ALP students at Napatat Primary School, Ajuong Thok refugee camp. South Sudan. Photo: LWF/C. Kästner
Students in a South Sudanese refugee camp embrace education
(LWI) – “I came here to learn”. 18-year-old Mobarak Habil Ibrahim introduces himself. He fled the conflict in the Nuba Mountains, Sudan, and left his parents. His temporary home is Ajuong Thok refugee camp in South Sudan.
Mobarak does not know when he will be able to return, but like his classmates, he is determined to make the best of his current situation. “We faced many problems. We have war in my country, our enemies attacked us. So we have come here to learn, to get what will benefit us in the future,” he says.
Schools at home destroyed
The Lutheran World Federation (LWF) is the sole implementer of education in the expanding Ajuong Thok refugee camp. LWF is running three primary and one secondary school as well as child rights clubs and seven child friendly spaces, something like a day care for children of all ages. One was set up for the host community which at one point demanded equal education opportunities as were given to the refugees.
The Accelerated Learning Program (ALP) which Mobarak and 1,800 students are attending is a special intervention for over-age learners who have missed part of their primary education due to conflict and displacement. The program helps them to catch up and eventually join their peers in secondary school.
Education opportunities are the main reason for refugees to come from Yida refugee camp to Ajuong Thok. “It is very important to the Nuba people,” LWF Education Coordinator Annet Kiura says. “The conflict has destroyed the schools in Kordofan. When the students come here, they are eager to learn”.
In the morning the three Primary schools resound with the noise of more than 2400 students, while younger children carry their baby siblings to child friendly spaces to learn the alphabet and their first English words through songs and play. There is a long list of open teacher positions at the headmaster’s office in Napata Primary school. Like their students, the teachers come from Kordofan. They now teach in English and according to the curriculum set by the South Sudanese Ministry of Education.
New challenges ahead
Visit Soba secondary school after school hours. In the afternoon heat, the tents which were set up as temporary classrooms are filled with students. Music is playing quietly while the teenagers are revising and doing homework. A student shares his notes from the science lesson on the big blackboard, the others copy carefully into their books.
The students sit on homemade benches made of logs, and write on their knees. There is an atmosphere of quiet concentration; newcomers join without making a sound. The only unruly thing is felt pen writing on the canvas of the tent. “Life isn’t easy” it reads, and: “Never give up!”
Mobarak, like many of his classmates, wants to become a doctor. He loves science and maths. Others strive to be teachers, engineers and pilots. “There are many things I did not know in the Nuba mountains” Mobarak says. “But when I came here, I learned. We found hospitals and secondary schools. Here everything is good”.
Since the conflict in the Nuba Mountains escalated, Ajuong Thok saw an increase of refugees. The camp, once set up for 10,000 refuges, had 21,000 inhabitants by mid-February. 1,000 people arrive every week. UNHCR estimates that the camp will hold 40,000 people by the end of 2015. Half of them will be children, 43 percent of them of school age.
Make a difference
It is up to LWF to meet this challenge. Already classrooms are overcrowded, with one teacher for 70-100 students. “We need at least twice as many primary schools and another secondary school” LWF team leader in Ajuong Thok, Anne Mwaura, says. Resources however are hard to come by.
Due to the volatile security situation in South Sudan, everything has to be delivered by expensive air cargo, which has raised operation costs. The trucks which were meant to bring school desks, books and play material for the child friendly spaces last spring got stuck during the rainy season and now only slowly make their way through checkpoints of different conflicting parties.
Still lessons continue, even during holidays. “Education is one of the interventions to keep children from risk, girls from getting pregnant and boys from being drawn into forced labor or even recruitment,” Mwaura says.
Malachi Farouk Aballah, the ALP head teacher, hopes to raise a new generation for his country. “It is very important for them to acquire knowledge and skills,” he says. “When they finish they can get good jobs. Some of them will be teachers, they can teach this country”.
Photo Essay: Embracing Education
LWF education assistance in Ajuong Thok refugee camp, in Unity State, South Sudan, addresses the needs for people of almost every age. Activities range from pre-school classes in child-friendly spaces up to post-graduate courses for teachers and secondary school graduates. The refugee population from the Nuba Mountains is very keen to use those possibilities. As the camp is expanding with new refugees fleeing the conflict in Kordofan, LWF is challenged to meet the demand for new schools and teachers. Some impressions of what learning looks like in Ajuong Thok.
16 March 2015
Photos: LWF/ C. Kästner
The pre-school soccer team of the Unity Child-friendly Space (CFS), named after the county where the camp is situated. CFS offer a morning program for pre-school children and afternoon activities for pupils. The children learn English and the alphabet with singing, dancing and playing.
The CFS also provide an opportunity to identify unaccompanied or vulnerable children, and to follow up with their families and caregivers. The photo shows a counseling session for unaccompanied female teenagers.
Mothers of the Ajuong Thok host community, who send their small children to Wun Minyiel Child Friendly Space (CFS). The CFS became so popular that one was set up for the hosts as well. These mothers would love to join their children in class: “We never went to school,” they say. “When the children come home, we are learning the letters and English songs from them.”
Napata Primary School. Named after a Nubian kingdom, the school is one of three primary schools in the camp. Education is very important to the South Kordofan refugee population. Their access to schools and universities was limited through years of conflict and displacement.
With a total of 5,127 students as of February 2015, all primary schools are overcrowded. Students learn in tents, often sitting on the floor because the conflict in South Sudan delays the trucks which are bringing desks and school material, sometimes for months. Every week 1,000 new refugees arrive in the camp. Half of them are children of school-going age.
In the afternoon, the primary schools offer an Accelerated Learning Program (ALP). The program addresses students in their teenage years, who have missed basic primary education because of conflict and displacement. In Ajuong Thok, 1,045 youth are currently enrolled in the ALP which covers the curriculum of two school years in one year. After, they will be able to attend secondary school.
Soba School is the only secondary school in the camp. There are 1,232 students enrolled, who study up to 11 subjects in Arabic and English. In the afternoon, they often meet on the school grounds to revise and do their homework together, as shown in this picture. They also attend extracurricular activities like arts, crafts, journalism club and sports activities.
A volunteer cuts exercise books into thirds to have enough material for all children at Unity Child Friendly Space. Flooding in the rainy season and fighting in the dry season make road transport extremely difficult in South Sudan. Almost all the school materials have to be flown in by expensive air cargo.
Teacher candidates waiting for their interviews. Due to the high number of students, there are many open positions. Many candidates already bring teaching experience from the Nuba Mountains and refugee camps in Kenya and Uganda. The high number of students still creates a shortage of teachers.
Computer training for teachers and secondary school graduates. The training is the first step in offering computer classes to students in primary and secondary school. Two of the schools have recently been connected to the internet.
Ajuong Thok reception area. The renewed fighting in Kordofan has caused a massive influx of refugees. About 1,000 new people arrive in the camp every day, half of them children of school-going age. To accommodate them all, LWF would need to build 3 more primary schools and another secondary school in 2015.
