A Woman with Substance
Friday 27th October 2006

By Amie Jobe

Teaching is one of the most noble professions in this world. Every good or prosperous person is taught by a teacher. It was very hard for women to be taught in the colonial days, but some women of high calibre and principles were lucky to be educated. Among those lucky ones is Mrs. Winifred Addison. Aunty Winnie started schooling in 1954 at St. Joseph’s primary in Banjul, then Bathurst. She proceeded to Accra High School in Ghana in 1961.

Aunty Winnie came back to The Gambia in 1963. Her love for education made her still want to continue learning, so she proceeded to The Gambia College at Yundum where she acquired her teachers’ certificate in 1980. Aunty Winnie first started teaching as an unqualified teacher in 1968 at Bakau Primary School, just to test her choice of Career.

Aunty Winnie’s love, care and commitment for school and in the children , caused her gain the best teacher’s Award at Methodist Kindergarten in 2005.

Aunty Winnie retired from the teaching field and from DOSE in 1997, after 27 years of service. She was posted countrywide for teaching just to serve the department. Even after retiring from the DOSE, she taught in private schools especially Kindergarten schools for eight years.

Aunty Winnie’s admiration for children led her to establish a day care centre just to see that children are in safe hands.

For more details about Winifred Addison, please read on:

She she she: Thank you madam, for giving me the opportunity to have an interview with you.

Can you please tell me what influenced your career in the teaching profession?

Aunty Winnie: Thank you young lady, my choice of career was influenced by the passion I have for children as a mother who brought up children. And since I know myself teaching has seen as my only career.

She she she: What impressed you in the teaching field?

Aunty Winnie: Teaching is the noblest profession because you impact knowledge on the future leaders and to show them discipline. What has impressed me most in the field is that you learn a lot from children; the most interesting thing is that you can detect a child who is deaf, dumb and even blind.

She she she: How can you detect that?

Aunty Winnie: By just observing them. A child who is blind would not see the letters properly, likewise someone who is deaf, would not hear properly, and the one who is dumb would not talk properly.

She she she: So how do you react when you discover such.

Aunty Winnie: I usually take them for a medical test and know how to consult their parents inorder to stop it, with the necessary treatment.

She she she: How do you see the teaching field nowadays?

Aunty Winnie: It is not as effective as before because children are not concentrating on learning, and we expect parents to help with the children so that we would have good results.

She she she: Why have you established this day care?

Aunty Winnie: I see that working mothers don’t have anywhere to leave their children, and it might be very dangerous to let them loitering around while their mothers are at work.

She she she: What do you finally want to tell Gambian women?

Aunty Winnie: I want to urge them to continue the hard work and know that every good child is made good by a good mother.

She she she: Thank you madam.

Aunty Winnie: Thank you.