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Pageant members Brenda and Keith Farrington
have taken a particular interest in several schools in Banjul. One of
these is Crab Island Upper Basic School, which is located
just south of the centre of Banjul, on the river side of the
peninsula. It was opened in 1958 and provides education for children aged 13 to 16
(Grades 7 to 9). Brenda and Keith have
been visiting this school for a number of years, and have helped to
set up a computer lab, woodwork and metalwork rooms, a home economic
centre and a technical drawing classroom. Keith's professional
background is in computers and engineering, and his expertise and
dedication have been a great help to improving the technical status
of the school. Pippa
and Ian Howard have also visited several times, and there are a number of
Pageant sponsored pupils at the school.
October 2003
The pictures below show the computer room in
October 2003. This was set up with help from Brenda and Keith, so
that pupils could learn basic computer skills. In December 2003
Pageant supplied them with some more computers which had been
donated by Oxford Instruments.
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| Crab Island
computer room in October 2003 |
November 2005
In November 2005, Pippa and Ian visited
the school again, and met the newly
appointed Headmistress, Mrs Admire Loum.
She took
them to see the two newly completed computer rooms, the results of
Keith Farrington's efforts. Both rooms were completely
networked and connected to the Internet. The children were
doing some real computer studies, and the school now had something
to be really proud of. Much of the credit was due to
the head teacher, who insisted that the donated equipment was
used properly and networks installed. She was ably assisted by the newly
appointed Computing Assistant, pictured below,
who not only kept the computers running properly, but also
prepared lessons and worksheets for the children's classes.
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Crab Island's new
Headmistress |
Crab Island's Computing
Assistant |
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ComputerLab in November 2005 |
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February 2006 |
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Pippa and Ian visited again in February 2006,
and as well as looking again at the computer rooms, they inspected
the metalwork and woodwork rooms - another aspect of Brenda and
Keith's help for this school.
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the metalwork room at
Crab Island UBS |
the woodwork room at Crab Island UBS |
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Pippa and staff of Crab
Island
with a copy of
'General Science' written by F. Sherrif, the teacher holding the book. |
Computer Lab in February
2006 top of
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March 2006
Brenda and Keith Farrington visited the
school in March 2006 to see progress with the computer lab, woodwork and
metalwork rooms, and the home economic centre. The
computer tutor, Mr Sillah had started a computer club in the school
and nearly two hundred students were members. The aim of the club is
to give the students awareness of the world of Information
Technology. The club had been on several excursions to places like
Gambia
Telecommunications Company (Gamtel)
and
Quantum net,
and the members were very impressed with the information obtained
from the computer experts.
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Computer Lab in March
2006 |
Crab Island - woodwork
exam in progress |
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Crab Island Computer
Club visiting Gamtel and Quantum net |
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February 2007
Keith Farrington, his friends and colleagues
have spent a lot of time, energy and money in fitting out a really
good technical drawing classroom at Crab Island. They tracked down
and sourced all the equipment and shipped it to The Gambia during
2006. The classroom is now fully functional, as can be seen in the
pictures below sent to Keith by the Headteacher, Mrs Admire Loum, in
February 2007. Pageant would like to say a big thank-you
to Keith and all those who helped him with this very large project.
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Crab Island technical
drawing classroom |
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students working
at their technical drawing |
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each student has a full
set of drawing instruments |
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