Planning Ahead
on Phil Bradfield (The Gambia), 29/Apr/2010 09:09, 34 days ago
(Written 28/04/2010 22:15, My House, Janjanbureh)I’ve got to admit, I really have no idea what I’m going to do for the next couple of days. As I think I mentioned before, next week and the week after are already planned, but the problem with that is that there’s not much point starting anything tomorrow or Friday because I won’t be able tofollow it up for nearly three weeks. Could be a dull couple of days in the office, especially as about 75% of the staff are either in Banjul or out visiting schools.Next week however, should be anything but dull, as our office is hosting CCM (Co-ordinatin Committee Meeting, IIRC). As far as I can tell, it works something like this: every two months, all the Ministry of Education bigwigs, plus representatives of other interested parties (NGOs, donors, other government departments etc) all converge on one or other of the regions in the country, of which there are six in total. These people, who I’m told could number as many as 200, meet to discuss education policy, receive activities reports from all the regions and the headquarters directorates, and also go out to a load of the region’s schools to inspect them and check on how well all these policies are being implemented. It’s a pretty big deal, and it’s why this week, some of the staff have suddenly started doing what they’re supposed to be doing much more of than they actually do: visiting schools and offering them advice and support. Or, to be more accurate telling them “if you don’t do this, this and this before next week then the CCM will stop your pay”. And that’s not an empty threat either: docking pay is a not-uncommon way of punishing teachers and principals who don’t produce all the requisite paperwork.The Director has assigned me as“technician” for the week, which I’m guessing means I’ll be sat at the front by the projector loading up people’s Powerpoint presentations.Afterscanning their USB sticks for viruses, of course. I may keep a score chart of which directorates have the most infected USB sticks, it’ll give me a gentle chuckle. I think my record so far is about 130 or so on one stick; I reckon we can beat that next week. Also, I reckon I’ll end up helping Pete and Liz with their assigned tasks: minuting and writing up the CCM report, which the Director is hoping to have finished before thevisitors leave on Friday. Getting out that quick is a major ask, given the amount that goes on at CCM. But apparently, Region 3 managed it at the last but one CCM, and we can’t let them be showing us up, can we...Then the week after that, it’s off to Kombos with the three of us, for VSO’s education sector workshop. I have no idea what to expect from this: as far as I can tell it’s supposed to be an exercise in sharing good practice and reporting progress, but that’s largely educated guesswork. There’s supposed to be an agendaappearing sometime next week, hopefully that’ll make everything a bit clearer.And then when I get back, I want to really crack into getting regular training sessions going in the office, so that’ll keep me occupied then. But for all that the future’s looking fairly busy, the next couple of days may actually be a bit on the sparse side. Hopefully I’ll think of something to fill the time.