Fatou Lamin Faye, Secretary of State for Basic and Secondary Education, and Abdoulie M Sallah, Secretary of State for Higher Education, Research, Science and Technology, last Thursday met the Director-General of Unesco, Mr Koichiro Maatsura, to discuss about The Gambia’s cooperation with the agency in the coming biennium: 2008 to 2009. 

The meeting was held at the office of the Director-General in Paris, France, during the Unesco General Conference.

As the Chairperson of the Gambia National Commission for Unesco, Secretary of State Faye thanked the Director-General for the approved projects for the country, under the current Participation Programme and the inclusion of the country in the Literacy Initiative for Empowerment, Life Project as from 2008.

She requested the Director-General for inclusion of The Gambia in the project on the Teacher Training Initiative for Sub-Saharan Africa (TTISSA) during the second phase, commencing in 2008. She went on further to outline plans of the Gambia National Commission for Unesco and the Federation of Gambia Unesco Clubs and Centres in bringing community multi-media centres at the door-steps of the people of Soma in Lower River Region and Bajagarr, Western Region.

The Secretary of State for Higher Education, Mr Abdoulie Sallah, spoke of plans to establish Directorates of Research and Science and Technology at his department.
 He submitted two requests for Unesco technical assistance in the setting up of these Directorates to the Director-General.
The two Secretaries of State later met with the Assistant Director-General for Education and discussed the possibility of support in developing the country’s literacy data.
On Friday, 25 October 2007, Secretary of State Sallah, joined other ministers at a round table meeting on science and technology for sustainable development.

In his intervention, Mr Sallah spoke about the Education Policy 2004-2015 and Strategic Plan 2006-2015, which were the blueprints for the development of tertiary education.
He went on to mention the construction of an Academy for Science and Technology at Kanilai, which will be a centre of excellence for the teaching of mathematics and science. He said that the socio-economic development of the country, is closely linked with human resource development.

Secretaries of State Faye and Sallah will meet other assistant Directors of Unesco later next week and participate at a meeting on the three flagship projects of Unesco,  relating to teacher training, literacy and HIV/AIDS.