History of Jakoi Bintang
Jakoi Bintang was founded about 100 years ago when 4 families arrived from the next town over. I'm still finding out the history of this town. Someone from the Badjie family has been the Alkalo (mayor) since the founding. The family owns many hectares around the town.
In this town, Jola is spoken.
The nursery school
A Dutch couple built a school in Kabocorr on the South Bank Road in 2005. Someone from Jakoi Bintang asked the couple to please build a school in their town. The couple agreed, but they said the town was responsible for all else: teacher's salaries, etc. The school has two classrooms, but the town could never raise enough money for two teachers. When I got there, the Bintang Bolong Lodge was paying part of one teacher's salary (usually) and the town was paying the rest of her salary (at times), while nearby AbCa Lodge had donated the desks and chairs.
I'm working on an association of schools in Gambia that have Spanish support, with the idea to better facilitate the exchange of information:
For example, can we apply Pratham's approach: Teaching at the right level (TaRL) is a pedagogical approach that involves evaluating children using a simple assessment tool and then grouping them according to learning level rather than age or grade. Each group is taught starting from its current competency level, and level-appropriate learning activities and materials are used. Throughout the entire process, teachers assess their pupils’ progress through ongoing, simple measurement of their ability to read, write, and comprehend and do basic arithmetic. Research by J-PAL affiliates over the past 15 years has shown that this method of reorienting teaching to the level of the student, rather than the rigid expectations of a curriculum, consistently improves learning outcomes.
Source: https://www.povertyactionlab.org/scale-ups/teaching-right-level-improve-learning