Teacher Education in Southern Sudan Supported by Norwegian Church Aid “Pre-service, In-service and Phase training courses”

Background

NCA has been supporting education in Sudan since the1970's. One of the components in this support has been training of teachers. During the time of war SPLM Secretariat of Education (SOE) and UNICEF/OLS developed teacher training materials for shorter emergency courses. As peace grew nearer SOE and some of the NGO community, among them NCA, recognised the need to develop the modes of teacher training to suit education in Post war South Sudan. Pre-service teacher training was developed as a two year on campus training, and In - service training was being developed with the intention that within four years of studies these students would sit for the same exams as those who had undergone Pre-service training.
Over the last years NCA has actively participated in SOE's effort to improve and develop the teacher education, as well as continued support to different teacher training modes. The evaluation was initiated to identify the effect of NCAs contribution, and to pave a way forward.

Purpose/objective

- See if the NCA support to teacher education is in line with the South Sudan education policy,
- Identify impact of the support,
- Document the impact and effectiveness of the approaches used: pre-service, in-service and phase training courses,
- Give recommendations on the way forward.

Methodology

- Review of relevant project documents,
- Visit to selected locations,
- Interviews with key actors such as education authorities, teachers, students community members, NCA education staff and other relevant stakeholders.

Key findings

- The Norwegian Church Aid (NCA) education project works together with communities and the national and local level authorities to support schools and teacher education initiatives.
- NCA has been involved in the education sector in Southern Sudan since 1973 and during that time has remained committed to supporting teacher education programmes that are in line with the programmes and policies of the former SPLM/A Secretariat of Education (SoE) and now the Government of Southern Sudan (GoSS) Ministry of Education, Science and Technology (MoEST).
- Currently 3 different types of teacher education programmes1 are being facilitated by organisations supporting the MoEST guidelines and plans: the Phase Training course, Pre-service Teacher Education Programme and the In-service Teacher Education Programme. NCA is the only organisation in Southern Sudan that currently supports all 3 of these training programmes: Arapi (Regional) Teacher Training Institute (TTI) use the Pre-service teacher education programme; Ikotos County Education Centre (CEC) use the In-service teacher education programme; and the Alek and Kauda training centres use the Phase Training courses. NCA continues to support these 4 training centres and their teacher education programmes so that they can continue to offer the most appropriate teacher education programme to existing and potential teachers in the area of operation.
- NCA promotes quality of education and training, and educational leadership and management, so as to improve basic primary education that is relevant and appropriate to meet the needs of children in Southern Sudan.
- Where NCA supports teacher training, the organisation seeks to offer further support to the centres through capacity building and in promoting better administration and a sense of ownership and responsibility of the programmes and centres.
- Whilst NCA support to the various centres, locations and programmes has been successful in terms of existing and potential teachers being able to access programmes that follow Ministry guidelines and plans, the collaboration and communication with some payam and county education offices has not been as coordinated as it could have been.
- Building the capacity of institution and centre staff has also taken place, however further capacity building to enable the centres to operate more independently, is still required. Steps towards allowing the training centres to take on more of the management, administration and logistics have been made, especially in the case of Arapi TTI, however NCA staff are still in a leadership role. This in turn has also had an effect on the level of community ownership of the training centres.
- Questions and decisions on expansion and consolidation are now important aspects for NCA to consider within their programmes. To this end, planning and strategies are already taking place.
- NCA continues to have a good relationship with the MoEST and as a support organisation to the Pre-service, In-service and Phase Training Courses, together with the establishment of the Arapi TTI and Ikotos CEC, is closely following the ministry's current and future implementation plans and strategies.
- Students from different locations who are spending time together in a training institute are building are learning peaceful coexistence and conflict resolution skills. This was found among students from Kauda and Arapi.

Recommendations

Technical education support through:
- The provision of training to Arapi TTI and Ikotos CEC staff to enhance the delivery of programmes.
- The provision of training to RTTI and CEC staff in administration and management.
- The provision of training and support to the Kauda TTC staff and REO administration, so as to allow the TTC to become more independent.
- Developing Ikotos CEC tutor skills to implement education management and PTA training to education and community representatives.
Policy and coordination support through:
- Continuing close coordination and pro-active support to the newly established MoEST in terms of policies, strategies, good practice and lessons learnt.
- Continuing to build closer links with other organizations.
- Continuing to develop communication links with National, State and County education offices.
- Developing the linkage between the Arapi TTI and Ikotos CEC in terms of information sharing.
Access and learning support through:
- The provision of further reference material, resources and equipment to teaching centres.
- Supporting the (further) development of child care facilities at training centres.
- The provision of opportunities to enhance capacity of local education authorities and teacher education personnel to raise awareness of the importance of girls / women's education.
- Developing specific indicators to track enrolment and retention of girls and women in training centres, as student teachers and tutors.
- The provision of further support to the intensive English language courses, especially in Kauda, Alek and Ikotos.
- Developing implementation plans to link NCA programmes in the former GOS held towns to the programmes supported in Southern Sudan.
- Supporting Arapi TTI and Ikotos CEC teaching staff to develop 'review' papers on the implementation of the Pre-service and In-service courses.

Comments from the organisation

Since this report was made NCA has continued to support the different teacher training modes. There are, however, new modes for crush teacher training courses being developed, and NCA has been challenged by MOEST to take on responsibility for some of these trainings. They will replace the Phase course trainings, at least in some areas.
MOEST is trying to take on more responsibilities for Arapi TTI, but the ministry is still young and the financial constraints are a challenge for the ministry.
NCA continues to work closely with MOEST, both on GOSS and on State levels.
Follow up:
- As State ministries are coming up, NCA will strengthen the cooperation on State level.
- A plan for training of tutors and management staff shall be developed.
- Links between Arapi TTI and CECs in Eastern Equatoria will be established.
- Plans for linking teachers from former GOS held town to the GOSS teacher training modes shall be developed.
- NCA will give special attention to the enrolment and retention of female students and promote child care centers.
- Further support to intensive English training should be found.
- NCA will continue to give professional and financial support to Arapi TTI.
- NCA will continue to support different modes of teacher training as the teachers in the different areas need different methodology and approach, depending on their educational background when they start their education.