He came with a delegation including his Permanent Secretary and Deputy Permanent Secretary of Programmes, his Director of Planning, Director of Research, and Director of Science & Technology, during their visit to Senegal to strengthen ties with Higher Education institutions.

The meeting revolved around three central themes:

1. increasing scientific research;
2. strengthening and decentralizing technical and vocational education and training (TVET); and
3. implementation of the Science & Technology Policy.

Research a top priority

Research is at the top of the Ministry’s agenda as an essential element to creating knowledge societies and formulating evidenced-based policies. The Ministry is producing a report which will be shared with the UNESCO Office to seek areas of collaboration in the development of capacities in research methodologies and with each of UNESCO’s programme sectors.

Research on TVET gaps, for example, incited the decision of creating TVET skills centers in each of The Gambia’s regions. The Ministry aims to undertake curricular review, training of TVET instructors, updating TVET policy, strengthening the links with labor market needs and ensuring quality assurance. The tools and publications prepared by UNESCO within the framework of the Inter-Agency Task Force will continue to be shared with the Ministry. The UNESCO Director emphasized the need for entrepreneurship and the soft skills that universities should develop in this regard. She also called for prospective planning where research would enable responsiveness to long term labor needs.

Early targeting of students

The government has prioritized and is investing in science, technology and innovation for early targeting of students (ages 13, 16 and 19) to pursue this stream. Building a critical mass of science teachers will be a central challenge that the country needs to address. Our office emphasized the importance of developing a research agenda and looking at examples from other countries (Nigeria, Tanzania). Efforts would be made for the Gambia to integrate the Global Observatory of Science, Technology and Innovation Policy Instruments (GO→SPIN).

The Dakar Office Director also underscored the importance of ICTs in supporting higher education and its role in management and transparency, as well as the need for proper infrastructure to be in place.

The Office will also support, through the UNESCO Institute for Statistics, the development of indicators for higher education, as well as promoting disaggregated data to push for further equity in TVET and Science, Technology and Innovation.