rote learning. In most schools you hear pupils chanting spellings, tables, days of the week etc. It's fairly effective but not much fun, especially for very little ones. We have been encouraging the teachers at he school to encourage more independent learning through games and educational toys which have been sent to the school. These enable them to learn language and number in all sorts of interesting ways. We have been heartened to see and hear of much progress in this respect recently. The Secretary of State gave us a big boost by saying exactly what we had been suggesting when she opened the school. | |||||||||||||||||||||||
