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The president of Gambia has said all [public / publicity] workers will have three-day weekends starting from February 1st. President Yayha Jammeh has added Friday to the [irregular / regular] weekend of Saturday and Sunday. He wants people to [farm / form] , rest more and pray. However, he also [announced / announcement] that government employees would [works / work] from 8am to 6pm Mondays to Thursdays. In [addition / subtraction] : "Schools, banks and all other [affected / infected] places are free to work on Saturdays.” This means that people may have [spilt / split] weekends, and work an extra 10 hours a week. Government workers [currency / currently] work from 8am to 4pm. Working until 6pm [means / meanings] eight hours extra, which could become ten if they have to work on Saturdays too.

The president said the new working hours would, “allow Gambians to [devotion / devote] more time to prayers, [social / socially] activities and agriculture”. He said people could, “go back to the [landing / land] and grow what we eat and eat what we [grow / growth] for a healthy and [wealth / wealthy] nation”. Gambia’s ‘Freedom Newspaper’ [criticized / criticism] the president’s idea. It said the three-day weekend, “is going to have a bad [effect / affect] on the economy and the country. Many workers…are worried that the changes are going to create problems for [they / them] .” The paper added: “Gambia’s economy and infrastructure have [collapsed / collapses] thanks to Jammeh’s poor leadership.” Gambia is the smallest nation on the African [continent / country] , with a population of just 1.8 million.