South Sudan education minister tours Middle East to seek partnerships

By Roba Gibia

September 27, 2008 (CAIRO) — Education ministers in the Government of Southern Sudan (GoSS) arrived in Egypt on Sept. 19 on an official visit to Middle East and Gulf states of Egypt, Jordan, United Arab Emirates and Qatar.

The Minister of Education, Science and Technology in the government of Southern Sudan, Prof. Job Dharuai accompanied with Majur Babor Ajul, Minister of Education in Western Equatoria State, Atem Kuir Jok, GoSS Director General High and Tertiary Education, Samuel Majur Chap Office Manager, Office of the Minister, and Edward Kokole, GoSS Director General, Quality Promotion, visited the GoSS Liaison Office in Cairo on September 20, 2008.

Upon their arrival at the GoSS Liaison Office, they had a meeting with staff in which Dharuai explained why he had chosen Egypt as the first step in his Middle East trip. There is reciprocal interest between Egypt and Sudan, he said, and education in South Sudan had been neglected from 1955 until the 1972 Addis Ababa agreement. He praised the role of William Nhial Deng in addressing education grievances of Southern Sudanese by requesting Egyptian authorities grant scholarships to Southerners in Egypt.

There was not a single Southern student enrolled in the faculty of medicine in Sudan, said Dharuai. Thus, the minister said he is following the footsteps of William Deng and will request the Egyptian authorities to assist the Government of Southern Sudan in the field of education and particularly in technical education, teacher training and printing of school text books.

Dharuai explained that he wants to restore the dignity of the teaching profession in the ministry of education. His principal objective is to make education attractive to scholars and educators so that it is no longer viewed as a waiting room or dumped institution. He pointed out that he is going to restore confidence in education by raising teachers’ standards, creating conducive conditions, additional allowances and by adding 30% to the teacher’s basic salary. The bill has been already submitted to the Southern Sudan Legislative Assembly pending approval, and if it is approved, it will be a step forward in restoration of teaching profession, he said.

The GoSS Minister of Education, Science and Technology also had a meeting with students in which he listened to the various problems facing students in Egypt and promised to resolve some immediate problems. But the Minister expressed discontent about the small number of students accepted to the colleges of education in Egypt, and emphasized that he will supervise the next admission by himself and in coordination with the ten state ministers of education to have good number of students accepted in the colleges of education.

For his part, the Western Equatoria (WES) Minister of Education, Majur Babor Ajul elaborated on the problems facing his ministry, such as lack of school textbooks — of which some schools have virtually none — and lack of professional capacity and qualified teachers.

“In WES we are paying teachers’ salaries only 75% and it doesn’t mean that 25% goes into our pockets, but it remains teachers’ arrears because this 25% has to be used in some imperative projects,” said Ajul. He stressed that the development of human resources is the key to inclusive development, and he called upon qualified Western Equatorian Teachers to return home because there are no qualified teachers in the state. Some senior secondary school graduates are headmasters in the Senior Secondary Schools in WES and some are sitting Sudan School Certificate examinations together with their students, said Majur Babor.

Ajul told Sudan Tribune that his trip to Egypt, Jordan, United Arab Emirates and Qatar is to seek cooperation of these countries to train teachers to his state at various school levels, and that is what he is aiming to achieve during his first Middle East and Gulf states trips.

In an interview with Sudan Tribune about the relocation of Lui Girls and Mundri Boys Senior Secondary schools to their original localities, the Minister of Education in Western Equatoria state said these schools are national schools and its relocations require cooperation between the GoNU and GoSS. The policy of national schools are that 25% of the intake is locally and 75% from the various Southern Sudan states. It is worth mentioning that Lui Girls senior secondary school, English pattern is already operational at its original locality in Lui at least for one batch but the Arabic pattern is still operating in Juba.

In his meeting with the WES community, the Minister of Education, who comes from Mvolo county but is originally from Awiel, briefed his community about the security, development and education process in WES and said that the Mundri Bridge has been opened recently by Salva Kiir Mayardit, President of GoSS. The main roads have been contracted and the feeder roads are the responsibility of the state government, said Ajul.

Ajul told the WES community about the destruction of forestry and especially timber and said that there is the Equatorian Timber Company which has been established to oversee the forestry resources, and there are regulations which have been set up to regulate forestry resources. He said WES is one of the stabilized states in South Sudan in terms of security and the tribal frictions have disappeared as well as Ambororo and LRA threats.

The delegation had a meeting on Sunday with Yosry El-Gamal, Egyptian Minister of Education for General Education. During the meeting Dharuai expressed his gratitude for the continued Egyptian assistance to the Government of Southern Sudan and especially in the field of education, and invited Egyptian Minister of Education to visit South Sudan. In his speech, Yosry El-Gamal said that his ministry is ever ready to offer any assistance to the government of Southern Sudan, and are ready to train Southern Sudanese teachers whether being in Egypt or South. The Egyptian Minister of Education requested government of Southern Sudan to present list of their demands in the required fields and promised to visit South Sudan in nearest future.

On Tuesday, Prof. Dharuai and the accompanying delegation had a meeting with Prof. Hani Helal, Egyptian Minister of High Education. During the meeting the two sides agreed on a number of issues, and the Egyptian Minister of High Education expressed its readiness to assist Government of Southern Sudan in various education fields. In response, the GoSS Ministry of Education, Science and Technology presented this list of its requests to the Egyptian Minister of High Education:

1. To give 100 annual scholarships to the various Egyptian universities for the South Sudanese,
2. To increase the number of Masters and Ph.D degrees granted to southern Sudanese,
3. To train university teachers or lecturers,
4. To accelerate the establishment of Alexandria university branch in Juba,
5. To support South Sudan universities with Egyptian professors or lecturers,
6. To support in the establishment of Teachers’ Institute for Training in South Sudan.

The GoSS Ministry of Education delegation left to Jordan on Tuesday for similar meetings. But due to the Idi Elfitr, the delegation trip to United Arab Emirates and Qatar has been postponed until after the Idi Elfitr holidays.

(ST)