Working in Groups

I believe it is true that almost all parents, including those in Southern Sudan, want their children to receive a ‘good education’ – whatever that might mean. Even parents who have not received much formal education themselves grasp the notion that basic literacy and numeracy is important and that children should go to school.  

This morning I went to the Nile to fill some containers with purified water. It’s free to the people of Malakal but individuals must collect it – a burdensome task for the women and children carrying full, 20-litre containers on their heads. I saw one little girl at the taps. I wondered if she goes to school. Many children here do, well dressed in colourful uniforms, but many don’t.   

I started thinking of the Brother in Australia many years ago who tried to suggest gently to a parent that her son should wash more regularly. The mother retorted: 

‘I sent him to school for you to learn him, not smell him!’  

At various Education conferences I have listened to disturbing statistics about education in Southern Sudan: 

 ‘96% of teachers do not have a recognised qualification; 63% of teachers are completely untrained.’  ‘In our county, we have no competent teachers of English’. ‘We have several schools with six classes and only two teachers’ ‘Many of our classes have more than one hundred students’. ‘Children in Southern Sudan have the least access to primary education in the world.’  

‘Schooling’ in many places in Southern Sudan is delivered under a tree. Many ‘schools’ simply have no classrooms. A few days ago I heard of a school of 420 students and only one teacher. Parents send their children to school because they understand that school is a good thing but one can rightly ask how effective is the education delivered? When is a school not a school?  

There are resources here. In a visit to the Education Ministry I saw huge piles of text and exercise books and other materials, sitting in the open – to be distributed, we were told, in February and March. Nothing has yet happened in February! All we wanted were 25 compasses for geometry. We searched for an hour, rummaging futilely inside a few of the massive stack of cartons but couldn’t find even one compass. ‘A school in a box’, one man told me – if only the boxes reached their destination. This disorder is one consequence of a lack of infrastructure and organizational skills.  

Thankfully there are a significant number of NGOs focused on building schools; but we are one of the few groups trying to develop better teachers. There are currently 204 teachers registered for, and mostly attending, our various programmes.  

In Malakal, where I am at present, there are almost 80 teachers enrolled in a four-year in-service programme which covers the following subjects:  English, Mathematics, Science, Social Studies and Professional Studies. Next month we will add a daily period of Religious Education, with a focus on peace building and reconciliation. 

Sr Barbara Paleczny will be coming to Malakal to teach Religious Education. She is presently in Juba, leading a one month programme for 50 Catholic school teachers, designed to improve their English and skills in teaching it. Alongside her is also Br Denis Loft from Australia who only arrived in Southern Sudan last month. Next month Br Denis will go to Yambio to teach Physics where there are at present 30 teachers who have started a similar four-year in-service programme to the one at Malakal. 

The standard of English generally is quite poor among teachers in Southern Sudan. The only possible distance education, initially, needs to be face-to-face with instructors travelling to the location. So a programme is to be offered to another 30 teachers in Nzara which will cover the same material as in the Yambio programme. A programme will also be offered to 40 teachers in Leer to cover the same material as in the Year One Malakal programme. 

Construction of our own facilities on Catholic Church land is proceeding at both Malakal and Yambio and should be completed in the latter part of this year. Further, the scope and cost of renovations of an existing complex at Torit is being investigated with a view to establishing a Solidarity community and centre in that diocese. All buildings become the property of the Sudan Catholic bishops with the goal of long-term self-sustainability.  

Reports coming from Wau where our Health Training Institute is delivering its first programme are very positive.

Presently at Riimenze we have Sr Josephine Murugi from Kenya running a pastoral programme with women and girls. Sister Rosa Bong Le Thi from Vietnam, is also developing an agricultural project to assist the people in improving the use of the fertile land at Riimenze. 

There is diversity. There is productivity. There is a serious effort to stand in solidarity with the people of Southern Sudan. This is our SSS.

Br Bill