Minister Wants Gradual Phase Out Of Arabic The Northern Bahr el Ghazal State Minister of Education, Science and Technology has admitted that despite efforts being made by the national ministry to unify and phase out Arabic language schools, little progress is still being adopted by the states bordering Sudan. 20 November 2013
*By Abraham Agoth* *AWEIL, 20 November 2013 [Gurtong]- *He said that these states were highly populated and used by Arab merchants as their stopover for the business points. In a joint statement released by the state ministry of education in Aweil, the fact remains unchanged that the number of Arabic schools in Aweil which were in the past being as full Arabic schools are at a snail's pace to become English schools. “Though we are trying hard and harder to compete with time and manage change our schools into full English schools, we cannot really tell of when exactly to have full English schools in the state, the national ministry of education, science and technology has been so supportive in achieving this as a priority plan for every state’s ministry of education, but in Aweil it is different,” Ustaz Kon Deng Chan said. According to the minister, there are still three existing Arabic secondary schools and two primary Arabic schools and that the idea was to let the 2013 batch go off and change the second, third and fourth batches to full English class students which he says appears different as planned. “We don’t think if this idea of changing swiftly like that to English schools can work as of 2014 or the year after because this has to be planned thoroughly in depth for its effect and advantages to the children, as a matter of fact, we can leave this as it is and try to be working towards it until we finally come into conclusion of saying ‘we are done’ than we declare our success,” the minister said. Reaching out to the students who are taking Arabic of whether they like or not, the majority feel as if their future is doomed with troubles and failures as they feel unworthy after completion. “We Arabic students are always worried when predicting our future especially when it comes to the side of employment or doing something rewarding and resourceful in one’s life because we are seeing that at the moment,” Garang Deng Kenyang explained on their grievous moments. “It is only those educated in English are being considered for employment or literacy recognition here in South Sudan, so do you think any of us who now study in Arabic shall hope of becoming anything in this country?” he asked. Aluel Bulo, another Arabic student in Aweil also says the decision of only employing English educated people is not fair and that the Arabic students feel as if they are isolated not to be part of any community. “We are learning Arabic for the sake of know-how but not do-how as the saying goes; if there exists equality from our government, there would be chances created equally for both Arabic and English graduates, at least 25% for Arabic students,” she appeals. Northern Bahr el Ghazal state came third in the country’s examinations results compared to 2011-2012 results where it was rated last of 10 states in the country. George Kuach, Akol Kuol and Salva Kiir Girls’ Secondary Schools are still Arabic high schools in Aweil, while Bulluk and Salam Banat are also Arabic primary schools still learning in Arabic. In the recently released secondary schools’ results, the best performed schools in the state were Arabic schools with lead from Salva Kiir Girls’ Secondary school, followed by George Kuach and Akol Kuol secondary schools respectively. According to the average pass-marks of the results released in October, six secondary schools whose students sat for South Sudan Secondary school certificates under Sudan Curriculum, were categorically arranged as from first to sixth position with Salva Kiir Girls School leading with 96.3%, George Kuach formerly known as Al Wehda Secondary School falls second with 90.5%, Akol Kuol formerly known as Al Rubath Secondary falls third with 86.5%, Saint Maria Goretti Comboni Secondary School falls fourth with 85.8%, Aweil National Secondary School falls fifth with 64.3% while Aweil Freedom Secondary School comes last with 61.1% average mark. The Arabic schools topped the first three while English schools came last from fourth to the sixth position. Following the recent announcement of the secondary schools results in the state that showed the improved performance of the state’s examinations, the education minister seems to have hope of assuring his state in strengthening measures to do with quality education for all for 2014-2015 as the country gets new education deal from European Union for 2014-2019. More importantly, the state has slightly revitalized the major defiance of changing from Sudan’s curriculum of Arabic Syllabus which was widely taught in almost all schools of the state to the recently formulated official language [English] following the country’s secession from Sudan in 2011. However, 2013 was the first time South Sudan has her own Curriculum examinations of the freshly inaugurated Syllabus which was also reported to some obstacles to the students’ acquaintances. 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