Teaching the teachers

Teachers are very hard to come by in South Sudan.  In Nimule, there was a huge drain of qualified teachers to the refugee camps in Uganda early on in the current civil war.  They were enticed by the high pay offered by a major international NGO.  There is no sign that they are going to come back in the foreseeable future. 

These teachers are not being replaced as there is a lack of training facilities across the country.  To tackle this, the Ministry of Education allows secondary school leavers to teach at primary level.  The South Sudanese curriculum ends at Senior 4, the equivalent of GCSEs, so most teachers are complete novices.  This applies to all primary schools in the whole country, apart from Dinka areas where the required level is even lower. 

Since starting Cece Primary School we have tried on our own to help our teachers to learn how to teach while teaching at the same time.  However, they come with their own school experiences.  They tend to model their behaviour on their former teachers’ behaviour.  This includes corporal punishment, teachers spending most of their time in the teachers’ common room when they are supposed to be teaching, regular lateness and absence while moonlighting at other schools.  Another general issue is absence due to funerals, which are vastly extended and can mean that we don’t see a teacher for several weeks.

One way in which we try to address this behaviour is by expecting our teachers to sign a contract which includes a ban on corporal punishment and taking another job at the same time.  When the contract is broken, the teacher has to leave.  Unfortunately this is a very regular event.  We also deduct pay for absence which is not agreed.  However, this is not working.

It is remarkable that in spite of these problems we still manage to get far better educational results at Cece Primary School than at the other local schools.  I believe this is partly because my own, and the school governing body’s motivation is the education of the children.  To this end we emphasize literacy, which doesn’t even feature in the official South Sudan Curriculum.  Most other schools are run as money-making concerns with little or no care for the children’s education.

We have been racking our brains for a solution, and finally it has arrived.  A few months ago, I heard of an organisation called Solidarity with South Sudan.  This is a Catholic organization which is seeking to stabilize the country through training in various areas, such as sanitation, health and education. 

Our school management team, Mohammed (centre)
and his sister and her child.

about an organization called

I contacted them and asked if they would be able to assist Cece Primary School.  Their response was very positive.  Although they do not intervene in individual schools, they have a teacher training college in a town called Yambio where they have offered us places for two teachers to attend a two year training course.   They suggested that we send two teachers each year, so that our school can gradually achieve a full staff of trained teachers.

However, when they sent me the documentation, including a Code of Conduct that must be signed by all trainees, it became clear that they have exactly the same experience of teacher attitudes, as I have described above.  We thought about each of our teachers and realized that currently only one, a teacher called Mohammed Hafish, would be capable of fulfilling their expectations of finishing the course successfully. 

Mohammed Hafish, our first teacher trainee

Mohammed was educated in Uganda, where he was a refugee.  Ugandan standards are far higher than those in South Sudan.  He is very pro-active and even quietly organized football training and a friendly match without being asked.  Best of all, he is one of the first teachers to arrive each morning and doesn’t have to be pushed into the classroom.  He very ably assisted me with the school registrations in the last two weeks.

Solidarity with South Sudan has accepted him and he is currently on his way to Yambio.  On our part, our school management team has written a contract for him so that he is bound to teach at our school for at least three years on his return, on a higher level of pay than previously to reflect his training. 

Solidarity with South Sudan has their own sponsorship network, so we do not have to pay for his studies or his board and lodging.  Mohammed will however need to buy personal necessities.  We have agreed to pay him a monthly amount equivalent to half his usual salary.  I advised him to open an account in Yambio and keep as much as possible untouched so that he is ready for any unexpected expenses, in case of illness etc. 

As you can see from my description of the teaching environment in South Sudan, we are in urgent need of properly trained teachers in order to raise our teaching levels.  We hope that every year we will be able to send at least one, possibly two teachers, for training for two years.  This will greatly increase our capacity in the long term.  However for the next few years, we will be paying half salaries for teachers who are not present and will need to replace them to keep the school running.

Would anybody be willing to sponsor Mohammed?  

The cost per year will be £160.00.  I am happy to send gift aid forms to anyone interested.  My email address is rebeccamallinson1@hotmail.co.uk.  It is also now possible to make donations online through VirginMoney Giving.  Please be aware that it is necessary to put ‘Cece Primary School’ in the comments box, as Opportunity through Education also collects funds for other causes.  Virgin Giving charges a hefty admin fee on large donations, so please send direct to Opportunity through Education if you are considering sending over £1,000.

More disabled children in need of help

The next academic year starts at the beginning of February in Uganda.  There are two children in need of special school education who are needing sponsorship.  Their stories are below.

Joel Simbe

Joel Simbe 

Joel Simbe is ten years old and completely deaf from birth.  His father is dead and his mother is struggling alone.  When I first met him in 2017 he was attending nursery at a local school and doing very well.  It seemed a bad idea to send him to boarding school at a huge distance with only one visit home each year at such a young age and when he was doing so well. 

Joel’s mother came to see me again a few months ago as Joel’s situation has changed.  Unknown to her he had been badly bullied at school throughout last year because of his deafness.  As a result he started to abscond from school.  It was only after two terms of absence that she finally heard from his school that he was not attending.  Apparently he set off each day in his school uniform and then hid himself somewhere.  She begged me to find a school for him in Uganda.

Joel is still very young.  However, I now know another school with a hearing impairment unit in Gulu, which is only 100 kilometres away from Nimule.  I would like to help him to go to the school in Gulu, which is called Mother Theresa’s Primary School.  That way, his mother can visit easily, and even fetch him herself at the end of each term.  The family has relatives in Gulu, which is an added advantage.

Peter Ngong

Peter (on the right) with
his cousin.

Peter has a long and very tragic story.  I first met him about three years ago.  At that time he was a completely blind fourteen year old street child.  His parents died when he was still a baby in their home town which is called Bor.  He is not sure if he was blind from birth or went blind while very small.  Apparently his eyes were checked when he was still small and his family was told that one eye was beyond help, but the other eye was operable.  For some reason nothing was done.  He was looked after by extended family, but maltreated by them so that he developed a habit of total distrust.  This type of behaviour to the disabled is very common in South Sudan.

In 2013 when the current civil war started, the vice-president’s army invaded Bor and committed a large-scale massacre of civilians.  Peter’s family fled on the back of a truck, taking Peter with them.  They settled in Nimule but soon afterwards Peter could take no more and ended up on the streets, begging.  Due to local attitudes to disability, he was regularly abused and often had his money from kind passers-by stolen from him immediately afterwards. That was his situation when I first met him.  It was obvious that he was very bright as he was fluent in four languages (Dinka, Madi, Arabic and English). 

Then things started to improve.  A local evangelical ministry became aware of him and invited him to learn the electric keyboard, guitar and drums at their church, as well as helping him to wash and giving him clothes.  A deaconess from another local church took him into her home.  I enrolled him in Cece Primary School.  At school Peter was hampered from making much progress by being in a non-specialist school.  I tried to persuade him to come with me to Gulu, where there are good hospitals, for an eye assessment.  I hoped to send him to a blind school in Gulu.  He completely refused, which I am sure was out of fear of more bad things happening to him.  I tried again and again over a three year period without success.  He was adamant and increasingly angry in his refusals, until things reached a point when he stopped coming to school at all.

A few months ago we finally had a breakthrough.  His relatives, seeing how he was being helped by strangers took him back and started to treat him better.  The lead pastor at the evangelical ministry managed to persuade Peter to allow me to take him to have an eye assessment.  We travelled there  together with his uncle’s wife.  Peter’s eyes were checked, but unfortunately both his eyeballs are now beyond help. 

The hospital referred him for blind rehabilitation, which includes ways to make him more independent, such as self-care and issuing a white stick.  They have also advised his family on how best to help him while letting him learn to be as independent as possible.  They also referred Peter to the deaf primary school in Gulu.  I queried this as he is now seventeen years old, but was told that the school teaches blind people of all ages.  Peter’s reaction was negative.  He said he would know nobody there.  Also, he was adamant that he must be able to continue his music.  The counsellor said that she thought they did music at Gulu Primary School.  Poor Peter.  It is very clear that the one bright spot in his miserable life up until now has been his music.  Who can blame him?

After leaving the hospital we went to visit the school.  The school office was open even though it was the holidays.  We were very warmly welcomed.  The Director of Studies was there and turned out to speak Arabic, which made Peter and his aunt feel at home.  The headteacher was also there.  Peter was told that there are several blind South Sudanese at the school.  We asked about the music issue and were told that music is taken very seriously.  We were even shown an array of gold cups from music competitions with other schools! Peter was given one to touch.  The school is run by the Church of Uganda, which has its cathedral right next to the school.  The headteacher told us that Peter can play the keyboard there every evening.  Adults do an accelerated learning course to enable them to catch up, starting with learning Braille.  Pupils transfer to a neighbouring secondary school with support, and some have gone on to university.

By the end of our visit Peter was really excited by the prospect of going to school there and has a new ambition: to go to university.  It has been a marathon, but the end is at last in sight.

If anyone is interested in sponsoring either Joel or Peter please let me know.  At this stage I am not sure of the exact costs, but will inform interested people when I know.  To give a rough idea, the sponsorship of the children at school in Mbale costs approximately £625 each per year.  If people would like to share sponsorship, that is of course possible.  My email address is rebeccamallinson1@hotmail.co.uk.