The Warrap State education ministry, with support from World Vision, has trained 11 teachers to deliver education services to cattle camps of Tonj South, Tonj North, and Gogrial West counties of Warrap state.
The five-day training which started on Monday ended on Friday week and is aimed at extending education services to cattle camp youth.
Wilson Samson Wani, the lead facilitator from the United Nations Education Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), said the capacity training is part of their project to provide education for all.
“The purpose and objective of the capacity building training are to equip teachers with skills and knowledge and to deliver quality services to people in education on the move which has different approaches compared to formal education,” Wani said.
He added: “It has different policies and components and we taught those skills of scheming the work before classes and how to manage the setting of classes without classrooms.”
For his part, Kuanyin Wek Kuanyin, the Warrap State partners’ coordinator in the education ministry, urged the participants to provide education services to the pastoralists.
“We intend to train the youth and children in the cattle camps on how to shift their focus from cattle-related issues to alternative aspects of life through education and agriculture,” Wek said. “As FAO is also taking part in farming, the combination of the two will make the ministry of education achieve its goals and objective.”
He added: “I urge the teachers who have been trained here to directly deliver quality teaching to roughly 1, 075 learners in the cattle camps. 469 are female while 606 are male learners in the three counties of Tonj South, Tonj North, and Gogrial West and if these number of pupils got trained, the rate of illiteracy will reduce in Warrap State.”
The teachers said they gained skills and knowledge during the training which will help them train learners using mobile education.
Simon Arop, a Tonj North County pastoralist teacher who benefited from training said he learned to design work schemes and lesson plans.
“I learned the scheme of work and lesson plan, how to prepare properly and teach pupils in the cattle camps,” Arop said. “I also learned how to make peace among the communities. when I hear that youth are organizing fighting, I report it to stakeholders so that they can intervene and prevent it.”
A pastoralist teacher from Gogrial West County, Deng Abraham, said the positive impact of training is that it will change communities that are deprived of education.
“The scheme of work is the breaking down of lessons for pupils to understand and it is helpful because it makes teachers prepare before classes and while in the class, a teacher is not shaken when learners ask questions,” Deng said. “Another important thing is that the program itself is so beneficial to those in cattle camps who have been neglected and have no access to education. They will benefit now.”