Scholarly Works - Education

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https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14576/33

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Browsing Scholarly Works - Education by Author "Barrow, Abdou"

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    Child Marriage and Its Impacts on the Education of Girls in the Rural Gambia : Focus on Niani District
    (Universitas Islam Internasional Indonesia Press, 2022-12-28) Barrow, Abdou; Bah, Yahya Muhammed; Sanneh, Mbassi
    Twenty-one percent of young women married before the age of eighteen. Approximately 650 million girls and women are married before their 18th birthday (UNICEF, 2020, 2021). States member of the United Nations, through its Sustainable Development Goals, has committed to ending child marriage globally through laws, legislation, and other means. Though the practice of child marriage is declining globally, it remains prevalent in Africa and Asia, particularly in the Gambia. This study looks at the impact of child marriage on girls' education in rural Gambia and the factors that encourage it. The researchers conducted qualitative case study research through documentation, Focus Group discussion (FGD), observation, and interviews to collect data. The study's findings indicate that child marriage has negative impacts on girls' education in rural Gambia. This reveals the fact that the percentage of girls enrolled in schools, especially high school, is lower than boys. Girls also face more difficulties than boys to complete, retain and transit to secondary or higher education. This leaves them with no future and excludes them from social or economic advantages. The factors that encourage child marriage are included: religion, poverty, culture, lack of meaningful opportunity, older men's desire for younger women to marry, and the failure of law enforcement. These factors mentioned repeatedly perpetuate the practice of child marriage, and undermine the educational opportunities for the majority of girls in the Niani district of Gambia. Therefore, the researchers recommend that the Gambian government enforce the existing laws and regulations to protect children’s fundamental rights and put into practice the necessary regulations on the prohibition and elimination of this phenomenon.
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    Education Sector COVID-19 Response Plan and Its Implication on Inclusive Education in the Gambia
    (Language Center of Universitas Teuku Umar, 2022-09-23) Barrow, Abdou
    During the early hours of 2020, COVID -19 terrorized the world by forcing many countries to close their borders and restrict internal movement by imposing a state of national emergency which was geared toward lockdowns for months in some areas for years. The Gambia was not an exception to this trajectory and one of the sectors heavily stroked by this lockdown was education. As a result, “the Ministry of Basic and Secondary Education (MoBSE)” designed a Response framework to curb learning loss across the country. This study aimed to analyse the policy and describe the implication it has on inclusive education. The qualitative research method was used imploring the interpretive approach in the analysis. Despite the nobility and ambitiousness of the policy, the findings from the analysis revealed that the policy had a serious blind spot in the area of inclusion because many children are left out because of their inability to access the mediums where lessons are delivered. Many households in rural Gambia did not have a stable electricity supply or even own a television or radio set, therefore it was impossible for children in these communities to benefit from the program. In addition, children with special needs are also excluded particularly does who are visually or hearing impaired.