How can teachers be supported to provide quality learning in emergency and conflict

situations? Voices of teachers in South Sudan

By John Lujang Wani Deputy Director

Ministry of Education, Science and Technology,Republic of South Sudan

UKFIET, Oxford, UK, 15-17 Sept. 2013.

Introduction • South Sudan: the entire education system is

severely affected by economic hardships, low institutional capacity and achievement in nearly all spheres of developments;

• Characterized with chronic conflicts and emergency situations, the quality of teaching and learning in the school is badly affected.

Education in South SudanTeaching in primary school is challenged with many issues- Crowded classrooms: Schools increased from 650 in 1980s to 3,447

in 2012 yet pupils classroom ratio stands at 130:1 with majority still under trees

- Poor environment: More than half of the schools have no access to latrines and drinking water; and above 90% with no access to health care and electricity

- Big gender disparity: female pupils ratio is 40.0% and female teachers ratio is 12.6%

- Overage pupils: 75% (294,301) of all 6-year old population are out of schools and 86.9% of pupils are overage

- High dropout rate: Pupils dropout rate is high at lower grade and the highest at grade 1 to grade 2 (30.4%)

- Teachers status: of 27,709 teachers: 60.2% of teachers have unknown qualification,5.9% have degrees, 9.0% with diplomas and 24.9% have certificate in education.

Research methodology Purpose: In those difficult situations in data, to identify • what is the happening in the schools from the voices of teachers

in capital city, who work in relatively good conditions• What support teachers receive in terms of their supervision and

performance evaluations in the current system Method• A simple probability sampling scheme: 9 primary schools in Juba • Questionnaire survey with follow up interviews to the teachers:

74 primary teachers participated during June-July 2013 • Data was validated by Country Education Officials and Payam

SupervisorsLimitation• The result does not represent the whole situations in South

Sudan, but can represent one of the best situations

Research finding1)

Results shows that of teachers in Juba are better better in 38% of teachers are diploma holders, but 20% are in other fields than education. Those teachers are also considered as the same level with secondary school leavers concerning teacher professional issues. When we look at teacher education background, we also need to pay attention to their fields.

The study did not include primary school leavers because they were dismissed in 2012 by CES MoE, which was done in two states.

2) Teaching Grades

Lower grades (P1-P3) are mostly taught by experienced and trained teachers. Teachers tend to avoid teaching especially P1 because of difficulties to establish

foundation of their education. Upper grades (especially P7, P8) are mostly taught by male teachers who have Diplomas

in other fields or Degrees Opposing to this findings, some teacher training programmes aided by Development

Partners (DPs) aim to prepare primary school leavers to teach at lower grades because of the easiness of the subject contents.

This emergency intervention may likely contribute to the deterioration of the primary completion rates since the base of the education is not properly supported well

3) Teachers motivation to teaching profession The salaries of the teachers are very low and compared to the ones of cleaners, drivers and watchmen hired by the same government.Against this background, the study asked the respondents why they take up the teaching professions. Many teachers did not answer why they are interested in the profession One third still say because salaries is good though support system is bad. One third also say because the status of teaching profession in society is

high. Unlike many other countries, teachers are respected in the society, which supports some teachers to continue the profession.

99% said they want to contribute in the nation building and educating the children even though condition of teachers service is bad

This provide the opportunity for stakeholders to invest in the teachers because although teachers service condition is not good yet they strife to teach and engage children in learning

4) Supervision and EvaluationThe Study asked the respondents notions on the experiences of inspection.

89% of teachers experienced inspection conducted by State MoE. Inspection reaches teachers on the ground.

However, 62% of the respondents could not answer the aspects they were inspected on.

Amongst those who answered this question, teachers tend to think that they were evaluated on their knowledge of subject contents and methodology and teaching techniques.

Teachers might think the inspection is not intended to give them support, but to lay off the incompetent teachers

What teaching aspects to be evaluated in future

The Study asked the teachers what aspects they want to be inspected.More than three quarters did not answer the questions, however, Amongst those few who answered, they want inspection to assess more

whether their teaching helps pupils to achieve learning during lessons. Team work in planning is also higher than knowledge and methods and

skills Some teachers seem think inspection to be more focus on pupils

achievement during lessons than on teachers themselves.

Inspection feedback

Feedback aspect Yes No Blank Total

Did you receive feedback in your last evaluation? 27% 46% 28% 100%Did your last evaluation improve your teaching performance? 53% 12% 35% 100%Are you satisfied with your last evaluation? 54% 16% 30% 100%

Only 26.6% of the teachers say they got written or oral feedback in their evaluation.

However, more than half said the evaluation improved their teaching performance and were happy with the inspection though they have not received feedback.

It is also important to note that a teacher interviewed said “…the inspectors visit our school once every term, and spent many hours with us talking on how we should do our work and teach the children well. But when they go away we continue with our lesson preparation and teaching as usual….”

Thus current school inspection programmes does not support teachers to improve on their teaching responsibilities in the schools

Conclusion The result of this study identify that current school

inspection and teachers evaluations in the context of South Sudan emerging from conflicts with a lot of emergency issues in education is not providing sufficient support to teachers.

At the moment more support to teachers tend to be in areas of emergency and conflicts and on short term basis and might lead to serious confusion as they conflict long term strategies for supporting teachers

The ministry of education need to rethink the purpose of school inspection and develop qualification programme for inspectors, though it has develop new inspection framework but not fully operational

Thank you