To our great surprise and delight we found that the headmaster of Bakalarr # School has decided to start a nursery class in one of the smaller classrooms, in a refurbished building at one end of the school. There is no State provision for Nursery Education in The Gambia, so this enterprise will receive no financial assistance from Government sources. The classroom was very dark, the repairs, while sound, had not been painted and the furniture was sparse and rather dilapidated - but the children were delighted to entertain us with a song and are obviously happy to be in school. We left some money with Kemo for paint for the walls and hope to be able to help with furniture and some equipment and toys for the children in the not-too-distant future.

Some of the children in the nursery class at Bakalarr
	<< Award winner Awards are given monthly throughout the school now to reward achievement, using some of the items we take like calculators, geometry sets, coloured pencils as prizes. The Headmaster explained that he could not give academic tests to the Nursery Class, but he had given a prize to this little girl last month, as she came every day and was always on time.

Video Clips

There are two clips of the Bakalarr nursery children at their school. The first was filmed in February 2004 shortly after the nursery class was opened. The second clip was filmed in October 2004, after some ride-on toys, donated by a Surrey nursery school, were delivered to the Bakalarr children. You can access these clips through the Clips Index page