On Friday SBEC Bilingual International Nursery School held its annual graduation ceremony at the school ground, in Bijilo village, Western Division. A big crowd stormed the premises of the school towitness a colourful and emotional moment.

Speaking on the occasion,  Mr Momodou Colley, head teacher of the school, spoke on the age limit, ranging from the Day Care to the Nursery, unlike the previous years.

“When children of reception 3 would be about 5 years old, we decided to reduce the age bracket to one year. This move is meant to allow students to get into grade 1 at the age of 5. In other words, 10 years children will be getting ready to enter high school and by the time they reach the age of 18,  they will be fully ready to enter any English or French university,” he stated.  

According to him, DELF, is an international examination conducted by the French government through the  Alliance Françaises network  for non french speaking people throughout the world.  As such, he explained, SBEC uses this examination as an independent way of guiding the level of students in french. He recalled that the highest score recorded by SBEC during the examination was 85% successful.

He went on to say that the school will provide a computer for each student and every teacher in the primary school, with the vision of extending this to the nursery and high school in the next academic year.The head teacher commended Mr Yusupha Jaiteh for his immence contribution.

Advising the graduands, he told them to start embarking on an exciting new journey of leaving when they will begin primary next academic year. He urged parents to prepare them for the transition from kindergarten to primary school, as the students will have to face a new  experience.

Mr Colley finally commended parents for their tiredless efforts in making the school an outstanding success among others. He reminded the parents that they have a vital role to play in supporting the tremendous efforts deployed by the teachers to inculcate knowledge and values to their children.

For his part, Mr Ousman Momodou Cham, program manager Action aid-The Gambia, who also the guest speaker, informed the graduands to count themselves  lucky, as millions around the globe are un able to have access to education.

He also expressed the need to build a bridge between the traditional and modern ways of educating our children, without which he said, they may end up of having “educated illiterate” with little understanding of who they are, social justice and most importantly with  little understanding and respect for the values of their society.  He finally thanked parents for their outstanding contributions towards the achievement of the school and admonished graduands to be dynamic and hard working.

The ceremony was punctuated by  presentation  of poems and martial art sessions by the school children. Many dignitaries graced the occasion.