By Tapeng Michael Ohure
The Chinese Embassy in South Sudan has launched a second phase of a China-aided technical cooperation project of education.
The cooperation launched on Monday includes taking teachers from South Sudan to China for training.
In the first phase 54 teachers were trained including 14 members of parliament who are in the education committee.
Hussein Abdelbaggi Akol, South Sudan’s Vice President for Service Clusters saidthe cooperation between China and South Sudan will bring Chinese experience to the country.
“I believe that this technical cooperation in Education will bring the Chinese experience which could be merged into our developing concept for the development of educational innovation,” Vice President Hussein Abdelbaggi said at the event.
HUA NING, the Chinese Ambassador to South Sudan said they are prioritizing education projects in the country.
”In ten years of our diplomatic relationship, the Education sector has always been our priority area for our exchange and cooperation. China has supported the construction of a number of primary and secondary schools in South Sudan, trained over five thousands professionals in various sectors and provided hundreds of scholarships for students to study in China,” NING said.
China now wants to print text books for both primary and secondary schools.
The books are being developed and printed by Shanghai Educational Publishing House, a leading publishing house in educational sector in China.
Supply of other scholastic materials will begin soon.
South Sudan’s Ministry of Education said it has already begun implementation of the cooperation project.
According to Awut Deng Achuil, the Minister of Education in South Sudan, some schools have started teaching Chinese language as part of the cooperation between the two nations.
“Actually, implementation has already begun. For example, review of curriculum materials is underway, and teaching of the Chinese language is taking place at Juba Day Secondary School,” Achuil said.
South Sudan has the lowest literacy rate of only 37 percent.
The country is embarking on education projects with countries across the globe to improve the education system in South Sudan.
In the past ten years of cooperation, China has been engaging South Sudan in several areas of development. The Chinese government says it will continue to take teachers from South Sudan to acquire teaching skills from China.
