South Sudan’s higher education predicaments
By Machien J. Luoi
October 18, 2011 — Recently the Minister of Higher Education in the Republic of South Sudan, Dr. Adwok Nyaba, announced the suspension of private universities, citing lack of infrastructure, standardised curriculums and other incompetencies. In contrast, the matter is not just the incompetence of private universities and colleges; instead, the Ministry is overwhelmed by many other problems and appears to have no clear plan at hand to deal with them. The Ministry must accordingly come forth with acceptable and genuine plan to deal with limited number of Higher Education institutions; few number of qualified professors; absence of curriculum for the Higher Education institutions across the region; and inadequate capacity to decentralise Higher Education to the Ten States of South Sudan.
The Republic of South Sudan had three recognised universities (Bhar El Gazel, Upper Nile and Juba) prior to the signing of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) in 2005. In the last seven years, only two universities (John Garang Institute of Technology and Rumbek University) were founded. The number of Higher Education institutions with national recognition is now five. These institutions are faced with problems of poor infrastructure which includes poor classrooms, dormitories, lack of recreational facilities, lack of libraries and deficient laboratories capable of hosting all kinds of standard research experiments in university. Relocation of these universities from where they are at present to new locations was recently proclaimed by the seating Minister to counter the questions of space and quality. But, when will the new universities reposition? One year? Two? When exactly? Moreover, the five universities are challenged with huge influx of students with varying certification from their previous high schools or colleges, who seek admission before official opening commences. As a matter of fact, some of these universities were scheduled to open back in April, but the opening was then postponed to May, later to September, and now some are to officially open in January 2012. In February 2011, there were 25,000 students reportedly registered in the five universities. With the return of graduates from North Sudan and schools in Ethiopia, Kenya and Uganda, the number of students eager to embark on university studies has nevertheless increased. Should all these people have to wait for the relocation plans before going to university to study? The Ministry of Higher Education should have formed a plan before the relocation commenced. Conversely, a lot of human resources could be lost to other pressing conditions in South Sudan if this situation persists.
Moreover, the five universities do not have adequate qualified professionals to lecture in classrooms. Before the formal independence of the Republic of South Sudan, Higher Universities in South Sudan were not budgeted for from the South by Government of South Sudan (GOSS); they were paid for by the Khartoum government under national universities. Lately, the Minister of Higher Education, Dr. Adwok Nyaba stated, “the government will set aside 1.5 to 2 Billion US dollars over the next five years, for the physical reconstruction of these universities, to transform them to world class universities.” Does this amount include the recruitment of qualified teachers for the five universities? Most lecturers, especially from the old three universities were from the North Sudan. After South Sudan’s independence, many of them did not return despite their awareness that the three universities which were supervised from the North were returned to their rightful locations in South Sudan. There is need for a replacement of these teachers with national professionals not previously in the Higher Education system. We have qualified nationals capable of teaching in the higher institutions of South Sudan. Nonetheless, they need certification from the Ministry of Higher Education to be able to teach. Is that in the plan of the Ministry? This would alleviate South Sudan from pressure to recruit from neighboring countries and from out sourcing potential job opportunities for the nationals.
Alongside this, South Sudan is confronted with deficiency of proper academic curriculum for the Higher Education System. It is one of the reasons that culminated to grounding of private universities in South Sudan a few weeks ago. Before the appointment of Ministers of the Republic of South Sudan, former Minister of Higher Education in the GOSS, Mr. Joseph Ukel declared the desire of the government then on legalization of 14 private universities. The question is, had Mr. Joseph Ukel continued in the same position, would he have made the decision taken recently by his successor to suspend private universities? The point here is that the curriculum issue does not only implicate the private universities, but the entirety of Higher Education in South Sudan. If there were a Higher Education plan on curriculum, both the public and private universities would use it as a guide to develop their institutions’ curriculums. In absence of such a direction from the higher authority, the repercussions are that private universities get suspended while public universities are redundantly ridiculed. The Ministry must clearly spell out its plan on curriculum suitable for the future direction of the New Republic should it aspire to be competitive amongst the sovereign nations of the world.
Last but not least, our country is made up of ten States. Each of the ten States vie for their own university. Unfortunately, it looks like the five universities now have the monopoly over higher education. With private schools suspended indefinitely, individuals in some states have no choice but to spend vast amounts of money and to send their sons and daughters long distances away from home, to learn. This is not by choice, but by design conditional, since the Ministry of Higher Education chose to put its eggs into the basket of the five universities. Citizens from states denied the opportunity to have universities are not happy. For instance, in a recent public forum in Unity State, a woman asked, “Why aren’t we given university when in fact these universities with blessing to operate are funded with oil money from our own state?” She has a genuine question, but who has an answer for it? Perhaps the Ministry of Higher Education does. Without exceptions, if there are hurdles preventing the Ministry of Higher Education to decentralize Higher Education to the Ten States, it must be made public or else, citizens from states denied universities will be aggrieved in “dignified silence.” After all, the Ministry of Higher Education has no presence in the States except those that host the five universities. The Ministry of General Education and Instruction based in the states has a fine line to walk when Higher Education issues are concerned.
To conclude, The Ministry of Higher Education must accordingly come forth with acceptable and genuine plan to deal with limited number of Higher Education institutions; few number of qualified professors; absence of curriculum for the Higher Education institutions across the region; and inadequate capacity to decentralize Higher Education to the ten States of South Sudan. Simple announcements on what ought to be done may not be enough. Practical planning and execution of the plans in timely manner are desirable for the top authorities of Higher Education. Time for excuses has elapsed, straight answers are necessary now; we must catch up with the rest of the world, the sooner the better.
The writer is a graduate with BA in Political and History and Master of Management. He is a South Sudanese residing in Bentiu, Unity State of South Sudan. He can be reached at [email protected].