S/Sudan to train 150 teachers in China

Deputy Minister of General Education and Instruction, Martin Tako Moyi, announced this on Wednesday in Juba.

Moyi said the first batch of 65 teachers and school managers would depart for China on Friday to undergo a month-long training.

The remaining 85 teachers and school managers would travel to China in two phases, Moyi said.

According to him, the government had appealed to several countries to train South Sudanese teachers. But only China responded positively.

“We have appealed to many countries to train our teachers in their countries, but nobody has responded, except China,” Moyi said.

He spoke during the opening ceremony for the training programme in Juba, the capital of South Sudan.

The minister said the Chinese government had shown commitment to building the capacity of teachers and school managers. This, in turn, would improve the quality of learning in the world’s youngest nation.

He said the Chinese educational experts from the Shanghai Educational Publishing House will conduct the training in both Juba and Shanghai.

A team of six Chinese educational experts is already in Juba to train some of the teachers at the Rombur National Teacher Training Institute.

Undersecretary for the Ministry of General Education and Instruction, Kuyok Abol Kuyok, said that under the project, they have reviewed and printed textbooks in core subjects.

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The subjects include English language, science and mathematics. The ministry has distributed the books to schools across the country.

“Through the project, we have also trained many students and learners in the Chinese language at Juba Day Secondary School.

“The ministry has received requests from many schools for Chinese language classes. This is a demonstration of the success of the cultural aspect of the project,” Kuyok said.

Chinese Ambassador to South Sudan, Ma Qiang, highlighted the historical experiences and common aspirations for development shared between South Sudan and China.

Qiang noted that in the 12 years of diplomatic relations between the two countries, the education sector is always a prioritised area for exchanges and cooperation.

He said China has supported the construction of several primary and secondary schools. It has trained 5,000 professionals in various sectors. It equally provided hundreds of scholarships for studying in China.

“The second phase of the project, since its official launch two years ago, has delivered more than a million volumes of textbooks in English, mathematics and science,” he said.

Amb. Qiang also hinted that more than 600 teachers and school managers will undergo training programmes under the second phase of the project in both Juba and Shanghai.

The second phase of the China-Aided Technical Cooperation Project in Education involves drafting, printing and providing textbooks for primary and secondary schools in South Sudan.

It also involved organising capacity-building programmes for the teachers and the educational administrators, developing and providing an evaluation system for the usage of the textbooks.

Dispatching Chinese teaching personnel to Juba to teach the Chinese language is also part of the programmes. (Xinhua)