The physical education expert group believes that every child/student is entitled to high quality curriculum which places their physical, social and cognitive and emotional needs at the core of its purpose.

Yei teacher training college is also committed to providing professional resources to teacher learning for a sustainable model of high quality provision.

This game (netball) was introduced to develop teacher/trainees’ own knowledge, understanding and skills. This in turn will inform training needs and the effective planning of activities for their pupils when they graduate.

Physical activities inspire all students to succeed and excel in competitive sport and other physically demanding activities. Take part in YTTC’s games and sports activities today.

By Abigo Sam, P.E Tutor

Decades of war and a lack of development have created a scarcity of qualified teachers in the young country. A small teaching college, battling to keep access to education open, sees itself as key to South Sudan's development.

By Jason Patinkin, Correspondent February 18, 2015

Yei, South Sudan — At the chiming of small hand bells, 100 teachers-in-training at the Yei Teacher Training College (YTTC) shuttle between lectures on education philosophy, mathematics, and English. There are no holidays here – seats are filled year round – and classes run from 9 am to 5 pm.

"Not even a second lost," read signs posted in the classrooms and along shady walkways.

The urgency is clear. South Sudan has one of the worst teacher shortages in the world, with fewer than 45 percent of its primary school teachers having had formal training, UNESCO states. The effect can be seen nationally in the fact that more than 70 percent of adults are illiterate.

To compound the problem, the country's civil war, now in its second year, has forced hundreds of thousands of children out of school as teachers go unpaid, families flee their homes, and school buildings are occupied or destroyed by armed groups.

Despite the disruptions, YTTC has managed to avoid closure since it opened more than a decade ago. At the time, the south was still mired in a bloody independence struggle against the Arab north. Since then, the college, tucked near the borders of Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo, has grown into the leading teacher training institution in South Sudan, battling poor perceptions of teachers, meager resources, and a lack of education funding from the government.

To the people of YTTC, education is too important to wait for peace.

"Education is very, very central to reconstruction of any country. Without teachers we cannot have better education … that is where we shape the nation," says James Kepo, YTTC's principal who, like his colleagues, believes that an investment in teachers is an investment in the future of the country.

“I think even in times of war, we need to invest in people,” says Mr. Kepo. “Life must continue."

A never ending war

The teacher shortage here dates to South Sudan’s 22-year war for independence that killed some 2 million people before peace was reached in 2005.

"The teachers of those years either died or they joined the [rebel] movement," says Edward Kokole, director of teacher education in South Sudan's Education Ministry.
 
Whoever was available stepped in, like Paul Malual, a 28-year-old who started teaching 15 years ago – before he finished high school.
"There was no qualified teacher," says Mr. Malual. "It was for some of the children to teach the others."

YTTC didn't wait to start, either. The college, established in an area liberated by the southern rebels, welcomed its first students in 2002 with backing by local churches, foreign donors, and the rebels' civilian administration.

Kepo, the college principal, was a South Sudanese teacher in exile in Uganda at the time. He recalls sneaking across the border to help in liberated Yei, where conditions were dire and students learned in a single brick building.

"When you came down here ... I mean, you get moved because things were very pathetic," he says.

Today it's hard to imagine that past.

The school graduates 100 qualified teachers a year, more than any of the other 11 teacher training institutions (TTIs) in the country. But it faces a huge challenge: only one-third of South Sudan's 28,000 teachers are qualified, according to the National Ministry of Education. With 1.8 million students nationwide, there are more than 200 pupils for every qualified teacher. To bring that ratio to just 50 students per certified teacher means training more than 26,000 teachers.

New trainees have access to some of the best resources in the country. YTTC's science laboratory, in a sprawling campus of mango trees and classrooms blocks, rivals those in some American public schools. An Internet-connected computer lab has 50 flat-screen computers. Students, hailing from all over South Sudan as well as parts of Uganda and Sudan, can check out books from a 20,000-volume library, and take courses in music and art.

At YTTC, the focus is on instructing teachers in modern "learner-centered" teaching strategies – a departure from the rote drilling commonly practiced in East Africa. Tutors challenge teachers-in-training to adjust their lesson plans rather than cane misbehaving students. "Inclusion," the teaching of all students together regardless of disability, is standard.

"This college, it made me to know that there are other people with special needs like eye impairment, slow learners," says Chandia Agnes, at 29 a four-year classroom veteran who is now more than halfway through her certificate course.

What first began as a mission of nation-building has now turned into a mission of survival. YTTC's commitment to high quality instruction is a far cry from government support for education.

Just 5.5 percent of South Sudan's latest budget went to education last year, compared to 42 percent for security and military. The five government-run TTIs are currently closed due to lack of funding.

"Over the years everyone talks of education being a priority, but then that is not matched to the budget," Kepo says.

Earning a national respect 

The difficult lifestyle teachers face post-graduation is also undercutting the already small investment put into them. Even though YTTC graduates are often directly hired as head teachers or school inspectors because of their high qualifications, those who make it into the classroom often don't stay long.

Part of the problem is that many South Sudanese do not believe that teaching is a respectable career, Kepo says.

"They think it is not a specialized profession."

The pay is abysmal too. Government school teachers earn less than fifty dollars a month, and are rarely paid on time. In the last year, salaries in some states went unpaid so the government could fund the war effort.

Indeed with skills in English and computers on their resume, many YTTC graduates opt to work for higher paying foreign NGOs.

For those willing to stay in the profession, none will have the resources available in Yei, including things as basic as electricity or four walls and a roof. Some will teach under trees, their students scratching letters and numbers with sticks in the dirt.

YTTC teacher Dora Avoka tries to prepare her students for that reality, adding that the most important skill for new teachers is the ability to improvise.
 
"Even if it is under the mango tree," she tells her students, "that very place should turn into a classroom."
 
Mr. Kokole, from the education ministry, says South Sudan needs to adopt a new policy in teacher management – ensuring qualified teachers have the salaries, benefits, and supervision they need to keep them from leaving the profession.

"We don't have a big supply of secondary school leavers across the country who are ready to come for [teacher] training," he says. "But once the teacher management is improved, teachers are motivated and given high salaries, then there will be attraction."

It is hard to implement such a change with the current civil war, a conflict that has killed tens of thousands since December 2013, continuing to burn in the background. Some new teachers can't return to their communities, and diversion of donor funds to deal with humanitarian needs near the front lines has forced the college to shelve a new dormitory that would have doubled the student body.

But the college’s history and continued perseverance shows parts of South Sudan can develop even during wartime.

"People are supposed to hold their destiny and hold their institutions and work hard," says Kepo. "Many people who think South Sudanese cannot do [these] things, they are wrong."

For Malual, the young man who had to start teaching classes in his community as a teen, attending YTTC, where he is now working toward his teacher certificate, is calling. He knows he can take this training back to his community.

"This is my career," he says after a class on behavior management. "I want to be a professional in my field."

Yei, South Sudan — At the chiming of small hand bells, 100 teachers-in-training at the Yei Teacher Training College (YTTC) shuttle between lectures on education philosophy, mathematics, and English. There are no holidays here – seats are filled year round – and classes run from 9 am to 5 pm.

"Not even a second lost," read signs posted in the classrooms and along shady walkways.

The urgency is clear. South Sudan has one of the worst teacher shortages in the world, with fewer than 45 percent of its primary school teachers having had formal training, UNESCO states. The effect can be seen nationally in the fact that more than 70 percent of adults are illiterate.

To compound the problem, the country's civil war, now in its second year, has forced hundreds of thousands of children out of school as teachers go unpaid, families flee their homes, and school buildings are occupied or destroyed by armed groups.

Despite the disruptions, YTTC has managed to avoid closure since it opened more than a decade ago. At the time, the south was still mired in a bloody independence struggle against the Arab north. Since then, the college, tucked near the borders of Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo, has grown into the leading teacher training institution in South Sudan, battling poor perceptions of teachers, meager resources, and a lack of education funding from the government.

To the people of YTTC, education is too important to wait for peace.

"Education is very, very central to reconstruction of any country. Without teachers we cannot have better education … that is where we shape the nation," says James Kepo, YTTC's principal who, like his colleagues, believes that an investment in teachers is an investment in the future of the country.

“I think even in times of war, we need to invest in people,” says Mr. Kepo. “Life must continue."

By Jason Patinkin, Correspondent February 18, 2015

From the words of William Arthur Ward “The Mediocre teacher tells. The good teacher explains. The superior teacher demonstrates. The great teacher inspires”.

No nation at the moment is at a dire need of a “great teacher” like South Sudan. This is because the world’s newest nation is at a defining moment in its social history. Most of the current social and political problems confronting South Sudan such as, ethnic conflicts, corruption, poverty, gender stereotype, poor democratization, to mention but a few can not just be surmounted by providing any form of education to the subsequent generations of the South Sudanese people, save for education provided by “great teachers”. It is possible to train the required number of teachers for a country within a given period and a specified resource envelope. It is however, a very difficult task to train great teachers who transcends the roles of telling, explaining and demonstrating but inspires.

It is upon this synopsis that YTTC is striving to make the difference. The college has taken upon itself to train teachers who will measure to the expectations of the nation. “We do not only train teachers who will be able to teach but we train teacher who will make the crux of the values for nation building.

To do this, we start with the tutors. Since a learner is as good as his/her teacher, the college through its extant human resource department delves for the outstanding tutors within the region. The proficient college management instills the college culture into the employs and blends this with continuous refresher workshops. The result is a venerated staff body capable of the job to train a new breed of professionals.

The recent seven days workshop facilitated by a seasoned curriculum specialist from Kyambogo University in the names of Dr. Bwayo John is a continued demonstration by the college to committee itself to making a difference in South Sudan. This college is surely committed to producing the “great teacher” for this nation. A teacher who will know how to get students into his/her corner without corning them. And a teacher who will provides exemplary leadership in overcoming the constraint of nation building.   Long live YTTC.

I thank God for having made me dream of joining Yei Teacher Training College through a teacher Conference that was held at Yei SPC (Sudan Pentecostal Church) in March 2014. I was a teacher in the field by 2014 in Royal School International, Yei, as an un trained teacher. The organisers ( Gudnebors) offered to pay those who were willing to join a certificate training and I picked the interest. I had never though t of teaching as my profession, but on the other hand, while in the conference, Mr. James Kepo’s speech inspired me towards the profession, more so his phrase: ‘there is no better profession because every profession has got its ups and downs and the best job is the one which makes you do good to your people and others around you.’ That strongly triggered me to make a decision of opting for the scholarship. Since then I found my self enjoying the course, developing a deeper insight about it. Then I said to myself that one can never run away from what God wants them to be.

I would like to discuss my life in YTTC in the following aspects:

1. Social Development
2. Academic/ Intellectual Development
3. Leadership
4. Spiritual Development
5. Agricultural Development.
6.  Agricultural experience

SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT

YTTC is a College which accommodates students from all the 10 states of South Sudan and beyond. As we stayed in the College, we learnt many things from each other including:

Behaviour change:

I have witnessed my friends change in behaviour from the worst to the best. Some had anti social behaviour but they became socially good. This is because the college expects high moral standards in the student teachers. One of my friends early this year was going to the wash toilet with a jug that he would later on use for drinking water and this could be the way they behave in their culture, but because I knew how we stay in the College, I helped him by asking him to use a basin to take water to the wash toilet which he accepted and thanked me for doing that. So while at the College, I have learnt a lot of good things from my colleagues and vice versa. Others came when they had short temper, where by they easily get provoked but in the college because of the provision of the rules and regulations one always had to adjust to the community.

Love

Students have learnt the habit of love, we shared love among each other regardless of our tribal and religious affiliations, showing care to the sick, taking care of our property, helping each other in times of troubles and challenges. It is because of the loving nature of the college.

Good Tutor/ Student Relationship

The tutors I got on ground up to date are experienced, they really know how to interact with every kind of student, they demonstrate good behaviour under the leadership of a very good and fatherly Principal, ( Mr. Kepo James). The tutors also advocate for good morals among the students.

Cultural activities

Since I joined the college up to date, the students are encouraged to perform inter-cultural activities like traditional dances and songs which made us bond our relationship.

Work and Time

I have learnt that working together as exhibited in this College helps us to make work simple and it makes us united. I and my fellow male colleagues have changed from the ideology of leaving most domestic chores especially sweeping, collecting rubbish to the women but now we work as equals. Work also goes hand in hand with time as the College slogan says: ‘Not even a second lost,’ which positively changed my mentality about time.

2          Academic /Intellectual Development

I realised that the college that I am in has all that it takes for a student to excel academically, I am being taught by good and very knowledgeable tutors who are easily approachable; they readily availed me the necessary academic requirements which made me to be the best in my performance.

I also experienced that much as the Tutors are there and the Library is there as well, one’s personal effort through hard work and discipline in such an institution results in quality results in academics. We interacted in groups to share our academic experiences pertaining some topics in the various disciplines which made me excel also. My guiding principal to success is ‘God first, discipline and hardwork’ to excel.

As per my profession, I was able to gain skills of effective teaching. I became changed from when I was gambling teaching after my ordinary level (O’ Level). In the one month of my teaching at EPC/ harvester Christian School) after completing my certificate level, I realised a drastic positive change in my approaches, methodology, activities, use of learning materials in teaching. I did what the tutors taught me. I announced my departure for further studies and my learners were not happy with others weeping because they thought I should continue with them.

I joined the College in 2014 when it was only offering grade III programme and the diploma programme was opened in my presence and now I am in it because of the need to better my job. I find life exciting in the diploma class because I only have a year to complete it. Though one might be worried of the workload but as a student I always know I have to work hard.

Most importantly the college has made me a ‘www.com’ teacher, I was computer illiterate but now I can make work simpler using the computer.

Meanwhile at the College, I worried about school practice which is money demanding because it is the one that qualifies one to become a teacher. The requirements cost a deal of money but I have always been creative in improvising some of the requirements hence minimising the cost. Even right now in diploma I still have the same worry more so due to the sky rocketing prices which have risen to 500% in almost every commodity compared to 2014, the time I joined.

3.         Leadership

The college did not make me only get academic knowledge but also put in me good leadership skills. I have learnt leadership both practically and theoretically in a sense that the tutors lecture about leadership skills as well as parade themselves as good leaders.

Practically I have observed and admired the leadership skills of Mr. Kepo James, our Principal whom I describe as a purely democratic leader, I have not witnessed any problem arise due to failure of his leadership. Other students and I have high talks about him and wish to be like him, when we reach our communities. Mr. Kepo and his immediate colleagues in leadership have demonstrated the core values of the college such as honesty, transparency, accountability and so on and that is why anything concerning plans and budgets of the college sometimes is brought to as low as the attention of the students that shows a high level of transparency, hence I have never witnessed any breakdown in the service delivery in the college. I think this is why the college is developing in its physical infrastructure, for instance the two storey buildings with the most recent development being the building of the gents storey dormitory. This doesn’t happen anywhere around the nation of South Sudan. How I wish other leaders could imitate this for the development of the nation. All these I have seen up to date has challenged me until I get the chance to practice what I have admired from the leadership of the College.

The guild initiative helped me to realise my leadership abilities especially when I was vetted to be the guild secretary in 2014/15.

4.         Spiritual development

I attributed my success in the College to the mercy of God and Lord Jesus Christ our saviour. My soul and many other souls of the students have been saved in this college spiritually. I never believed in God so much because I thought I was in lots of trouble, hence no such God would save me from the troubles I had. But on the other hand, his eyes were down on me. He showed me his presence by at first giving me the chance of my scholarship at no cost, and secondly leading me to such a good Christian oriented institution that is multi denominational. The College programme of devotion where praising worshipping and sharing the word of the Lord is done really changes life. I have learnt to push close to god, I used to be worse than what I am now. I drunk alcohol and did other sinful acts but through the devotion program, I have found joy in Christ but not alcohol and that is why I am saved as I write my experience.

I have never been a leader in the church in any way but I have learnt to lead praise in the college, share the word of God which I have extended to my community. My people thanked me for joining such a college that changed my life style. Student who didn’t know about God have come to learn more in YTTC hence, becoming changed completely.

I have learnt to fast from the college, the college’s day of prayer and fasting is joyful and life changing. After realising that the college has a day once a year for prayers and fasting I have chosen my personal days devoting myself in fasting.

The college has shown me a practical way of doing agriculture. The college’s Goja farm made me learn that we have to till to eat as well as buy from the market. I have always enjoyed the work we do communally in the college’s farm around and in the farm at Goja. While working one really sees the characteristics of social insects in the students, we cooperate and cultivate a big land in a short time. I have also enjoyed the produce from our handwork from the college farm. For instance maize, beans, pea leaves/’ngete’ , tomatoes and cassava. While in the diploma program I still continue to enjoy the cassava which we planted last year(2015). These things are usually commissioned to God before we enjoy and that made me to feel that I can as well use my hands to cultivate in order to supplement the salary that I will get after my second graduation. Digging in the College is also fun, where we see people who never handled a hoe do it in the College. They usually dig with the hoe at least a meter away to avoid dirtening themselves which always made us laugh. We usually sing as we go to Goja farm and as we return. It is also a picnic opportunity for the student.

Conclusively where I am right now (Year III) many things will be done in a short time but I have to use my time constructively in order to excel again which I don’t doubt my self doing. Everybody at campus is very busy almost all the time.

Lastly, while in YTTC we have to learn from each other and I can confidently say that YTTC is a center of holistic development as being the only Diploma offering institution especially in education. And I will always be happy to those who are behind the existence of this College because they have opened the way for many of us.’

By: Alemi Jackson

Class: Year III Science

Year: 2016

Year of Joining: 2014

BACKGROUND

The Harriet Memorial Fund (HMF) was established in honour of The Late Harriet Jiraba, who died tragically in a road accident in 2010. The aim of the Fund is to provide needy women with financial support to be trained as primary school teachers and nurses. The Fund began by training teachers at Yei Teacher Training College in 2011, and it is hoped that more money will be raised to train nurses. Harriet was herself a nurse, but married to a teacher and resided in the staff quarters with her family where she became a mother and a role model too. This is the basis of establishing the scholarship and getting the first beneficiaries at Yei Teacher Training College (YTTC) where her impact was felt most.
Harriet had a passion for change in her community, especially among women and children. She cared deeply about South Sudanese girls who were unable to pursue education beyond secondary school – so this Fund fulfils her passion that more girls are trained to become teachers and nurses who make a difference to their communities.
HMF began by sponsoring South Sudanese women who had already been admitted to YTTC in 2011. One criterion was for the scholar to show commitment to the College and the teaching profession in various ways. All scholars are considered after being highly recommended by their College mentors, not just for their academic success and character, but also for their commitment to bring a change to their communities after completing from YTTC.
The scholarship includes the cost of tuition and accommodation at YTTC as well as a contribution towards the costs of travel, School Practice (SP) and some pocket money each term. YTTC has three terms in a year.

Please Download Detailed Report from here: Harriet Memorial Fund - Special Report
May 2016