Education as the Gateway: The Gambia’s Path from Poverty to Prosperity
By Baba Colley
Our country stands at a crossroads familiar to many developing nations. With limited natural resources, high poverty rates, and an economy heavily dependent on agriculture and tourism, our country faces formidable development challenges. Yet within these constraints lies a powerful opportunity: education deliberately designed for tomorrow’s economy can break the cycle of poverty and position even the smallest nation for sustainable prosperity.
The foundation of this transformation must begin with honest assessment. Currently, only about 10% of Gambian students achieve proficiency in reading and 6% in mathematics at early grade levels. These stark figures reveal more than educational failure—they predict economic stagnation. Without foundational literacy and numeracy, a workforce cannot adapt to technological change, participate in global value chains, or innovate solutions to local challenges. Mathematics and science proficiency are not merely academic achievements—they are the bedrock upon which nations build infrastructure, generate power, and create the physical systems that enable modern economic life. The first step out of poverty is acknowledging that traditional educational approaches focused on rote memorization and outdated curricula will not equip young Gambians for the digital, interconnected economy of 2030 and beyond.
Building the Builders: The Critical Need for Engineers
Perhaps no deficiency illustrates the development challenge more clearly than The Gambia’s shortage of engineers. Infrastructure is the skeleton upon which economic development is built, yet most African nations, including The Gambia, rely almost entirely on foreign engineers to design and construct bridges, roads, power plants, water treatment facilities, and telecommunications networks. This dependency creates multiple problems: projects become prohibitively expensive, maintenance expertise remains absent after construction, and local knowledge about optimal design for local conditions never develops. The sad example of Bakau Independence Stadium should be a cautionary tale for what could happen if we continue to rely on outsiders for critical infrastructure.
The Gambia urgently needs to establish robust engineering programs at the tertiary level, with clear specializations in civil, electrical, mechanical, and environmental engineering. Civil engineers are essential for designing and building the bridges that connect communities separated by rivers, the roads that link farmers to markets, and the buildings that house schools, hospitals, and businesses. Without homegrown civil engineers, The Gambia will continue paying premium prices for foreign expertise while its own capable young people lack pathways into these professions.
Electrical engineers are equally critical as The Gambia seeks to expand electricity access beyond the current 60% of the population. The country’s energy transition—from expensive imported diesel generators to solar, wind, and potentially hydroelectric power—requires engineers who understand power generation, grid design, energy storage systems, and distribution networks. Training electrical engineers to design and build solar farms, mini-grids for rural areas, and efficient distribution systems would dramatically reduce energy costs while creating high-value employment. These engineers would not merely maintain foreign-built systems but design context-appropriate solutions for Gambian conditions.
Mechanical engineers bring different but equally vital skills: designing and maintaining industrial machinery, developing manufacturing systems, improving agricultural equipment, and creating water pumping systems. As The Gambia attempts to move up the value chain—processing cashews locally rather than exporting raw nuts, for instance—mechanical engineers become indispensable. Environmental engineers address water quality, sanitation systems, waste management, and pollution control. These are not luxury specializations but fundamental requirements for public health and sustainable development.
The engineering education pipeline must begin much earlier than university. Secondary schools need well-equipped science laboratories, mathematics teachers who can inspire problem-solving, and exposure to practical engineering challenges through school projects, competitions, and mentorship from practicing engineers. Students should build model bridges, design simple circuits, construct water filtration systems, and learn computer-aided design software. This hands-on approach makes abstract mathematics and physics concepts tangible and relevant.
Critically, The Gambia should establish partnerships with established engineering universities in Nigeria, Ghana, South Africa, and beyond, allowing top students to pursue advanced degrees and return with cutting-edge knowledge. Simultaneously, the country should incentivize Gambian engineers working abroad to return, offering competitive salaries in public works departments and creating entrepreneurial opportunities in private construction and consultancy.
Vocational Excellence and Economic Catalysts
Beyond engineering, The Gambia’s education policy targeting 2030 correctly emphasizes “marketable and social skills” alongside academic competencies. This strategic shift is crucial. For a poor country, education cannot be purely academic—it must be intensely practical. Technical and vocational education must expand dramatically, teaching skills immediately applicable to entrepreneurship and employment. Young Gambians need training in solar panel installation and maintenance, mobile technology repair, digital marketing, agricultural technology, food processing, welding, plumbing, electrical wiring, and coding. These are not abstract subjects but direct pathways to income generation.
Consider the economic multiplier effect of vocational education. A young person trained in solar technology can install panels in their community, reducing energy costs for businesses and enabling new enterprises to emerge. Someone skilled in digital marketing can help local craftspeople and farmers reach international markets through e-commerce platforms. Agricultural technologists can increase crop yields, improve food security, and create surplus for export. Skilled welders and fabricators can build the metal structures, gates, and equipment that every construction project requires. Each technically skilled graduate becomes an economic catalyst, creating opportunities beyond their own employment.
Gender, Education, and Breaking Generational Poverty
Equally important is education’s role in breaking generational poverty through gender equity. The Gambia, like many developing nations, has historically underinvested in girls’ education. Yet research consistently shows that educated women have fewer, healthier children; invest more in their children’s education; and participate more actively in economic life. By ensuring girls complete secondary education and access tertiary opportunities—including engineering, technology, and science programs—The Gambia can accelerate demographic transition, improve health outcomes, and unlock the productivity of half its population. Poverty is not merely lack of money—it is lack of agency, and education is agency’s foundation.
Breaking down cultural barriers that discourage girls from pursuing engineering and technical fields is essential. Female engineers serve as powerful role models, demonstrating that infrastructure development is not exclusively male territory. Moreover, women engineers often bring different perspectives to design challenges, considering issues like safe public spaces, accessible facilities for caregivers, and technologies that reduce domestic labor burden.
Curriculum Revolution: Beyond Memorization
The curriculum itself must undergo radical reformation. Beyond vocational and engineering skills, students need training in critical thinking, problem-solving, financial literacy, and entrepreneurship. They must learn to identify problems in their communities and design solutions. Mathematics should be taught through real-world applications: calculating material quantities for construction projects, understanding compound interest for business loans, analyzing agricultural yield data, and modeling population growth for infrastructure planning.
In an economy where formal employment will remain limited for years, self-employment and small business creation will drive growth. Teaching youth how to write business plans, access microfinance, market products, manage finances, and understand contracts transforms education from credential-seeking into economic empowerment. Engineering students, for instance, should take business courses so they can establish consultancy firms rather than waiting for scarce government positions.
Technology as Leapfrog Opportunity
Technology offers The Gambia a leapfrog opportunity. Mobile phone penetration in Africa has grown exponentially, and educational technology can deliver quality instruction even to remote villages. Online engineering courses from prestigious universities worldwide, digital libraries with technical manuals and textbooks, and virtual laboratories can supplement classroom teaching and expose Gambian students to global knowledge at minimal cost. The country should prioritize digital literacy from primary school onward, ensuring every graduate can navigate the internet, use productivity software including CAD and engineering design tools, and engage with the digital economy.
Open-source engineering software provides access to professional-grade tools without expensive licensing fees. Students can learn to design bridges using freely available structural analysis software, model electrical grids with open-source simulation tools, and develop mechanical designs with free CAD programs. This democratization of engineering tools means resource constraints need not limit educational quality.
Regional Integration and Pan-African Opportunity
The Gambia’s education strategy must also align with regional integration, particularly the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA). Training programs should prepare graduates to work across borders, understand regional markets, and participate in pan-African infrastructure projects. Gambian engineers could work on the Trans-West African Highway, regional power grid interconnections, or multinational bridge projects. Language education in French and Portuguese alongside English enables Gambians to do business throughout West Africa. Understanding regional logistics, trade regulations, and market dynamics positions them as valuable employees and entrepreneurs in an integrating continent.
Engineering standards should align with regional and international benchmarks, ensuring that Gambian-trained engineers’ credentials are recognized throughout Africa and globally. This mobility creates brain circulation rather than brain drain, with skilled professionals gaining international experience and returning with enhanced capabilities.
Beyond Education: Essential Complementary Investments
Finally, education alone is insufficient without complementary investments in infrastructure and business environment. Roads connecting schools to markets, reliable electricity enabling study after dark and powering computer labs, and internet connectivity facilitating digital learning are essential. Universities need well-equipped engineering laboratories with testing equipment, construction materials for student projects, and modern computing facilities.
Simultaneously, regulatory reforms must make it easy for educated youth to start businesses, access capital, and trade across borders. Engineering firms should face streamlined licensing procedures. Young graduates attempting to establish construction companies, consulting practices, or technology startups need access to affordable credit and business development services.
The government must also create demand for engineering services through ambitious public works programs: bridge construction, power plant development, water system expansion, and road building. These projects provide employment for new graduates while developing the infrastructure essential for broader economic growth. Public procurement should prioritize local engineering firms, building domestic capacity rather than defaulting to foreign contractors.
The Non-Negotiable Investment
For The Gambia, education—particularly in engineering and technical fields—is not merely a social good but the primary lever for economic transformation. By strategically orienting its education system toward practical skills, engineering excellence, entrepreneurship, technology, and regional integration, this small nation can equip its greatest resource—its young people—to build prosperity from poverty, quite literally. When Gambian engineers design the bridges spanning its rivers, build the solar farms powering its industries, and construct the water systems serving its communities, the country will have achieved more than infrastructure development. It will have achieved economic sovereignty and the foundation for sustained prosperity.
The question is not whether The Gambia can afford to educate engineers and technical professionals for the future, but whether it can afford not to. Every bridge built by foreign contractors, every power plant designed by external consultants, and every infrastructure project managed by imported expertise represents missed opportunities to develop local capability. The investment in education—from improving primary mathematics instruction to establishing world-class engineering programs—is the most strategic allocation any developing nation can make. It is the investment that, over time, eliminates the need for all other forms of aid.
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