How i will encourage girls' education in South Sudan

 I will encourage girl’s education through giving them empowerment so that they develop intrinsic motivation and become resilience to any challenge that may contributes to their drop out from the school. I will empower them through guidance and counseling and also tell them my life story of how I was once a girl like them who grew up in a refugee camp and faced similar challenges as they are facing. But because I didn’t give up, the result is the education I attained and they could as well attain their education and become what they wish to be in future if they let the challenges they are facing motivates them to work more hard than discourage them to leave the school. I could give the guidance and counseling through having regular meeting with them as a group and also by meeting them individually depending on their various needs. I will also struggle to make sure that our girls are involve in sport activities because this could increase their interest to continue coming to school and forget some of the home problems they are facing and concentrate on their studies. By so doing, I will get to know them better and see a way that I can intervene in extreme circumstances that are beyond their control. I know that together we will succeed in supporting both the boys and girls because each of us have faced, and are still facing various challenges and we all have diverse stories to tell our students. Those stories plus guidance and counseling will empower them to continue with their education. Are you ready to join in the fight against female illiteracy in South Sudan?    

My goals when I return to South Sudan

When I return to South Sudan, I would like to promote quality education that will enable the students to make sense of their own learning and make my beloved mother land a better place to live in. That is possible by reaching out to a thousand future leaders of South Sudan through serving in the education sector at a higher institution level of learning as well as in the grass root level. I would like to be a voice for the voiceless especially the marginalized groups like girl child and women. Serving in the education sector en-campuses a lot of activities right from involving in the curriculum review, serving as a lecturer, teacher trainer, a mentor to mention but a few.

            I really learned a lot of valuable lessons from all the courses I took from Indiana University. In deed words cannot express it at all but my actions in the field will speak better. Never the less I learned that education is the key to almost all aspects of life. So in order to produce a quality work force, education should be designed to meet the needs of the society. Secondly, I learned the importance of teaching to learn not teaching to pass examination. Being a teacher, I will make sure that I work collaboratively with my students to support their learning as our professors did. This will involve the use of various teaching strategies and activities that brings the real world to the students in order to prepare them to face the real world in which they live in.  I believe that together we stand and make South Sudan a better place.

Impact of conflict

        Displacement of schools is one of the impacts of conflict on South Sudan. Many schools especially in areas that experienced intense fighting has been displaced. The teachers and students are forced to run to a safer areas while their schools has either been occupied by the military personals or destroyed. Most primary schools, secondary schools and higher institutions of learning in South Sudan has experienced this problem. The examples are institutions like Upper Nile University and Dr. John Garang University that were displaced and forced to relocate to Juba because of the December 2013 conflict.
        The displacements of schools has affected learning and the quality of education in the country in such a way that it leads to over crowding that will contributes to un-conducive learning environment, rapid spread of diseases, limit student sense of creativity and positive thinking to mention but few. It has also affects the teacher ability to plan and deliver meaningful lessons, assessment standards will be affected as well.
      As the future scholars of South Sudan, what strategies do you think will help deal with the issue of displacement of school in order to improve on the quality of education being received by learners affected by the impacts of the displacement?