South Sudan says ‘bye bye’ to Arabic
When South Sudan broke away from Sudan in July last year it didn’t only say goodbye to its former rulers in Khartoum, but it also stopped using Arabic as its first language. But phasing out Arabic to make way for English proves to be a lengthy process.
By Arne Doornebal, Juba
“Good morning sir!” Sixty primary school children shout as teacher Santos Okot (31) walks into his classroom. He tells them to take their seats. “Thank you sir!”
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The school year has just started at the St. Joseph Catholic School, in the city centre of Juba. South Sudanese schools operate between late April and the end of December. The rest of the year - the dry months – they are closed for holiday. “At home these children speak Arabic. They hear it in the streets and in the market. So it is not easy to teach them English,” says Okot.
English has become the teacher’s first language. “During the war in South Sudan I stayed in Uganda and I also studied there,” he says. In the Anglophone country he learned how to master the language. “I also speak Arabic but I cannot read or write it.” Tens of thousands of South Sudanese were educated in refugee camps in Uganda during the 22-year Sudanese conflict.
New curriculum
Although South Sudan only became independent last year, the introduction of an English curriculum started already seven years ago. In January 2005 Southern rebels and the Sudanese government ended the long war with a peace agreement. South Sudan was granted autonomy and one of the agreements in the peace deal was that English would become the prime language of the South.
“In 2006 all pupils in Primary One received new, English textbooks,” says John Wani, headmaster of the St. Joseph School. “By the next school year, in 2007, they started using the new books for Primary Two. This means that by next year all primary school pupils will be using the new curriculum.” 2012 is the last year in which some students in South Sudan are working with the old, Arabic, books.
Teaching the teachers
Adopting the English language will probably be not all that easy for many South Sudanese, due to the low level of education in the world’s newest country. Only 27 percent of the adults in South Sudan know how to read and write; for women this percentage stands at 18.
“Learning a language is very difficult for adults,” says Wani. “But it is important to connect with East Africa. [In countries like Kenya and Tanzania English is an official language]. Six out of our 27 teachers don’t speak any English. They are on training but they go slow. Maybe I should send them to Uganda or Kenya to speed things up.”
Teacher Santos Okot says South Sudanese are eager to learn. “In the weekends people come to me and ask if I can teach them. I give them private English lessons outside school hours. Sometimes they pay me for it.”