Baliet County , South Sudan — September 25, 2006 — Abdelamin Ngok, now in his 60s, remembers when Adong had two primary schools, one for boys and one for girls. He was the deputy head teacher of the girls school, before the new basic school in Adong Payam was built. The new basic school is still one of the oldest in the country. So in his remarks to the children gathered at the school for the launch of the Ministry of Education and UNICEF ‘Go to School’ campaign, Ngok reminded the community of how important education has always been to Adong Payam, and urged both the children and their parents to make something of themselves by starting now with their education.

The Adong school still faces all the challenges that confront education in South Sudan: rudimentary and inadequate school buildings, a lack of even basic school furniture, few amenities. But what it lacks in physical infrastructure it makes up for with the sheer enthusiasm of its children and teachers. Last year, the Adong Basic School achieved the second best results of all schools in the state, sending all of its Grade 8 students to secondary school in Malakal. Still, before the break in the school year for the rainy season Adong had 857 registered pupils, but at the resumption of the school year on September 1st only 658 had re-registered.

“During the rainy season there are problems with attendance as children are often called on to help with family duties while the older family members are busy with cultivation,” Head teacher Omien Deng Ukich explained. “It is also more difficult for the children to get to school during the rains. On the other hand, the number of children in the area has grown a lot due to the return of displaced people and refugees that followed the signing of the peace agreement last year.”

The Adong school facilities are struggling to cope with the large number of pupils it has to accommodate. Most buildings are mud-walled, and although a new block of classrooms is currently under construction (with the help of UNHCR’s partner Islamic Relief Worldwide), all the rooms are overcrowded. Most children sit in the mud on the ground, or on empty cooking oil cans they have brought with them as makeshift chairs. Another guest speaker at the ‘Go to School’ launch, Njok Bul, a member of the school committee, reminded the children of the founding of the school and how the people had collected the materials to build it locally. He reminded them of this commitment by the community and their duty to be equally committed to their education. John Kilkenny, Country Director of International Relief and Development (IRD), the U.S.-based non-governmental organization that helped UNICEF to organize the launch in Adong, then asked all the students present to be ambassadors for education whenever they meet any children who aren’t going to school.

The school committee at Adong has recently added basic pit latrines to its facilities so that the school now qualifies for inclusion in the World Food Program (WFP) school feeding program, something that the head teacher hopes will improve school attendance and the concentration of pupils. His next target it to improve the number of girls attending the school. At present girls make up only about 30 percent of children attending the school.

The ‘Go to School’ launch was supported by the whole community of Adong, with those present including the Payam Administrative Officer, the Chief Police Officer, and a number of tribal leaders and elders as well as parents, teachers and children of the community. All present committed themselves to the importance of education in the development of the new, peaceful Sudan. The children sang songs of hope for the future peace and prosperity of the country, and distributed sweets to mark the occasion.