Civil servants in the Gambia are being given an extra day off every week so they can devote more time to prayer, farm work, family and friends.
The scheme, which came into effect on 1 February, means that Friday will cease to be a working day for public sector employees. They will still have a 40-hour week, working from 8am 6pm Monday to Thursday. State school children will follow suit, with the option for every school to make up lost time on Saturdays.
Similar experiments across the world have had mixed success; the US state of Utah abandoned its scheme after three years in favour of the old five day week but in the Netherlands this work pattern is popular.
