Education
Program Overview
After enduring two decades of civil war, the people of Southern Sudan and the Three Areas (Abyei, Blue Nile, and Southern Kordofan) have one of the lowest literacy rates in the world. However, public opinion polls show that education consistently leads the list of the most valued and desired government services-demonstrating that there is a high demand for education services among Sudanese. The USAID education program promotes the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement goal of delivering improved educational services to local communities throughout the country, as part of the promised dividends of peace. USAID is helping the Government of Southern Sudan (GOSS) Ministry of Education, Science and Technology (MOEST) and ministries at the state level to build human and institutional capacity to implement and administer decentralized education services. This approach ensures that as many children as possible are offered the opportunity to learn throughout Southern Sudan and the Three Areas. At the same time, it promotes the accountability and transparency of state and local governments.
USAID programs focus on primary education, girls' education, teacher training and institutional development. Activities target out-of-school youth, women, girls, returnees, ex-combatants and other vulnerable and marginalized groups. They also enhance GOSS capacity to sustainably manage the education system. As a result, Sudanese citizens have greater access to improved education services and to English language instruction. They also have more confidence in the government's ability to deliver these services. Primary school enrollment has increased markedly-from 20 percent of the eligible population in 2005 to 32 percent in 2008, when 1.3 million students attended primary school.
Activities
Interactive Radio Instruction: USAID supports radio education programs to help students of all ages take advantage of instruction in primary grades one to four. Students study English, math, local language literacy and life skills. These radio-based English instruction programs reach out-of-school youth and adults. Students form listener groups to improve their English and to obtain civic education and health information. The programming contains teacher training, which instructors use to advance their teaching skills. Education officials find the programs help them increase their capacity to deliver educational curricula outside of public school facilities. The interactive radio instruction program also provides training in alternative learning technologies-such as digital devices like MP3 players and compact discs-as an alternative to delivering programs only by radio.
Increasing Government Capacity: USAID assists the MOEST in facilitating the development of policy, planning and program implementation guidelines at the national and state levels. The program enables teacher development and administrative practices, such as the development of payroll systems. This technical assistance also facilitates the provision of senior-level technical advisors-some of them from the Sudanese diaspora-to train and support state ministries of education. These activities serve the overarching goal of achieving decentralization through a systematic approach. USAID's Building Responsibility for the Delivery of Government Services (BRIDGE) program buttresses these efforts on the state level.
Increasing Girls' Access to Education: Scholarships are at the heart of this project, which seeks to convince more girls and women to attend school and to reduce financial, cultural and institutional barriers to gender equity in education. By providing tangible incentives for women and girls to further their education at the secondary and teacher-training levels, the program reduces barriers by providing school fee supplements, personal needs allowances and institutional improvement grants. USAID provides the MOEST Department of Gender and Social Change with advisors to address these barriers to education, gender parity and equity. Schools are also assisted with selection of recipients and management of these scholarships, which are offered to thousands of secondary school girls and women each year. USAID also implements a gender advocacy and community mobilization program that has trained 50 school-based teams in gender analysis.
Enhancing Health Education at the Primary School Level: To improve the quality of and access to primary school education and health services for school-aged children in the Three Areas, USAID's Health Education and Reconciliation Program is designed to strengthen school governance by involving concerned community groups. It is essential to increase access for healthy girls and boys to quality education through community support and action. Particular emphasis is placed on recruiting girls and women as students, teachers and health workers, and building the capacity of education and health service providers, such as state and local authorities, educators, health workers and community members to plan, implement, and monitor education and health services. Activities include the distribution of Vitamin A supplements and long-lasting, insecticide-treated bed nets to households in the communities served. The program is also improving the capacity of parent teacher associations to support schools through training and implementation of small grants programs and improving school governance by providing training to head teachers, assistant head teachers, and school administrators.
Building Responsibility for the Delivery of Government Services: In the border areas of Warrap, Unity, Northern Bahr al Ghazal, Upper Nile, Southern Kordofan, Blue Nile, and Abyei, new projects will be integrated across sectors this year, including education, water, livelihoods, and health. In each area, the program will build the capacity of local authorities to implement projects. Citizen participation in education-including educational reform and advocacy groups-will be introduced; community schools will be supported where government services cannot reach; and parental involvement in school organizations such as school management committees, parent teacher associations and boards of trustees will be reinforced and teaching skills will be enhanced by the provision of resources to schools. Activities will leverage current USAID education programs and coordinate with ministry officials, to increase access to and the quality of education in these vulnerable counties.
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