Observation in the Classroom.

This picture illustrates the classroom ambient of 2nd year student, attending Engineering drawing class. The instructor, Mr. Zachariah is in charge of this group of students. They were 53 students during the first year but now they are 20.
According to the instructor, the high drop was cause by the issue of school fees. Most of the students did not afford to pay the 120 Sudanese Pounds (about $ 60/=).

Another reason for dropout was language barrier. The local government and ministry of education, science and technology issue the degree that English is the official language to be use in all the schools. However, most of the students are IDPs (internally display people) and the language mostly use now and then is Arabic. It is a big blow for many students and with that young people look for job opportunities around and young ladies get married at their young age.

In reality, the classroom situation as describe is teacher center. Students are not participating in any way. The teacher/instructor writes in English and lecture or explains in Arabic. It is a real confusion for students to grasp the concept by themselves unless the teacher is around.

I had opportunity to speak with one student. Mr. James Lual is 27 years old with little background of Auto-mechanic. He work with his elder brother back home in the local industry. However, he opted to up grade his vocational skills in auto-mechanic by attending a two year program in the DBVTC. He explained that being in the classroom attending lectures is of no use both to him and other students because the language in the classroom is English, books are all in Italian and translated in English.

The instructors all have Arabic background with little experience of English. According to the government the official language to be use in schools is English but we lack teachers with knowledge of English. Most of the instructor got their training in Arabic, so the teachers too need to be train in order to impart the knowledge he had to the students. To him, actually, without the help of the instructor he cannot read or use the notes to implement it in the workshop practice.

They had entrepreneurship for three months with local industries around and workshop practice was appreciative. The difficult moment they always encounter was the integration of the theory into practice.