EDUCATION

Southern Sudan is among the least developed nations in the world with respect to education:

Primary Education Secondary Education Adult Literacy
1 in 5 children attends;
3x more boys than girls		 Only 22 secondary schools
in Southern Sudan		 Overall:  24%
1 in 50 complete 5th grade 16% of students are girls Women:  12%

A 2004 baseline survey of facilities revealed that only 10% of classrooms were in permanent buildings and only 20% had benches on which students could sit. Only 7% of teachers completed a year or more of teacher training. Of the remaining 93%, half had no training at all.

In this fragile state setting, the Episcopal Church of the Sudan (ECS) is a superior resource for delivering crucial basic services:

  • The Church builds social capital. Communities help themselves, and co-operation with government in education builds a stronger civil society.
  • The Church is already engaged successfully in education. Parents and children "vote with their feet" in favor of the quality education provided by church schools.
  • Anglican schools provide a distinctively community-based and holistic education for those of all faiths.
  • The ECS excels in beneficiary-centered service delivery. Their unit costs and effectiveness are highly competitive with government- and NGO-provided education.

The UK Department for International Development (DfID) funded an ECS teacher training program to provide education for 500 teachers through 10 in-service teacher training courses. It is led by experienced Southern Sudanese teachers and includes training for headmasters, a resource center, and books and materials for teachers to take back to their schools. To date, 20% more teachers have been trained than planned at a 20% unit cost saving against bid.

The ECS is building 50 classrooms a year at a unit cost five times lower than the World Bank. Church schools reliably deliver on their enrolment targets.

The ECS is eager to work with donor governments, NGOs, and church organizations to scale their proven model of educational service delivery. For further information, please contact:

Rebecca Coleman
Development Manager & International Donor Liaison
Episcopal Church of the Sudan