THE REPUBLIC OF THE GAMBIA’S COMBINED REPORT ON THE AFRICAN CHARTER ON HUMAN & PEOPLES’ RIGHTS & INITIAL REPORT ON THE PROTOCOL TO THE AFRICAN CHARTER ON THE RIGHTS OF WOMEN IN AFRICA and workshops are also being provided for law enforcement officers especially on the recent amendment to the Women’s Act 2010 and the amendment to the Children’s Act 2005. ARTICLE 17: RIGHT TO EDUCATION AND CULTURE 1. Every individual Shall have the right to education. 2. Every individual may freely, take part in the cultural life of his community 3. The promotion and protection of morals and traditional values recognised by community shall be the duty of the state. The Gambia is one of the few African countries that have made the right to education, a constitutional right. The right to education is secured under Section 30 of the 1997 Constitution for The Republic of The Gambia that also provides for free and compulsory basic education for all Gambian citizens. It is also directive principles of state policy to ensure basic education for all citizens and provision of adequate resources so that such tuition for basic education shall be free for all citizens. In addition to the constitutional provisions, the Children’s Act 2005 also provides for the right to education and an Education Bill is currently being drafted to provide for the management and development of educational services in The Gambia. Furthermore, to ensure that children enjoy the right to free and compulsory education it is also Government policy as enshrined under the previous education policies; dating back from the 1998 – 2003, 2004-2015 and the recent policy 2016-2030 upholds this. The Government policy is putting more emphasis on mass education through universal basic education programmes to improve literacy levels among Gambians as opposed to education for a few elite. In a bid to implement the legislative and administrative measures adopted to provide free and compulsory basic education and to realize Governments policy of accessible, equitable and inclusive quality education for sustainable development, several grants, schemes and projects have been introduced to assist the Government in providing this basic right. With the introduction of School Improvement Grant (SIG), this can be seen as a positive stride towards actualizing the progressive introduction of free education provided for under the constitution and in education policies. The SIG covers the cost of stationary, books and school uniforms for 75