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Dr Griffin receiving Juba Rotary Club Banner |
President Harry Cragg receives Juba Club Banner from Dr Griffin |
The Club is in contact with the Rotary Club of Juba, South Sudan. This arose through the work and initiative of former Kent Headteacher Dr Margaret Griffin in setting up a new School in this new Nation. Dr Griffin spoke to the Club on January 17th about the deperately poor educational conditions in this fledgling State.
The Juba Diocesan Secondary School provides basic education for both boys and girls in a country desperate to develop an educated class and in particular to develop the talent of women.
Past President John Harris has drawn on his own international contacts to interest a major Examining Board which looks to train and develop teachers and apply world-wide accreditation and discussions are afoot with the British Council. Watch this space. Anyone interested is invited to contact John Harris (01227 830631) or Margaret Griffin, Education Adviser to the School on 07718 625376 (direct).
More Information
When the new country South Sudan came into being in July 2011, everyone said that their greatest need was education – and they needed to have it as soon as possible. When this was stated what it meant was Quality Education – able students and well-qualified teachers producing high levels of achievement, particularly at Secondary School and in Higher Education.
This would be no mean feat as there were few secondary schools and very few teachers of calibre – and the challenge had to be taken up.
ECS (the Episcopal Church of Sudan) already had 9 Basic Schools that served pupils aged 5-14 and asked the UK to build them a Secondary School so that students could pass their School Certificate and proceed to university. There were very few girls in education and those that were invariably left at the ages of 10 or 11, condemned to chores and/ or motherhood.
Consequently, JDMSS is in its 5th year of life and 2 cohorts of students have taken the School Certificate, the last group gaining 100% pass rate. There are 370 students attending the school, 43% of which are girls and of the only 400 girls in this huge country in their last year of secondary education now in January 2012 , 35 of them are at JDMSS.
No wonder the Government and parents have asked for a Girls’ Boarding House to be built at the school to accommodate more girls from a wider area of the country!
Juba Rotary Club is helping us raise some of the required amount of money needed and is linked with the Canterbury Club by the exchange of banners shown at the head of the page.
