One country, two curricula
The founding of a semi-autonomous regional government in Southern Sudan in 2005 opened the way for a different approach to educating its young people. And the development of new school curricula has taken a major step in that direction.
An English-language syllabus for southern primary schools was introduced in 2007, and secondary schools were given their own curriculum for some subjects last year.
Parts of the new syllabus have been borrowed from the neighbouring Anglophone countries of Kenya and Uganda. But students will also be exposed to topics like traditional southern culture and leaders of the Southern Sudanese struggle, which received little or no mention in national Arabic-language textbooks in past years.
"The new curriculum is good because it is based on the culture, the names and the stories ot the south," said Isdoro Acok, director of basic education in the Central Equatoria State Ministry of Education. "We also teach the history of Southern Sudan and of the old Sudan, like the Nubian Kingdom before the coming of the Arabs."
Officials acknowledge that one of the difficulties posed by the adoption of the new curricula is the relative scarcity of trained, English-speaking teachers. "All the schools here were taught in Arabic before the Comprehensive Peace Agreement," said Lul Ruei Dhol of the Upper Nile State Ministry of Education. "The new education curriculum, which is in English, is different from the national one and therefore has challenges in its implementation."
The existence of separate educational curricula in North and Southern Sudan harks back to the country's colonial past. The Anglo-Egyptian administration that ruled Sudan from 1898 to 1956 developed an Arabic-language curriculum for the six northern provinces but used a different curriculum for the three southern provinces of Equatoria, Upper Nile and Bahr El Ghazal, which was taught in English by Christian missionaries.
That changed with the dawn of independence, as the people of the south became dependent on successive governments in Khartoum for the formal education of their children. The signing of the Addis Ababa peace agreement in 1972 spawned a regional government in Southern Sudan with a limited degree of autonomy, and a dual educational system resurfaced during the early years of its existence.
Schools using English as a teaching medium were earmarked for Sudanese children returning from foreign countries. Children from families who stayed in the country during Sudan's first civil war continued to receive instruction in Arabic.
The elimination of Arabic from southern schools was heralded by former rebel Joseph Lagu who, after becoming president of the regional government's High Executive Council in 1978, told a rally in Juba's Freedom Square that English would become the sole language used in the classroom.
But the paucity of English-language textbooks prevented the regional government from carrying out Mr. Lagu's One country, two curricula pledge, and pupils continued to study in both languages.
The revival of an Anglophone curriculum with a focus on subjects and themes rooted in Southern Sudan has been noted within and outside the region.
"Education is an important resource for any country," wrote Lina Bishai of the United States Institute of Peace, a Washingtonbased research group, in a special report on Sudanese universities issued in February 2008. "It is especially valuable in spreading the values that transform a wartime society into one with a culture of peace."
But the transition is bound to be smoother in some parts of Southern Sudan than in others. In Malakal, the Soura West Girls' Basic Education School is now using English as a medium of instruction from grades one through five.
But with large number of Arabicspeaking families in the Upper Nile State capital, it may be more conducive to have a bilingual format of instruction.
"We are happy to be taught in English now," said Soura fourth-grader Nyabaic Adeng, "but Arabic should also be taught because we are used to it."
The outlook is considerably different in Central Equatoria, where English has been the preferred medium of teaching in 95 per cent of all local schools since 1972, according to that state government's ministry of education.
Story and photos by Felix Waya Leju
