School Authorities and Students of Yunus English School located at Busumbala has reacted for the first time after recording resounding success at this year’s Gambia Basic Schools Certificate Examination that was released by the West African Examination Council last week.
At least twenty five (25) out of forty four (44) students whose results have been received has scored between the ranges of aggregate six (6) to aggregate twenty (20), placing the Busumbala based school among the best performing schools in the country.
Speaking to The Voice newspaper in his office at Busumbala, Yunus Sillah, proprietor of Yunus English School attached the school’s performance to adequate preparation, hard work and commitment of the administration, staff and students of the school. He noted that the main purpose of establishing the school is to give opportunities to Gambian children to pursue their educational career in a conducive learning environment that will allow them to take their rightful position in nation development.
“The rationale for establishing this academic centre is to give vulnerable and disadvantage Gambian students the opportunity to pursue their educational career to higher height. We want to these students to succeed in lives. As this will enable them to contribute their rightful quota in the socio-economic development of this country,” the proprietor said.
Sillah, a passionate and devoted educationist disclosed that Yunus English School was established in 2012, with the sole aim of setting high standard of academic competition and success. This year’s success story at Gambia Basic Education Certificate Examination (GaBECE) was all square down to the collective hard work, commitment and dedication of a well-established administration and teaching staff.
“We have definitely achieved great success since the establishment of the school in 2012. We are doing extremely well in both the grade nine and grade 12 examinations. Most of our teachers are well experienced and they are mainly lecturers from The Gambia College on part-time basis with us,” Sillah disclosed to The Voice.
He observed that Yunus English School has had a great impact on the lives and livelihoods of the people of Busumbala and by large to the people of the country, revealing that beside the successes registered at WAEC examinations many ex-students have already secured jobs and contributing their parts in the national development initiatives.
According to him, the underperformance of many students in examinations is as a result of incompetent teachers and teachers that lack following syllabuses. He observed that the lack of adherence to school syllabuses will only lead to the perennial failures registered at the West African Examinations.
He advised school authorities and boards to be vigilant in monitoring and evaluating the performance and capability of teachers employed to teach and prepare students for examinations because “Yunus English School is possible through the means of monitoring, evaluating and offering extra classes to students, during the week days and weekends.”
The school principal, Lamin Tabally disclosed that they “(we) are least surprise with the performance of our students because we have indeed prepared them for the task ahead which they have delivered as expected.”
The school is the only school, according to him, offering regular classes for students from the beginning of the first term which greatly paid dividend as they were able to complete their syllabuses even before government closed schools across the country.
Principal Tabally disclosed that the successes registered by their students is a results of a well-motivated, dedicated and committed crop of academic teachers serving at the school. These teachers were carefully recruited and ready to abide by the set targets of the school.
“Our successes doesn’t come as a miracle, it is out of our collective hard work because since 2018, we introduced compulsory Saturday classes in order to prepare our students adequately. This regular Saturday classes helps us to complete our syllabuses, do revisions and also provide catch-up programs for the slow learners,” Tabally disclosed.
The school management and students are extremely delightful over this outstanding performance of their students who entered into this year’s GaBECE. At least twenty five (25) students out of forty four (44) whose results have been received fall within aggregate 6-20. This is a tremendous achievement for the school as it is less than ten years since the school was established.
According to him, teachers preparing students must be adequately prepared to be able to do their job very well, Also, teachers must be ready to go for extra miles to provide extra classes and as well take students through passed questions papers in their efforts to attain good results.
Mariama Fofana, a sixteen (16) years old student of the school who bagged aggregate six (6) expressed her joy and happiness to this medium, revealing that the success attained is as a result of the motivation, hard work and commitment injected into her work through the support of the school authorities.
According to her, the commitment and hard work of both the administration and teachers of the school are second to none, adding that students are not only prepared to learn lessons at the school but also well prepared on how to pass examinations with distinctions.
“I want to thank the school authorities, teachers and my colleagues who offered all the help we needed to perform better in the examination.”
“With this year results, I now believe that this school is the school that can wipe the tears of hardworking parents who want to get good results for their kids,” said 17-year-old Muhammed Kijera who bagged aggregate nine (9) in GaBECE Examination.
Other students including 16 years old Kaddijatou Cham with aggregate ten (10) all expressed their delight to the school authorities and teachers.
