Three South Sudanese educators take group photo in their visit to Xi'an Xinzhi Primary School, April 6, 2017. (China South Publishing & Media Group)
BEIJING, April 25 (Xinhua) -- In March, a dry, hot season in South Sudan, a new term began at the St. Kizito Primary School in capital Juba. Isabella Achiro Richard, a teacher of English and science, went back to school early to greet students.
Richard used to give six lessons to kids of grade 3 and 4 in a day, which makes her exhausted. Yet this term she will use a new syllabus, thanks to an education and technical cooperation project between China and South Sudan. She told the reporter, "The new teaching materials will greatly reduce the workload of teachers, and enhance the learning capacity of students."
Free from heavy teaching tasks, teachers now can spare more time and energy to shore up weak links and arrange student activities. Students find the diverse assignments and extra-curricular activities quite interesting, thus becoming more enthusiastic and active in learning.
A landlocked country in East Africa, South Sudan got independence in 2011 as "the youngest country" in the world. Many years of civil war left the country devastated, with a whole range of things waiting to be done. That is especially true with education. Low enrolment rates, weak teaching strength and a shortage of teaching materials prompted local governments to prioritize education to a position second only to national defense.
According to a survey made by South Sudanese government in 2016, the enrolment rates of primary school-age children across the country was only 57 percent; 58 percent of primary school teachers had never received systematic educational training. A report released by the United Nations Children's Fund in 2018 showed that among youth aged 15-24 in South Sudan, as many as 68 percent of them were illiterate.
"Education means peace," said Michael Longolio, Undersecretary of South Sudan's Ministry of Education, who knows well how education matters to the country. "Despite all the troubles, South Sudan pays special attention to education and no issues of education should be delayed. Whatever the difficulties might be, we have to ensure educational input. New babies are born in South Sudan each day, and we must ensure them educational opportunity."
In his visit to Hunan, a province in central China, in March 2018, Longolio admitted that since the country gained independence, serious shortage of capital and teachers had left the country struggling to build a new teaching material and curriculum system. Official data of South Sudan show that, for primary schools, the ratio of students to teaching materials is about 5:1. That is to say, five kids have to share one textbook. It is even worse for middle schools, where the ratio is about 7:1.
"When we just arrived in South Sudan, we found that most kids had no teaching materials, and they had to take notes for knowledge points on the blackboard," said Wang Tao, who is in charge of the Technical Cooperation Project of Education in South Sudan from China South Publishing & Media Group Co., Ltd. (the Group) . He recalled what he saw when visiting a primary school of South Sudan, "Because of the shortage of teaching materials, textbooks were locked up, taken out only when teachers prepared for lessons, and put away again when they finished lesson preparation."
Returning home, Wang Tao immediately submitted a report to the headquarters, stating that he was ready to do something for the Technical Cooperation Project of Education in South Sudan.
In 2017, the "tailor-made national education system for South Sudan", an educational and technical cooperation project undertaken by the Group, was launched. It consisted of top-level educational planning, textbook development, teacher training, construction of an educational technology and teachers' training center, and textbook printing. According to the plan, the Group pooled together top-notch textbook compilation experts in China to worked with their South Sudanese counterparts to write syllabuses for math, English and science for grade 1-8, and textbooks and teacher's manuals for grade 1.
To make better use of the textbooks, 200 South Sudanese teachers have received training in China. They had face-to-face communication with the textbook compilation team, and learned the textbooks themselves before teaching their colleagues and students at home.
A mother of two kids, Richard has been a teacher for 11 years. In 2018, she joined the South Sudanese teachers' delegation to receive training in China. Comparing the new textbooks with the old, she found that the new ones are student-oriented while the old ones were teacher-oriented.
Richard told the reporter that, during the trial period of the new teaching materials, the course she taught became a model course in St. Kizito Primary School, and students loved the new lessons.
"A principle we have followed is to give full consideration to South Sudanese teaching method, and offer support to meet their needs. What we have always pursued is sharing-based cooperation, rather than telling them what they to do," said Meng Hongwei, chief technical adviser of the project.
Meng Hongwei, a man in his 70s, has participated in the survey and assessment of various international education projects as an expert of the UNESCO. For this project, out of passion for education, he made many journeys between Beijing and Juba. In January 2018, he celebrated his 73rd birthday in South Sudan, where he is an old friend of many local teachers, who hugged him warmly and called him "Professor Meng".
Under his guidance, the Expert Working Group has made many field surveys on South Sudanese government officials, experts, teachers and students, local enterprises, and offices of international organizations, and gathered a great deal of first-hand information. Based on these efforts and drawing on the experience of Chinese education over the years, they finally wrote three reports on top-level educational planning, which were recognized and praised by the Ministry of General Education and Instruction of South Sudan and multiple South Sudanese education experts.
Bullen Daniel Parongwa, curriculum developer of South Sudan's Ministry of Education, said that the new syllabuses ask teachers to act as a guider to help students in learning, rather than simply imparting knowledge to them. Students will be guided to master communication skills and think critically.
As of May 2018, the project had sent more than 1.3 million textbooks to South Sudan via long journeys across the sea.
John Gai Yoh, South Sudan's former minister of education, noted that, "I believe this project will have great influence. We hope finally each primary school student will have a textbook, and these war-inflicted kids should have learning opportunities."
In March, South Sudanese students will have their new "tailor-made" textbooks when starting a new term. In the very season, back in China, everything comes back to life. Just as the Chinese saying goes, "The whole year's work depends on a good start in spring." When we sow the seeds of hope in spring, we will be rewarded with a good harvest in the autumn. (Contributed by Ding Lei, Daniel Majack, edited by Shi Chunjiao)
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