Gambia School Support’s (GSS) purpose is to help address the acute need for good early years education in The Gambia. Our approach is to assist (not operate) community-owned, pre-primary schools, the pupil age range for which is 2-7. Over the past 5 years, GSS has grown the number of schools in our network from 1 to 14, with pupil numbers rising from 120 to 2,021. All the schools we have helped were struggling; GSS restored and turned them around and they are now thriving. We focus on teacher training (our programme is reckoned to be one of the best in The Gambia) and building each school’s self-reliance. We work through an implementing partner organisation we set up in 2019 which is run by a tried and tested Gambian team.
Working with the Lewin Trust, we have been able to boost our project, assisting 2 more schools with 280 places, on sites with the potential to add another 280 places. In addition, we have been able to add 3 classrooms at existing schools (providing 105 places) and ensure that the 86 teachers are remunerated properly. In 2024 we adopted the UNICEF ECDI2030 indicator, training the teachers to assess each child’s health, learning and psychosocial well-being. We can now measure and report on GSS’s impact relative to the UNICEF ‘norm’. In July we expect to launch a new initiative in a joint venture with the ECD teacher training unit at Gambia College. The aim is to provide classroom experience to those trainees who do not yet have placements at pre-primary schools.