Banjul — An agreement has been reached between the relevant parties that saw the actualization of $ 100, 000 which would go towards enhancing distance learning in the rural communities. Saying this at a workshop on primary education between experts from the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) and the Islamic Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (ISESCO).

The Vice President and SOS for Women's Affairs, Madame Isatou Njie-Saidy admitted that primary education for all is an enormous task. 'It is multi-faced and affected by a combination of complex factors," she said, adding that the development of education has been focused on the school and the classroom.

Veep Njie-Saidy emphasized that the seemingly insurmountable case lies outside the school "where the structure of national systems of school and teacher training; relationship between the education system and the community it serves." Education, she put across, is a fundamental human right that cannot be compromised. "It must been seen as the development of the individual, the community, society and the world at large," she noted.

Education, she went on, should be given a human touch, and viewed from a universal primary education perspective "not by importing ideas and applying them indiscriminately, but by relating it to the contexts that matters," she added.

Such a forum will open the door to a similar relationship between UNESCO and ISESCO in the promotion of our goals to achieve education for all (EFA) in the Gambia and elsewhere, she stated.

Also speaking at the ceremony, the UNDP representative in The Gambia, Dr. John O. Kakonge likened education to constructing a house. "Lack of education robs society of a foundation for sustainable development," he said. Education is the essential vehicle and precursor in improving health, nutrition and productivity, he further noted.