South Sudan education ministry to address language barrier among officials

By Ngor Arol Garang

July 29, 2010 (KHARTOUM) – Southern Sudan’s ministry of Education has revealed difficulties faced in verbal language communications among staff.

It is no common knowledge to hear some government officials in the regional semi autonomous government of Southern Sudan complaining that most of the newly recruited university graduate possesses a certificate, but cannot deliver or do the actual work assigned.

The regional government has since formation in 2005 experienced in hiring people who know exactly the importance of people’s skills and ability to deliver expected output without which, the educational qualification becomes important but less useful.

Victor Akok Anei, Director for administration in the ministry of education who has taught for years as a teacher by profession, told Sudan Tribune from Juba on Thursday that it is quite common coming across people with great ideas, theories and ways to solve complex problems, but they fail to put it in practice or communicate the ideas clearly or effectively. He said the situation has hence been complicating the process to delivery and ultimate realizing envisaged goals.

Anei added that a recent research carried by the ministry has revealed that some of graduating students’ exhibit problems in delivering what is written in their certificates or degrees while others have expression or communication difficulties when it comes to puting what they have learnt into practice.

“Some hardly prove percentages allocated to them on certificates. You can see on the document that the person is indeed a graduate and qualified for an appointment but it becomes difficult when given an opportunity to express themselves,” he said.

The use of English as a medium of instruction in schools across Southern Sudan right away from primary to university is entrenched in education policy, and apart from few selected public schools and the privately owned English medium schools, primary schools uses local dialects as medium of instruction and English is taught as a subject.

This has had a bearing in development of students at secondary school and higher level particularly in science, mathematics and other subjects as these are now taught in English and they are supposed to comprehend to be able to write their examinations.

Anei urged that language is about choice, speaking rights, representation, and since language is inseparable from politics and development, he added, it becomes a prerequisite for socioeconomic development in any community.

“At our time we had to struggle to speak English even at lower level of primary. We also encouraged those primary pupils and students we taught particularly in Majak Akoon, Northern Bahr el Ghazal, where I taught before I became commissioner of the area,” he added.

“This time around, we at the regional ministry of education have resolved to ensure that our children are adequately equipped to be able to think clearly and act rightly,” he said.

The Minister for Education, Dr. Michael Milly Hussein, while opening a private school constructed by family of late Dr. John Garang de Mabior in Juba, remarked that the government plans to address language barrier problems from this fiscal year. “The government has already realized the problem and has sought interventions not only on the language barrier but also in mathematics and science related subjects,” he said.

“We are aware of the deficiencies emerging from English, mathematics and science related subjects. The government has set to address them effectively this financial year,” he said, adding if this is addressed it will end public outcry that government officials take their children to foreign countries for better education.

“If proper education system from these foreign countries is imported to Southern Sudan, there will be no reasons our people would take their children to countries where they end up learning different cultures, history and geography as opposed to their own,” said Dr. Milly Hussein on a televised statement on SSTV on Tuesday.

He said the government was from this fiscal year set to invest more resources on these subjects in order to create more experts who will contribute greatly to economic development.

Apart from mathematics, more insistence on science subjects will be made from secondary schools by creating more conducive and facilitative environment for students to learn more intelligibly. The government has already formed a committee to undertake research on how to address these academic problems in order that it may remain a history, said the education minister.

But teacher Victor urged that the higher learning institutions provide learning methodologies while the remaining part should be filled up by the students themselves.

“Most students particularly graduates from higher learning institutions like universities think learning ends with the graduation. Learning is a continuous process that has no end. After graduating, it starts a period of practice which goes together with the deepening of the skills obtained from the university,” he explained.

He said there is a need for graduates to have focus, perseverance and dedicate their professional life to deepening all what they learnt at the universities in order to make themselves more competent particularly when it comes to job competition in the labor market and promotions.

(ST)