ONGs urge Southern Sudan govt to promote girls education

July 5, 2006 — New Sudanese Indigenous NGOs Network (NESI Network) is an indigenous civilian body comprised of 67 local member organizations operating in various sectors within Southern Sudan. Our motto is “self-reliance and a dignified lifestyle for our people”. We are facilitators of change, focused on joint efforts towards achieving a just and fair Sudan for all regardless of ethnicity, gender, religion/faith, or organization affiliation. Nineteen of the sixty seven member organizations form the Education Sectoral Team and are dedicated to facilitating educational development processes on behalf of the entire network. The team creates awareness to the community on the need to take all children to school regardless of age, sex, religion, ethnicity, socio-political background, and regardless of physical disabilities among other issues. The Education Team works very closely with other NESI Sectoral Teams such as, Advocacy and Lobby, Gender Mainstreaming, Capacity Building to ensure effective service delivery in education sector.

NESI Education Sectoral Team wishes to take this opportunity to convey their message of congratulations and encouragement to the Government of Southern Sudan Ministry of Education on this auspicious occasion of marking the “National Girls’ Education day”. This is a great step forward in education reconstruction and development in Southern Sudan; our Goal at NESI. We take this opportunity to share in the Vision and Mission of the GoSS Ministry of Education in providing “Education for all”, as this is the way forward towards achieving Universal Primary Education (UPE), and Promoting Gender Equality and Women Empowerment as prioritized in the Millennium Development Goals.

NESI Education Team sincerely hopes that, the Government of Southern Sudan will give girls’ Education a great consideration; through moral, financial, material and human resources that will lead to the minimization of the existing gender gap in Education Sector of Southern Sudan. We at NESI Network believe in promoting Peace through the spirit of Equality, Fairness and Justice for all. Education for all children regardless of; age, sex, gender, religion, ethnicity, socio-economic or cultural background is a true reflection of this. Women Empowerment is a goal which can only be achieved by giving the girls opportunities to be in school at the earliest time possible.

While, we acknowledge the overall impact of over two decades of war in Southern Sudan, we note with great concern some key Educational challenges that need to be addressed for the success of girl child Education, as well as, the entire education program of Southern Sudan. These include; non-uniform Curriculum, inadequate trained teachers, inadequate learning and instructional materials, socio-cultural practices ranging from; early and forced marriages, and all forms of Violence against women and girls among others.

NESI Education Team wishes to state its full commitment in promoting girl- child education activities in Southern Sudan. Our strategy of Capacity Building and Empowering NESI Civil Society Education & Gender Team members with skills of, “Mainstreaming Gender in Education Sector” is one positive approach towards promoting girls’ Education in Southern Sudan. We wish to call for the Governments’ support through the Ministry of Education, with opportunities for partnerships and collaborations in actualizing the following recommendations on the way forward: These are:

– Finalizing the Education Policy document and subsequent reviews as the needs arise.
– Streamlining the Education Curriculum for; formal, non-formal, informal and adult learning programs.
– Funding support to improve the Education infrastructure from the locally available resources, National, and International donors.
– Streamlining the teachers’ training and recruitment processes, as well as, remuneration.
– Ensuring there’s a Gender Sensitive Curriculum in all schools, as well as, Gender Sensitive instructional materials at classroom level.
– Putting in place-girls’ friendly learning environments including separate sanitation facilities for girls and boys in schools.
– Putting in place Legal Policies to ensure Protection of the girl child from all forms of abuse, including Human Rights’ Violations.
– Putting in place affirmative measures/actions to create an enabling environment for the education of the girl child, for example, girls’ boarding schools, scholarship opportunities for bright needy girls, and giving girls who drop out of school a second opportunity to go back to school, as long as, they are willing to.
– Active involvement of the community and education program beneficiaries in education problem identification, activity planning, implementation, monitoring and evaluation.
– Community mobilization and sensitization on the need to take all children to school.
– Support, networking and collaboration with the Civil Society Organizations implementing in Education Sector of Southern Sudan.

As the Government of Southern Sudan celebrates its National Girls’ Education day, NESI Education Team takes this opportunity to call upon the girls in Southern Sudan; awake up call for all our girls, “let’s arise and go to school”. Education is our Hope, Education is our future!

Signed by and on behalf of NESI Networks’ 67 member organizations and especially the Network’s Education Sectoral Team.

Yours sincerely,

Suzanne Jambo,
Coordinator.

NESI can be contacted at the following address:

– P.O BOX 14039-00100, Nairobi.
– Tel. +254-20-2724797/2736323
– Fax: +254-20-2724797
– Cell phone: +254-(0)721-619215, +254-(0)735-741519
– Email: [email protected]
– Website: www.ngoconnect.net/NESI