As God’s mission for the transformation continues, the Intermediate English Course that started this year for six months has come to a conclusion with 51 learners most of which are church leaders, rural pastors, and youth especially the female ones that had dropped out of schools have graduated successfully with six months certificates at B2 level in Cueibet County of Lakes State in South Sudan.
Last year, the CETO-CIL team comprising the founding members and key teachers visited Cueibet at the invitation of The Anglican Church of South Sudan to train church leaders through its Mobile Leadership Development course. This was achieved remarkably with over 70 church leaders from different walks of life including community and local authorities successfully completing the one-week intensive course.
At the request and through consultations with the community and church leaders, it was apparent that many youths, women, and rural pastors lack basic literacy and training including dropped-out females who might be married off earlier and were now mothers or pastors but had no literacy skills. The request was for the CETO-CIL through its own resources to offer English Course training to these groups to enhance their literacy skills and also provide a better understanding of the future courses which are offered in English. As such, the CETO-CIL team and the board sat in Juba in February to deliberate on the concern, and through the assessment report, it was considered despite the lack of resources. The Board members offered to contribute to the maintenance of the teachers and teaching resources whereas the coordination team was charged to find a suitable training place in close collaboration with the government and the church.
The classes for the English Course started in March 2022 where many enrolled and through the help of the Education department at the county level, the Church, and Secondary School, the space was provided at Cueibet Secondary School where the training took place for six months. The successful learners that completed the course and were awarded certificates on 26th November 2022 were 51 in total with a good number of women and pastors including the dropped out, some of which promised to continue their education should opportunities become available in other courses.
Key Needs:
One of the major concerns that stills remain is to help raise the standard by building on this initiative to continue offering the course in the area. This will requires resources to pay the tutors and teaching materials as well as processing documentation, management, and logistics. Another major part will be to have space since the use of Secondary Schools will not be sustainable when there are learners who would learn in the morning hours, which will be interrupted by the school hours in secondary school.
God bless you all.