The school remains closed but doors and windows are now fixed

 Dear all,

Since writing my last post, we now have a date for reopening the school.  Unfortunately, it is not until April 2021.  That means that our poor children will have been out of school for a year and one month. There have been many reports of teenage pregnancies in the community.  Most children are now working for their families (see photo). It is all very frustrating, but we are powerless to do our own thing, without sacrificing the good will of the education authorities by disobeying education directives.  We are just praying for a change of heart.

This is Pachok, who has been
at Cece Primary School since
it started in 2015.  He is now helping
to support his family.

This comes at a time when cases of Covid-19 are on the rise.  Although testing is woefully inadequate, the testing at the border shows that one in twenty-three people are testing positive.  Unfortunately, most of those tested then give false contact details, so that they cannot be given their results and are free to pass the virus to all their friends and relatives.  It is not possible to detain people while awaiting results because of a lack of quarantine facilities.  The general attitude of the public is completely negative and not conducive to stopping the spread of the virus.

Schools which have final year classes are opening just for final examination classes from 5^th October.  They are going to have a six day week to try to catch up.  Their exams will be in February and March next year, which is why the decision not to reopen other classes was made.  As our school does not yet reach to Primary 8, the final year of primary education, we just have to wait. 

What the Ministry of Education seems to have ignored is the fact that there will be no possibility of Primary 8 classes in 2021, as there will be no transition from Primary 7 to Primary 8.  Another issue is that we will only have a two term school year next year, so that the whole curriculum is unlikely to be covered. 

Newly installed windows

In the meantime, the doors and windows are finally in place and the doors are securely padlocked.  Funds have just arrived to allow us to order 125 desks.  As we have taken the decision to divide the school into morning and afternoon sessions for social distancing, this should be enough.  Thank you very much to Gerard Culliford who has made the immediate purchase of these desks possible.  Now that there are doors and windows, the desks will also be secure until they can finally be put to use.

We held a one week literacy training course for our teachers last week, taught by myself.  This was a great success.  All the teachers enjoyed the course and were keen enough to be practicing on each other during our break-times.  Once school restarts, the intention is for all teachers to teach literacy and spelling through their other lessons throughout the school.  This has become necessary as our school timetable has to be condensed to allow for the two separate school sessions each day.

Teacher training in my home compound.

As we have so much time before the school reopens in April I am going to try to organize some more teacher training sessions, to keep everybody thinking forward, and hopefully raising the quality of teaching.  In the meantime, our teachers are teaching small groups of children in their immediate neighbourhoods informally.

In terms of our national campaign for literacy, we organized a local radio talk show on International Literacy Day (8^th September).  A lot of people phoned in to express their support, but also to ask for adult literacy to be included.  This has set us thinking about how this can be done.  It would be beyond our capacity to start an adult education institute.  We are considering offering Saturday classes for parents of Cece Primary School, so that they can learn using the same method as their children.  This would enable parents and children to support each other at home.  However, this does not solve the problem nationwide.  To correct the statistics in my last post: 90% of women are illiterate, but the overall figure is 67% illiteracy, which includes both men and women over 15 years old.

The Ministry of General Education invited me to attend an online meeting of partners concerned with literacy, but unfortunately our electricity was not working.  Hopefully I will be able to attend the next meeting.  Somebody from the Stromme Foundation has contacted us, and may be willing to support our campaign.  Stromme’s work in South Sudan is primarily in teacher training.  Jolly Phonics are also interested to help us.

Thank you all so much for your continued support during this difficult time.  As mentioned in my last post, without your help, we would not be able to continue paying our teachers.  They are all very grateful as they are well aware that all other schools have not been able to do this.  Please can you continue to support us.

Rebecca