The coordinating committee meeting(CCM) organized by Ministry of Basic and Secondary Education (Mobse) to give stakeholders the opportunity to deliberate on pertinent issues affecting the education sector. The event was hosted by Upper River Region from the 11th to 14th February 2019.

The invitation of the Gambia scout association came through a request made by the association to attend and do a presentation to educationists and stakeholders on what scouting is and its importance to the development of young people just a couple of weeks after signing a Memorandum of understanding between the Ministry of Basic and secondary Education and the Gambia scout Association.
The Gambia scout association was represented by Chief Commissioner: Fatou M Jallow, International Commissioner: Omar Jarju and Former International Commissioner: Ousman Y. Jatta.

Comments By the participants of the meeting:

Mr Sanyang: ( the chair of the meeting) in his introduction said discipline is lacking in schools and in society though he has never been a scout but he can attest that scouting is that institution one can count on in terms of disciplining young people to be responsible citizens he went further to express his fear of the future generation of this country though the good thing is he might not be alive but he is still afraid and concern about what is coming if solutions are not found on how to discipline our young ones he concluded.

Dr Jatta (senior educationalist): said he has been a scout since childhood and what education is looking for is mostly found in scouting based on his experience as an educationalist.
scouting is about learning by doing and the progressive method the education ministry is planning to implement is already embedded in scouting educational method called progressive scheme. (Mobse) should strengthen scouting in schools to help in sensitization on issues like Comprehensive sexuality Education environment etc. he encouraged all school heads to open their doors to scouting and enforce the movement.
He recommended to invite the scouts during curriculum development team meetings at middle level management to work on plans and look for partners to implement them. He concluded

Mr Touray (Gambia College) the scouts are coming to intervene in a in a generation that is very terrible. as they are a challenging and sensible generation to whom the future of our country lies. It won’t be an easy task but a challenge that the scout association has to take to help build a better Gambia.
He appealed the scout association to target the college as a center of recruitment for more adult leaders in other to reach out to more young people as graduates of the college are posted all over the country in successfully doing so, we can have scout masters across the country . He commended the scouts to keep up the good work.

Deputy Permanent Secretary (Mobse): in giving his comment after the presentation said the scout association should be encouraged and challenged. He said the messengers of peace initiative is something he finds liking in as the country is threatened with recent trends of conflicts and violence base on politics and tribal lines and a solution needs to be found for that ASAP. And no association will be better in educating peace to the young people than scouts as they are dealing with all sections of young people and nothing is achievable with just singing peace and not working towards attaining it.
He further added that scouts should try as much as possible to be apolitical in all their dealings and focus more on educating Gambians about good citizenship and everyone to see themselves as responsible Gambians.