Over 100 teachers from Abyei, including a dozen of women, started Tuesday a nine-week crash course in English to be able to teach South Sudan’s new primary school programme.
Three teachers from Solidarity with South Sudan are giving the course in Agok, some 30 kilometres southwest of Abyei.After finishing classes, the teachers gather in three groups to learn English in the evening for two hours every day.
Sandra Amado, one of the facilitators, told CRN via e-mail that the teachers are very interested to learn and improve their skills in English, especially the women.
The Brazilian Comboni Sister added that the classrooms are made of bamboo and have thatched roofs.
Biong Kwol Deng, the Catholic Parish Priest of Abyei, organized the course.
English is now the only teaching language in South Sudan and educators with Arabic training have to learn the language if they want to keep their jobs.
Most Abyei residents were displaced to Agok, in Warrap State, last May when the Sudanese army attacked and occupied the area and reduced the city to rubble.
Solidarity with South Sudan runs two Teachers’ Training colleges in Yambio and Malakal and eight in-job training courses across South Sudan.
The Catholic group, made of two dozens of religious women and men from four continents, runs also a Health Teaching Institute in Wau, an agriculture project in Rimenze, near Yambio, and some pastoral activities in various dioceses.