French Total rehabilitates Bor secondary school

By Philip Thon Aleu

April 22, 2009 (BOR) – A French oil drilling company with a long history of involvement in the Sudan is working to rehabilitate a prominent secondary school in south Sudan — one that had once been used as an ammunition store during Sudan’s decades-long civil war.

Bor Secondary School was constructed in 1960 enrolling Southern Sudanese children as one of the first few secondary schools extended to the south by the Khartoum government of the time. Following the 1983 start of Sudan’s civil war, which began in Bor town, the school shut down in 1984 and subsequently was turned into an ammunition store by government troops.

The teachers’ quarters were taken up by National Security forces where hundreds of southerners were reputedly slaughtered: container stained with blood has been maintained as a future memorial.

But now, as part of the Jonglei Community Assistance Program or JOCAP, the French Total E & P Soudan has approved and provided budget to carry out construction and rehabilitation works in Jonglei State including at historical Bor Secondary School, Sudan Tribune has learnt.

Eight classrooms, showers and toilets, and the dining hall are being renovated at the school.

Jonglei Minister of Education John Antipas Ayiei says the rehabilitation of the “school will change the face of the town – thanks to Total.”

Total stopped operating in Sudan in 1985 after a civil war erupted between the central government and southern separatists. Last year, Total said it would resume activities following a 2005 peace accord and after Sudan upheld its license on the block.

According to a new agreement reached in 2007, Total has operating rights for the block with a 32.5 percent stake, as it was the case in the initial deal, Kuwaiti Kufpec Sudan Ltd 27.5 percent instead of 25% and state-owned Sudapet maintains its 10 percent, the southern Sudan government owned Nilepet 10%. The remaining 20% should be offered in a public bid.

In March 2008, Sudanese First Vice-President and the President of southern Sudan Salva Kiir Mayadrit visited Abu Dhabi where the participation of Mubadala in the capital of Block B was on the top agenda of the talks.

However, Salva Kiir didn’t yet appoint the member of Nilepet board. He has to officially approve the participation of Mubadala in the consortium

The construction and rehabilitation programs funded by Total E & P Soudan are being implemented by Cooperative Housing Foundation (CHF International). Total has also funded Intersos International in separate programs. CHF International started working at Bor Secondary School, popularly known as Malek Secondary School, and expects to complete its work by July 2009, according to the contract sheet seen by the Sudan Tribune.

“I am glad to be one of the people involved in the renovation of the school,” said John Mac Acuek, field coordinator and program manager of CHF, a US organization.

Dew Sunday Majak, a community project officer at the CHF says “the community has high expectation [from the government] but they are appreciating whatever step is taken toward development.”

Jonglei Minister John Antipas who toured the school on Tuesday says a great breakthrough has being made. “The most importance of this is we have being persuading international NGOs [Non Governmental Organizations] since 2005….for the rehabilitation of this secondary school but in 2007, the Total came and made a pledge to rehabilitate this secondary school,” said John Antipas Ayiei, State Minister of Education, Science and Technology while admiring the reconstruction works on Tuesday.

“Thanks to Total, I believe the school will change the face of the town.”

The minister added that the major challenge of providing secondary schools has been reduced by this project. The state has also constructed 96 primary schools in collaboration with its partners, Ayiei noted adding “we neglect secondary schools simply because we should start somewhere. Although the need is very huge, we are moving on well to meet the 117 needed in the whole State.”

Minister Ayiei stressed that “if the international community is supporting us in this way, I believe by 2011, something will be tangible on the ground in terms of permanent schools.”

The education system in Jonglei State, Ayiei says, has improved since 2005 when Sudan’s former rebels, the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM), which now control the South, took over in accordance with the peace accord of that year.

Total E & P Soudan has also funded the building of one primary school in Twic East, constructing official offices for Bor and Duk Counties at their respective headquarters of Werkok and Mareng. Rehabilitation of 15 boreholes and construction of 12 new ones has also been funded in the three counties and will be implemented by CHF International.

Meanwhile, another secondary school will be built at Malek, about 8 miles out on the Bor-Juba road by a British millionaire, to be a semi-private school for a period of fifteen years, John Antipas Ayiei claimed.

(ST)