Government launches distribution of over 1 million Chinese textbooks to learners
By Denis Ejulu
The South Sudan government, in partnership with the Chinese embassy and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) on Monday flagged- off the distribution of about 1.1 million Chinese developed textbooks for primary school learners across the country.
The textbooks comprising of science, Math and English for primary 2 to 8 learners, will be sent to four states including Lakes, Western Bahr El Ghazal, Unity States and Abyei Administrative Area.
Minister of General Education and Instruction Kuyok Abol Kuyok, said that the arrival of the textbooks signal their ambitious mission to improve quality learning in the country.
“We are on a very ambitious road of implementing a new education system and we are very ambitious in the sense that we try to implement the curriculum at the same time. So what this project offered us was the opportunity to revise, train and review the textbooks,” Kuyok said during the ceremony held in Juba.
These textbooks were earlier sent to Ruweng Administrative Area, Pibor Administrative Area including Jonglei and Central Equatoria States.
Kuyok emphasized that the textbooks printed by Shanghai Educational Publishing House, under the Phase II of the China-aided Technical Cooperation Project of Education in South Sudan, were reviewed by local teachers.
“It is part and parcel of our ambition to have quality education you cannot have quality education in South Sudan without textbooks,” Kuyok said.
UNICEF through the Global Partnership for Education (GPE) has offered to transport the text books to schools across the country.
Deputy Minister of General Education and Instruction Martin Tako Moyi commended the Chinese government’s support assuring that these textbooks will enrich knowledge of the South Sudanese children.
“They will be in the hands of future presidents, ambassadors, future ministers, teachers and undersecretaries. It is very crucial that we have these books, we tried our level best as government to provide textbooks to every child learning in the class but as the youngest nation we need the help of other friendly countries to complement our effort and the Chinese have been always available in almost every aspect of life,” Moyi said.
UNICEF representative in South Sudan Noala Skinner stressed the need for safe and unhindered access to ensure that the books reach the intended recipients in the country.
“My only call and my only ask is for the safe and unhindered access to all parts of the country for these textbooks to be delivered. These textbooks need to get into the hands of children, they need to get into the schools and the schools need to be opened. For this we need unfettered access and we need peace,” Skinner said.
Chinese Ambassador to South Sudan Ma Qiang, said that distribution of the textbooks marks a major milestone in the field of China-South Sudan educational cooperation, adding that education is the future of a nation and a beacon of illuminating the path of humanity.
“These textbooks, provided by the Phase II of China-aided Technical Cooperation Project of Education in South Sudan, are about to carry knowledge and hope into the hands of the students across the country,” he said.
Ma noted that since the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and South Sudan the Chinese government has assisted to build a number of primary and secondary schools with grants and provided Chinese government scholarships to the South Sudanese students.
In addition, Ma said that under the Phase I and II of China-aided Technical Cooperation Projects of Education in South Sudan millions of carefully compiled primary and secondary school textbooks were delivered to Juba, over 920 teachers trained in China and nearly 150,000 students benefited from them.
