I spent the last fortnight about 20 miles west of Yei in the tiny village of Goli, at Emmanuel Christian College. I was assisting in teaching the Basic English course to first year student teachers. The college was established in Goli, because it was relatively safe at the time and because there was a refugee camp there. The college now also has primary and secondary schools, with a combined enrollment of 250, mostly village students.
Being at ECC was an incredible experience. Most of the class had significant teaching experience as finishing high school is currently enough of a qualification to be a primary school teacher in South Sudan. In the future the government would like all teachers to have a diploma. While the salary doubles when you have a diploma it costs $1500 in fees alone to get a diploma, plus three years of no income. Many of the students have no idea how they will pay their fees, some plan to pay the college back after graduation but on a salary of about $100 a month this will be difficult.
A significant group of the college's 250 students are from the Nuba Mountains. Because of ongoing conflict there (they don't wish to be part of Sudan but have significant amounts of gold so Sudan wouldn't give them up) most of the students have spent the last ten years in refugee camps in Kenya where they had at least been able to get an education, in addition to food and water. The stories some of the students shared had me in tears. They just want to be able to go home, see their families and open schools so their people can be educated.
The students were all in at least their twenties when they finished high school, many had also faced changing languages during their schooling. Many had been educated in Arabic, the official language of Sudan but with independence South Sudan chose English as its official language. Some of the older guys really struggled with handwriting and it was incredible to work with them as they persevered to improve their handwriting, g, k, l, p, q and s all presented particular challenges!
The gender mix was the opposite to Australian primary schools, about 10% women. Many of the women were mothers of young children. Many times each day a carer would come to the door with a crying child and a mother would slip outside to breastfeed.
I was assisting a missionary from Switzerland who has been here for just over four years. She was amazing at helping bridge the cultural gap and filling me in my misunderstandings. The funniest moment for me was setting the look on the students' faces when I told them I had worked with many of my colleagues for five years but had never shaken their hand. Here hand shaking occurs every time you see someone you know, sometimes give or six times a day!
It was such an incredible learning experience for me to interact with adults who were willing to share so much of their life and cultural experiences with me. But it has also made me realise what a need for education there is here and that only with trained teachers is there the possibility for significant change. If you're interested in supporting the training of teachers please let me me know, I'm working with the college leadership to set up a specific fund to enable student fees to be paid.
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