[hr-education] New refugee teachers one of the keys to development in southern Sudan

KAKUMA, Kenya, January 29 (UNHCR) -- Grace Anyieth has wanted to be a
teacher since she was a child, but she now sees it as more than just a
vocation after years of exile from her troubled homeland. The 24-year-old
plans to use her chosen career to help in the development of southern
Sudan, which is emerging from a civil war that killed some1.5 million
people over more than two decades.

She has taken a step in the right direction, recently completing and
passing a UNHCR-backed primary school teacher training course at the
Kakuma refugee camp in north-west Kenya.

"I wanted to become a teacher, so that I could bring change to my people
in south Sudan," said Grace, who fled to Kenya in 1992 after her father
was killed and the family home destroyed in Bor county, Jonglei state.
"Education is the only key to bring development in any country; it enables
people to be self-reliant and aware of their rights."

Grace was one of 215 refugees at Kakuma, almost all Sudanese and including
about a dozen women, to sit exams last September for their International
Primary Teacher Education Certificate. An impressive 83 percent passed,
with 10 percent receiving distinctions.

Many of the course graduates have already returned to southern Sudan,
where a fragile peace has been in place between the Sudanese government
and the rebel Sudan People's Liberation Army/Movement since January 2005.

Armed with their internationally recognised qualifications, the Kakuma
graduates will be in big demand in an area lacking an educational system
and infrastructure and desperately short of trained teachers to cope with
an influx of returnees.

"The illiteracy rate in southern Sudan stands at almost 85 percent, one of
the highest in the world, and almost 80 percent of the schools are in
temporary structures or under the trees," Edward Kokole Juma, a top
education official in southern Sudan's administration, said.

A report recently released by the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) and the
Southern Sudan Ministry of Education Science and Technology said there
were 758,207 students attending 2,922 schools in the south of the country.
The survey said these schools were served by 17,920 teachers, but added
that most of them lacked formal training or adequate educational
qualifications.

In a bid to help further boost the education system in southern Sudan,
UNHCR and its partners in the scheme are looking at the possibility of
relocating the Kakuma teacher training course to southern Sudan, possibly
the town of Juba.

"We are aware that South Sudan requires a large number of trained
teachers, especially now as refugees return home. We realised that the
teacher training college would have an even bigger impact [if located] in
South Sudan in the development of the education system, than it would have
had in Kakuma," said Mahmood Syed Hussain, head of the UNHCR sub-office in
Kakuma.

The teacher training programme was established in Kakuma two years ago
with the collaboration of the UN refugee agency, the Kenyan government and
the United Kingdom-based Windle Trust International, which runs the course
with the help of teachers from Kenya's state education sector.

It was aimed at unqualified but bright primary school teachers who had
studied at the camp's secondary schools but failed to secure university
scholarships. The Kenyan government also developed a landmark syllabus
tailored to the training of Sudanese refugees to become primary school
teachers in southern Sudan.

The new graduates know that a lot is expected of them. "It is now our
responsibility to rebuild our country through educating our brothers and
sisters who did not get a chance to go to school," said Peter Madit. "Many
people are returning and they will need us to provide the education," he
added.

As for Grace, she may have achieved one dream, but she has plenty more. "I
have a dream that South Sudan will one day have many schools and many
educated leaders. I have a dream that I will teach one of its women
leaders," she said with a smile.

By David Mwagiru 
In Kakuma, Kenya 





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