Catharine Corbin (Washington, CC)
Originalmente projetado para apoiar a implementação do 2005 Acordo de Paz Abrangente, o Educação em Saúde e Reconciliação (OUVIR) projeto está atualmente em seu sétimo ano de implementação e está capacitando os membros da comunidade, funcionários do governo, educadores, e profissionais de saúde para promover o acesso sustentável à educação e aos serviços de saúde de qualidade. Embora o inglês seja a língua de ensino no Sudão do Sul, muitos professores foram originalmente treinados em árabe ou em outras línguas locais. Através do OUVIR, os professores desenvolvem suas habilidades e confiança para ensinar efetivamente em inglês. A HEAR tem trabalhado nas regiões fronteiriças entre o Sudão do Norte e o Sudão do Sul desde 2006 e agora implementa programação em quatro estados do norte do Sudão do Sul. Desde a independência do Sudão do Sul em Julho 2011, o projeto HEAR mudou o seu foco para atingir pessoas deslocadas internamente e repatriados nas zonas de Agok, na República do Sudão do Sul, bem como os estados vizinhos que fazem fronteira com o Norte: Warrap, Norte de Bahr el Ghazal, Bahr el Ghazal Ocidental, e Unidade.
Em janeiro 2013, the HEAR project held a training for English tutors who will conduct a two-week training course for teachers followed by individual and small group support sessions twice a week for the remainder of the project. Twenty-five tutors from five project sites journeyed to Wau in Western Bahr el Ghazal to attend the workshop.
“Language is a problem here. During this transitional period – now almost 8 years – all of us South Sudanese know we need to turn to English. But we have not prepared ourselves and that is why we are here now. We are working for one purpose and the name ‘Creative’ means we need to be creative in our teachings and methodologies so we can stand on our own feet and keep working towards our goals.”
Gabriel Rhok, the acting Director General of Education in Western Bahr el Ghazal State, opened the HEAR English language tutor training session with these remarks. Despite temperatures that soared to over 105 degrees Fahrenheit each day, participants remained actively engaged and enthusiastic throughout the training.
The teacher training modeled approaches tutors can simulate when they lead their own classes. Each morning began with a community builder exercise, crucial to create a fun and safe learning environment for language learners to participate and succeed. After the sessions, tutors could see how important it is to differentiate instruction techniques and review new vocabulary and phrases over and over again with students. The participants left the training empowered with a plethora of fun, engaging activities to help teachers through the five stages of language learning: encountering, clarifying, remembering, internalizing, and then fluent use. At the conclusion of the training, Senhor. Rhok emphasized the need for the tutors to continue to put forth a great effort by saying, “South Sudan will be able to stand on its own feet if we keep working.”
Catharine Corbin, Technical Manager for Education, Criativos associados internacionais