By: Kebba Ansu Manneh
Dawda Jallow, the Attorney General and Minister of Justice revealed that the Government of Gambia could not offer all Gambian students free secondary and post-secondary education due to capacity constraints.
He mentioned that owing to capacity constraints, the Cabinet has chosen to restrict the mandatory education rights to merely basic education, which contrasts with the provisions of the CCRC 2020 draft constitution.
The Attorney General and Minister of Education spoke at a press conference organized by the Ministry of Justice at the Sir Dawda Kairaba Jawara International Conference Center on Wednesday, August 28th, 2024. At this conference, he clarified contentious issues relative to the 2024 Draft Constitution that will soon be tabled before the National Assembly for debate.
The 2020 Draft Constitution, which was rejected by the National Assembly Members in 2021, stipulated that the Gambia Government is to provide free basic and secondary Education to all Gambians.
However, the Justice Minister stated that the Cabinet’s decision to remove that clause from the provisions of the 2024 Draft Constitution is due to a lack of government capacity to implement such rights for the Gambian people.
“On the issue of free compulsory rights to basic and secondary Education, the Cabinet has now shifted to only limit to free and accessible basic Education. This is purely informed by the practicality, enforceability, and the ability of the Government to implement such rights,” Dawda Jallow revealed at the presser.
He added, “Education as far as the Government is concerned is made free and accessible at Basic Education and at the secondary level. The realization of free Education in both secondary and post-secondary Education is contingent on government capacity. The realization of that right is going to be progressing.”
Justice Minister also denied assertions that the reintroduction of the amended 2020 Draft Constitution is a ploy to maintain the 1997 Constitution that gave unlimited term limit and powers to the President, arguing that the Gambia Government wouldn’t have invested resources and energy to come up with the 2024, draft constitution if it was only for a ploy to maintaining the 1997, Constitution.
Minister Jallow also disclosed that there is no legal provision in the 2020 draft constitution that prevents the Government from touching the draft document, arguing that there are no other existing legal provisions that also prevent the Cabinet from touching the draft constitution.
“In the absence of any express provision in the CRC Act that prevents Cabinet from touching draft, I know of no other legal provision that also says Cabinet cannot touch the draft constitution. If Parliament intended the draft to come to Parliament the way it was drafted by the CRC, they would have put it in the CRC Act. Still, nothing in the CRC Act says the Government cannot amend,” Justice Minister Dawda Jallow submitted on the legal justification for amending the 2020 Draft Constitution.
