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Situation report update
"I want to become a teacher" — school in a Sudan IDP camp
April 19, 2005
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Give now!
DR000044 |
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In spite of the many daily challenges, pupils attending Hassa Hissa School, in the biggest camp for internally displaced persons outside Zalingei in West Darfur, are eager to learn.
Zalingei, West Darfur, April 18, 2005
"I get up in the morning."
"I play football in the afternoon."
The teacher, tall and erect in his white jalabia, repeats out loud the sentences he has written on the chalkboard. His voice carries beyond the blue and green tent that functions as a classroom in Hassa Hissa camp.
The tent is packed with young boys sitting on white plastic bags scattered on the ground. Very few of them have schoolbooks or are wearing uniforms. |
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In an IDP camp, the leaders say that education is the only way to make sure that their children have a chance of building a better future. Photo: Hege Opseth, NCA/ACT International |
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Obediently they follow suit when their teacher booms, "Okay, repeat after me…."
The classrooms for girls are equally crammed. Until recently, the school used to be the only one serving the camp, which lies on the outskirts of the town of Zalingei in West Darfur. In spite of some of the students having been transferred to a new school, this one is still bursting out of its seams.
When the school started, 5,000 children came to register, explains a program manager from the Sudan Council of Churches (SCC), the local ACT/Caritas partner in charge of setting up schools and distributing school material. Many children had to be turned down when they wanted to enroll, as the numbers were simply too big to accommodate. It was decided to establish a school for students from the fourth to the eighth grades only.
The number of internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Hassa Hissa camp continues to grow. The last registration of beneficiaries to receive non-food items recorded almost 60,000 people. In order to accommodate the growing number of families (and children) seeking shelter in the camp, SCC recently put up two new schools. Fourth and fifth grade pupils have been transferred from the main school to one of the new ones, and the second new school serves youngsters in the first to the third grades. In spite of all the effort, it is estimated that some 1,200 to 1,500 children still do not go to school in Hassa Hissa camp. |
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English and Science
Hassa Hissa camp's main school is on a small hill. The tents have been put up in a square with the multi-colored Sudanese flag flying from its mast in the middle of the schoolyard.
"Okay, now it is your turn to read the sentence out loud," says the English teacher in the boys’ class.
"Teacher! Teacher!" the boys all shout at once.
A short boy in a white shirt and dark trousers stands up and spells his way through the sentences.
The noise spilling from the other classrooms is overwhelming. The rooms are only separated by a piece of plastic sheeting, so it is impossible not to hear what is going on next door.
In one of the girls' classes, the subject is science. The teacher explains how they can fertilize the land with natural waste from animals and with chemicals.
"Animal waste can be used in unlimited quantities, but you cannot do that with chemicals," the teacher explains to the eighth graders.
The girls sit close together on wooden benches, listening attentively to their teacher. When he asks a question, they snap their fingers and answer all at once. When asked about their favorite class, one girls says "science, because science helps us to farm and [teaches us] how to cook nutritious food. It also teaches us the importance of cleanliness."
Enrollment figures show 928 boys and 783 girls in the Hassa Hiss camp schools, for a total of 1,711 students.
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The schools in Hassa Hissa Camp
The main school has 1,711 students from fourth to eighth grade enrolled. There are 28 male teachers and 16 female teachers.
The new school for first to third graders has 1,017 children and 13 teachers.
Teachers live either in Zalingei or in Hassa Hissa camp.
Pupils take classes in Arabic, English, Math, History, Art, and reading the Koran.
Sudan Council of Churches (SCC), implementing for ACT/Caritas, is constructing temporary school facilities, and provides teaching materials like chalkboards and benches to the schools in the camps.
Each pupil receives one exercise book, pencils, an eraser and a ruler from SCC. The textbooks are few, so the children have to share. |
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"The main reason [for the lower number of girls attending] is that the girls get married early. You can find some girls who are married when they are 15 years old," explains SCC's program manager, adding that girls are also busy helping with housework, and that some girls don't attend school because the families are poor, they are ill, or they simply do not want to attend school. It is also understood that deeply ingrained traditional customs are not changed overnight. However, in the new school, girls outnumber the boys in the first and third grades — 787 girls and 430 boys attend the classes. |
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Good level of education
The principal, who lives in Hassa Hissa camp, has been managing the school for eight months from his small office at the back of the schoolyard. He believes the biggest challenge facing students is lack of food and schoolbooks.
"We do not have any breakfast for the pupils. Some of them have not had anything to eat when they come in the morning," says the principal.
The English teacher, who has taught for 13 years, says that apart from the number of pupils in the camp school's classrooms, teaching in the camp is not so different from teaching in a village.
"The level of education is good. In the village schools you also lack books, tables and chairs," he says, explaining that in the village where he used to teach, classes were made up of 25-30 pupils, whereas in Hassa Hissa camp, classes can number up to a hundred each.
Most of the children in the school received schooling before they were displaced. The teacher says, "I teach them slowly step by step. If I have to mark their homework I need more time, so most of the teaching is oral." Also living in the camp with his family, he understands the daily pressures on the children. |
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Determined pupils
Despite the poor facilities, the pupils have not lost hope. When asked what they would like to be when they grow up, they all raise their hands.
"Doctor," says one boy. "Pilot," chimes in another. "Farmer," says a small boy, who smiles when all the other pupils start laughing.
In one of the girls' classes, the answers also come quickly.
"I would like to become a teacher because then you develop other people. Anyone who grows up to become something like a doctor is because of a teacher. It is an important job," says one young girl.
Another girl wants to become a doctor, so that she can cure people. A third girl wants to be a translator.
"They have their hopes, but not the way," comments the English teacher.
SCC, as an implementer of ACT/Caritas, is distributing school uniforms to the most vulnerable children, who have lost their parents or are very poor. The needs are like everything else in Darfur — bigger than what can be accommodated. |
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Presbyterian Disaster Assistance has sent $192,000 since July 2004 to assist in Darfur. Included in the appeal are the rehabilitation of 40 school facilities in IDP affected areas (including support with school materials, equipment, furniture, and teacher training), the rehabilitation of school latrines used by IDPs sheltering in the schools during periods of emergency, and 30 additional temporary school facilities/shelters inside IDP camps. |
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Information for this report was provided by Malene Haakansson, ACT/Caritas information officer. |
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To Sudan response index |
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