Changing John Garang Institute to University

By Mawut Guarak

September 25, 2008 (New York, USA)—For the first time since the creation of this planet, the marginalized people of Sudan and South Sudanese in particular have seen a more perfect peace. The Comprehensive Peace Agreement brought not only peace but also freedom, progress, and prosperity for the most marginalized people in the world. In real sense, there has never been a single institution of higher education in South Sudan despite the existence of three regional universities.

The three Southern universities in Juba, Malakal, and Wau were only in names but never exist on South Sudan’s soil. It was until after the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) when the Government of South Sudan started to repatriate them back home. Southerners have been forced to give up their religion and change identity in order to attend Islamized institutions of higher education in Khartoum and its surroundings. Thanks to the CPA, these universities are now relocating back to their original areas of belonging.

However, three universities are not enough in an area bigger than the Republics of Kenya and Uganda combined with a population of approximately 11 million people. There is a need for more institutions to be opened in South Sudan; thanks to the GOSS and GoNU for the establishment of Rumbek University. Rumbek University became the fifth institution of higher education in South Sudan after Juba National University, University of Upper Nile, University of Bhar el Ghazal, and John Garang Institute of Technology; yet it is not operational as of now.

Established in 2007, John Garang Institute of Technology brought joy, confidence, and hope to South Sudanese people. It is a sign that those who died, including Dr. Garang, laid down their lives for the betterment of the entire country and that their legacies are kept, and scarifies will be honored for ever. Not because it is named after the Founding Father of our Nation, John Garang Institute is a foundation by which Government of South Sudan stand up proud and convinces her citizens of what it has started to do.

However, John Garang Institute of Technology still needs more work to be done. South Sudan has more students from Eastern African and else where ready for university but lack of institutions in South Sudan is keeping them away from pursuing this goal. That is why it is important to change John Garang Institute to John Garang University. Changing the Institute to University status will help South Sudanese and GOSS in many ways.

First, as a university, the Institute will be more flexible in academic sense. It will bring academic diversity to the Campus. Being it an Institute, the college has limited definition in fulfilling academic needs in South Sudan. It will only have to deal with areas of study that best fall under the definition of “institute.” But as a University, it will accommodate any area of study from Liberal Arts, Law, Medicine, Engineer, Foreign Languages, just to name a few; and this will open more doors for thousands of South Sudanese with secondary school education to pursue their dreams.

Second, since South Sudan is hunting for a place to train public servants in public administration, the campus has already hit the nail on the problem. The Institute is now offering bachelor’s degrees in four fields of studies including Public Administration. The Government of South Sudan can take advantage of that by sending its public servants to learn at the University. All it need is to support it so as to be at the international level through funding and recruitment of more qualified instructors.

Third, the University will balance distant and offer more chances for people who may not have access to the “first” urban centers of Juba, Malakal, and Wau where the other Universities are located. At this moment Rumbek University is not operational; hence John Garang University will take in students from rural States of Jonglei, Lakes, Unity, Eastern Equatoria, northern Central Equatoria, and beyond. The College of Science and Technology shall then be established within the University to train South Sudanese and citizens of the marginalized areas from Blue Nile, Nuba Mountains and other places in high-tech to compete in the global market of the 21st century.

With these few examples, the Institute administration, Jonglei government (established the Institute) and GOSS (recently promoted the institute as a national university) must act and make this move on a timely manner. It will be easier to do it now than later. Precisely, I robustly urge Chancellor Aggrey Ayuen to study this article and use it as it seems fit.

The author is a former Jiesh el Amr (red army) and a graduate student residing in New York; he can be reached at [email protected]