Gambian minister receives honorary doctorate
Tue, 23 Jul 2013 16:27:00 BST
Alumna The Honourable Fatou Lamin Faye back in Huddersfield
THE Honourable Fatou Lamin Faye (pictured) is an alumna of the University of Huddersfield who has risen to be an education minister in The Gambia.
From 2004, she was appointed as Minister of Education and, from 2007, Minister for Basic and Secondary Education and under her leadership, education in The Gambia has been transformed, resulting in significant improvements in children’s learning achievements in literacy and numeracy.
The University was delighted to welcome The Honourable Fatou back to the University to present her with an honorary doctorate at the awards ceremonies.
The Honourable Fatou Lamin Faye was born in Banjul and after High School she joined the Ministry of Agriculture and continued her education at Ahmadou Bello University in Nigeria. On return to The Gambia she joined the Ministry of Education as a Home Economics Assistant Instructor. After studies at the Coady International Institute in Canada she was promoted to the rank of Instructor.
In 1990, she was appointed as Co-ordinator of the Rural Vocational Training Programme and was then redeployed to Mansakonko as Principal of the Rural Vocational Training Centre, a position she held until 1996, when she took up the opportunity to travel to the UK for Masters degree study at the University of Huddersfield.
On return to The Gambia in 1998, she took up a Principal Education Officer post at the Directorate of Technical Education and Vocational Training. But in 2000 she joined the Association of Non-Governmental Organisations of The Gambia as Senior Programme Officer and subsequently as Director. On her return to the Civil Service in 2001 she became Director of the Gambia Technical Training Institute, until 2004 when she was appointed as Minister of Education and, from 2007, Minister for Basic and Secondary Education.
She has been a member of the Senate of The University of The Gambia, the Steering Committee of the Community Skills Improvements Project under the Department of Community Development, the National and International Committees of the West African Examinations Council, the ECOWAS Gender Technical Commission as well as being chairperson of the National Women’s Council.
