The church attempts filling the education gap
Many of the churches in Yei, and other parts of the country, have founded schools, which aim to provide quality education for the future generations of a country in dire need of its human resources. The Episcopal Church of the Sudan (ECS) is one of the churches that have been involved in establishing schools in many areas of greater Yei, Central Equatoria State, and Southern Sudan at large.
Rev. David Kamandala
Reverend David Kamandala is currently the education and training coordinator for the Episcopal Diocese of Yei. He says that back in 1917, when the first missionary, by the name of Rev. Paul Gibson, came to Yei, he did not only bring the word of God but also brought the idea of establishing schools. In addition to bettering human life spiritually, raising intellectual, economical, political and social living standards is the mission of the church. He stresses that, "if any church evades the will of God to educate the community, then the mission of Christ is not complete".
Read Ochan Hannington's article about "The Church and the Referendum", too!
"The Episcopal Church of Sudan, more especially the Diocese of Yei, does not only stop with the establishment of nurseries, primary and secondary schools. ECS also runs clinics such as the Martha Primary Health Care Clinic, the Martha Eye Clinic, as well as the Yei Vocational Training College", he adds. According to the Reverend, this "makes the church a more holistic entity not only focused on spirituality". But "this depends on the availability of funds for the church, i.e. if funds are present then the church can do more, but where the funds are limited the performance is low."
"We are grateful that secession has won."
The government system of education in the South has been unstable, leaving an open space for the church to improve the standard of education in the country. The South has not yet decided whether it would use the East African curriculum or the Northern Sudanese curriculum. However, "we are grateful that secession has won and this will be one of the issues to be discussed during the post-referendum period", Rev. Kamandala stresses. "We (the church) will be happy for any positive outcome that will be realised for the stability of the education system of South Sudan. This will help the church education system to develop."
"The government is working together with the church to meet the common goal of education."
The Yei County Education Director, Mr. Charles Lumori, said in an interview that "the government is working together with the church to meet the common goal of education". He personally thinks that the reason why the church is involved in education is their strive to follow the teaching of Jesus Christ. The government is supporting the church with the curriculum, the policies and the philosophy of how the education system is to run.
Lumori testified on behalf of the government that the church schools do well within the county. He assumes that this is due to the timely payment of teachers and the restrictive admission of students to these schools. He also admires the tight system of administration in the church founded schools. Lumori further emphasised that religious concepts are essential to help the children to grow morally upright.
Duwuki Robert
Mr. Duwuki Robert is a student in one of the church founded schools and says: "I am very pleased with the church, because the church education is much better than the education in government schools. The teachers are very serious and students' complaints are given due consideration".
The church is surely playing a huge role in building the emerging nation of Southern Sudan. However, without the commitment of the government as well as many other non-state actors, the education system in Southern Sudan will remain poor, in a region devastated by one of the longest civil wars on the African continent.
