Gambiaj.com – (BANJUL, The Gambia) – A simmering dispute has emerged at Ndow’s Comprehensive School as a group of concerned parents confronted the school administration this week over what they describe as declining quality in study-period teaching and a controversial fee policy that limits parental choice.
Concerns Over Study Period Teaching
Parents say their children have raised repeated complaints about unfamiliar teachers now handling daily study sessions held between 2 p.m. and 4 p.m.
According to them, some of the instructors are drawn from upper basic schools, while others allegedly lack expertise in the subjects they are assigned to teach. One parent claimed students reported that an IT specialist was tasked with teaching English and Mathematics.
“If a teacher is trusted to teach from eight to two, why replace them for the next two hours?” asked Buba Touray, a parent with four children enrolled at the school. “Our children are not comfortable with the new arrangement.”
Parents believe the changes are linked to internal disagreements between the school administration and its regular teachers over the handling of study fees. They allege that teachers who questioned or resisted the study-fee arrangement were sidelined and replaced with temporary staff from other institutions.
Fee Policy Sparks Dispute and Threat of Escalation
At the center of the dispute is the school’s decision to merge study fees with regular school fees, effectively preventing parents from opting out of the study program.
Parents say banks will only accept payments if the full combined amount is paid, leaving no option to settle school fees alone. Some students, they added, were sent home after their parents withheld only the study fee.
“This is against education policy,” said parent Mustafa Mbaye. “Some parents withheld only the study fee of about D350 per month, yet their children were sent home after they had already paid more than D6,000.”
Under the current arrangement, study fees amount to D1,050 per term, while school fees stand at D500 per term. Parents say the combined charges bring the total to nearly D7,000 per term, a burden many families are struggling to meet.
During the visit, parents engaged the head teacher, who told them he lacked the authority to alter the fee structure or staffing decisions, explaining that such matters fall under the jurisdiction of the school board. Parents subsequently demanded an urgent meeting with the board, insisting the issue requires immediate intervention.
Attempts to obtain the head teacher’s account through a scheduled interview were unsuccessful. Just before the interview began, he reportedly received a phone call from someone he identified as his supervisor, instructing him to cancel the interview on the grounds that speaking to the media violates school policy. The interview was abruptly called off.
Parents warn that if the school board fails to act by next week, they will escalate the matter to the Ministry of Basic and Secondary Education and consider legal action to ensure their children are not denied access to education over disputed fees.
