Addressing participants, the Regional Education Director Mr. Babucarr Suwareh spoke at length on the importance of educating the young people. He said that the idea of introducing local languages into Lower Basic schools is to give better understanding of the curricular subjects. He urged the participants to take the forum seriously.

For his part, Mr. Ousman Bah, Principal Education Officer (PEO) informed the participants that the issue is a national programme as its stipulated in the Education policy of The Gambia for national languages to be used as a medium of instruction from grade one to three. He revealed that the program will start with region 5, and are going to use the most spoken three languages in the area namely Mandinka Fulla and Wollof.

Mr. Burama Jammeh Director of Curricular said with the introduction of the new system, quality of education in schools would be achieved as it will improve the level of understanding of the children.