GROUP DISCUSSION REPORT

One of the groups during their group discussion



Group One

• Professional presentation to students
• Presentation speed – language
• Participatory learning, involving the students in the class
• Teaching aids such as books, pens and other tools
• The teacher has to be creative and happy as professional
• Extra-curriculum activities such as educational trip.



Group Two
• Use of participatory method; the trainer asking the trainees question and the vise versa.
• Group discussion is important for their learning process.
• Giving the students assignment and the teacher has to follow it.
• Motivating the students such as usage of language and encouraging them and not putting them down.
• Study tour such as field work, visiting institution around the area to share ideas and experience.


Group Three

• Asking the students questions and revise with them some topics
• Group discussion for better learning
• Loyalty to the students
• The way we communicate to the students has to be clear and distinct
• Learning by doing i.e. we need to practice what we have learn in the class
• The class/students capacity and the way we relate to them

Group Four

• Introducing oneself to the students for a better relationship with them.
• Using the correct method for the future carrier of each student.
• Use simple language for better understanding
• Revise with the students the previous topic before introducing the new topic
• Self evaluation both for students and as an instructor.

The afternoon activity is to ask the question, why documenting my own practice? At the end of it we have a learning group dialogue and lastly individual log. Until on Friday, we may end the program by having learning group, individual log and the next day morning we begin by sharing our logs, what we have learn and what is next to do.

Comment on the presentations of the group by Johan Houge-Thiis

In the pedagogical pedagogy we have the three triangle i.e. teacher, students and matter/material. We have one actor/teacher who is the acting knowledge, presenting his knowledge method or model. The students is the recipient, absorb the message from the teacher. The central aim of all this is learning process. As teachers/instructor, we need not to get stick to our ideas and method of teaching because the students may have many questions beside what you have thematically prepare for them to answer. We need to create a dialogue between i.e. instructors and students. It is a model way of presenting ourselves to students because to teach is to learn and that is the concept behind the methodology.

To create one’s own future is all about ownership. We can share it with others or group but still it remain to be yours because you own it. However, for students to develop their own understanding is for them to ask questions and not instructor or teacher to tell them what they are supposed to do or ask. When we do that, the students develop their own self esteem and confidence.

At the end of the day, there were learning group being form and Trond comment as we conclude the first day of the workshop out line that, each of the participants should write his/her logs. The log will only be personal and not for the group because that is where you can improve. As we begin tomorrow at 9 am we should begin with sharing our experiences.

WOMEN SELF HELP DEVELOPMENT ORGANIZATION (WSHDO)

The group women wishing the under-secretary during the exhibition day.

WOMEN SELF HELP DEVELOPMENT ORGANIZATION (WSHDO)
Women self help development organization is a community based organization (CBO) established in 1975 in Yambio and moved to Yei and finally to Juba in 1992. it works with the grass roots women on self help basis. It was established as combined effort of women in Equatoria State. Today, it has members of 500 operational in 34 counties and villeges (rural areas) in Southern Sudan Juba. There are about 314 self help community development groups in existent.

TRAINING AND VISION
They have five units, community development as their way of spreading and the rest are health, nutrition, agriculture, agro-forestry and microfinance, training the women for 5 months.
The vision they have for attainment of their goal is to empowered women in Southern Sudan. The mission statement or the motto of the WSDHDO is their existence to promote the well-being of grass-root women of Southern Sudan for self reliance in every aspect of life.

OBJECTIVES• Mobilization and organization of women at grass-root level for community development.
• Enhancing the capability of the grass-root women to manage their resources within their reach.
• Enhancing self help and self reliance, cooperation among the women.
• Raising the esteem of women as leaders in the society.
• Lobbying on violence against women
• Working for transformation and socialization process in order to re-orient women towards issues of development.

ACTIVITIES
1. Raising awareness on gender balance, equity and child right
2. Adult education to reduce illiteracy of women in Southern Sudan
3. Leadership and skills training for better development of women
4. Environment protection and conservation through agriculture and agro-Forestry activities
5. Raising awareness among women about public health, HIV/AIDs and nutrition both in the family and the community.
6. Training women in basic skills of food processing

SOUTHERN SUDAN OLDER PEOPLE’S ORGANIZATION (SSOPO)

Above are the group of woment presenting their product on the exhibition day



SOUTHERN SUDAN OLDER PEOPLE’S ORGANIZATION (SSOPO)

Southern Sudan Older People’s Organization (SSOPO) is a local NGO, non profit making, charitable organization, established in 1999, to work with and for the aged.

REASONS FOR ESTABLISHMENT OF THE NGO
In traditional society, the elderly (aged) people were revered and respected for their wisdom and experience. Their counseling was sought in times of crises and they are the vehicles through which traditional customs, behavior and values were passed from one generation to the next.
Today, those traditions have been forgotten by the present generations. Furthermore, Southern Sudan older people do not enjoy the privileged position they once assured of, much as they play a role in peace building and reconstruction of the South. The prevailing negative attitude to wards them by many of us (society) has cause them a lot of challenges and suffering. To mention few of those problems and the suffering they are encountering day by day, for instance, poverty, poor housing, lack of adequate food and nutrition and physical disabilities. To make it more challenging, the government has no policy to cater the needs of this people, lack of active older people activist and Sudan conflicts has cause more harm than good.

SSOPO’S WORK
The Southern Sudan older people’s organization, advocate for the effort of the older people’s committee and the rights and needs of older people in Southern Sudan. They continue to lobby the ministry of gender, social welfare and religious affairs; Goss to ensure that national policy on older people is implemented and taken care of.

VISIONSSOPO’s vision is seeing a society that is concerned and catering for the needs of the older people. Therefore, there existent is to improve the quality of lives of older people and the community they live in.

TRAININGThe Southern Sudan older people’s organization has in place five (5) months of basic skills training in Tailoring and Embroidery for women and the youth in the older people’s head households in Juba.
It started in 2007 and has graduated 83 graduates in three (3) batches. Training begins in July to November. The next in take in January will be for one year and only thirteen are needed for the training of 2009. The conditions for application, the person must be a woman or youth caring for the older people or orphan and returnee (IDPs).

OPENING DAY OF EXHIBITION AT MULTI-SERVICE TRAINING CENTER (M.T.C) JUBA – SOUTHERN SUDAN 10-12-08

Mr. Mark Zanganbeyo, the under-secretary, Ministry of labor (GOSS) and Ms. Hellen Achiro, the D/G for Ministry of labor/public service on the opening day of the Exhibition


The ceremony started at 11:30 am at the Multi-training service center compound. Mr. Ben, assistant of the deputy director and in charge of 4 sections among which carpentry, building, plumbing and electrical department was the master of ceremony. He welcome all those invited guest, including the under-secretary of the ministry of labor and the director general of public service, and many other dignitaries, NGOs.

The main objective of this function is to inform the citizens and the supporting NGOs that life skill is important for capacity building, man power, development and construction of the country like Sudan, particularly Southern Sudan. The idea is to manifest to the public the training which the students received during the course of the year or two years and their creativity.

The director general for public service, Goss Mrs. Helen Achiro, outline in her speech about the importance of vocational education and acquiring life long skills. Without life skills in a country like Sudan or South Sudan development will be limited because craftsmen are the people actually constructing the country. Although most of the people in Southern Sudan are qualified academically, they lack vocational skills and that is why today the country is running short of such manpower. The advice and the emphasis she gave was to the instructors/NGOs to impart a life long skills to the people of Southern Sudan for construction and development of this nation.The under-secretary of MOL, Goss, Mr. Mark Zangabayo encourages the instructors at the V.T.Cs to learn more skills for themselves as well as imparting the same skills to the students. The undersecretary expresses the concern on the less concern given to vocational education; we need to acquire vocational skills despite the academic qualification. He outlined that in 1982 after the SPLA I, there were no people with skills to construct the country, hence the government thought it wise to open vocational training centers for training people to acquire knowledge and skills for development of Southern Sudan.

It is the same today after CPA in our country we need to construct and develop our country both in buildings, manpower and craftsmen.
He then opened the exhibition of various training that the students receive from many NGOs and other governmental stakeholders.

HOW CAN I IMPROVE MY PRACTICE?

This is the memebrs during the workshop



HOW CAN I IMPROVE MY PRACTICE?

The government has opened so many ways for education both locally and internationally. Learning is not something put in someone’s brain but it is a process. A person may not be good in theory but in practice he is the first and others good in theory but poor in practical, it is a challenge I am giving to each of you. If I/you have to develop a carrier, we need to develop interest and love it. It is my advice to you all that as we start this workshop, please develop an interest and I am sure you will gain a lot from here/seminar. In this seminar, you are going to learn new methods of how you do your teaching. It is a new look to the methodology of how to evaluate yourself as a teacher/instructor and not about the students. If you want to develop, you need to consider three things in mind: to be creative, committed and contented. These are the three Cs that we need most of the time when we need to develop our skills and knowledge. Be part of the people and not an expectator and there you will develop your people capacity and the carrier you are longing for. However, Legge open the workshop at 9:50 am and he encourages each and every participant to be active and consider the three Cs, being committed, creative and contented.

Trond in his statement says, we cannot in any way deliver the message to you the way you expect but we will help you to deliver to yourself the message. We need to be active, creative and committed and it is also quiet encouraging that ladies are well represented in this workshop and we appreciate that.

This program is to facilitate or help to support your learning process and development. The major question that we are going to deal with during the rest of the week is: HOW CAN I IMPROVE MY PRACTICE? This is the overall concept of this seminar.

The participants were asked the occupying question in mind after the opening of the seminar and Otim’s question was how to learn in my field?
Benjamin: how to improve on new areas? Agreement: how to am I going to cope up with this training? Clara: how to learn to keep up with our new generation issues? Fraser: how to get the right material to improve my teaching profession? Joseph: how to make the students to learn? Jaka Justo: to learn new things on capacity building. George: thinking on getting the best ways of learning? Atom: how to get proper way of passing knowledge to the students? Moses: what I do to get the students understand me better as a teacher? Batali: how to maintain my ethics when teaching? How to be creative to make others learn? Khamisa: how to make the students happy when I am giving lessons? Bingo Grace: how to improve the areas of awareness in my field? Nasra: how to activate the community to join the VTC yei? Josephine: How to have the students to be attentive during the lessons? Atimaku: how do I ensure that students retain their knowledge so they are able to apply in their needs? Kenyi: which are the objectives of this workshop?

WORKSHOP AT THE NPA YEI VOCATIONAL TRAINING CENTER

Date: 16th – Feb – 2009
Place: Yei VTC/NPA Compound

The workshop started on Monday 16 Feb. 2009. The participants were from NPA Yei VTC, NPA Mine Action, SPLA Head quarters. There are supposed to be 23 but 15 turn up and few participants came in little bit late. There are about 6 ladies including Aidah and the rest are all men. The workshop was attended by Paterno Legge, who was the invited guest, the workshop animators i.e. Trond and Johan plus Paul, Daniel and Aida


Mr. Otim, the principal of Yei VTC gave a short background of Yei center and there after welcoming every body official to the workshop. The center was established in 1995 with 5 operational workshops and it is gender balance. It is one of the best centers in Yei as many appreciated the present of the school in the region.

Mr. Johan gave a brief background of what the program is all about and the Nucoop position as the pioneer in BA program at Upper Nile University. He gave advice that during this workshop, we are going learn from each other a lot and participate all of us in one way or the other.

Interview Conducted by Paul Tartisio at Don Bosco VTC, Wau

Masonry and Brick Laying

This section has 13 first years, 14 second years and 3 instructors, one from Kenya and two Sudanese. The two Sudanese instructors got their training at Don Bosco V.T.C, Khartoum and the Kenyan got his training at Kenyatta Polytechnic, Kenya. All the 3 have a collaborative understanding despite the language barriers of English and Arabic. The Sudanese instructors finished their vocational studies all in Arabic; meanwhile the Kenyan was trained in English.

Interviewing the instructor, Mr. Joseph Mwaniki, Class: First and Second Year students, Section: Masonry and Brick laying
Date: 8th-11-2008
Time: 11:00 – 11:45am

Question: Explain briefly, the relationship between you as an instructor and students, your method of teaching and how you ensure learning takes place among the students?

Relationship

I am Joseph Mwaniki, head of the department, masonry and brick laying.
As an instructor, I am a father, a brother, a friend, a leader and above all a servant to all the students. Students should not see an instructor as a bodyguard that follows every mistake that he or she does. As a father, I advice student as my son or daughter, as a brother and friend to them I create a point of trust, being a leader I guide them through the destitute of darkness to light and as a servant, I dedicate myself to impart a sound knowledge and make them responsible of their own learning process.

Method of teaching

I usually have theory class every Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday in the morning hours and practical from 11:00 am to 3:30 pm), everyday.
I used English to write the notes but explanation take place in Arabic.
Before we start a new topic, I revise with students the previous topics, asked them questions in Arabic. The students get bore during the theory class due to the language (English) use but when I use Arabic to explain they become active in asking questions and clarifications. The time allocated for theory also is too long, about 2 hours and half, there is a need to break it. Actually, language is the biggest problem for many students giving up their studies both in the V.T.Cs and even general education. They are used to Arabic and many received their basic education in Arabic. Since, English has become the national language in Southern Sudan; it is like a paradigm shift for many students.
In short, the crucial point that needs to be taken into consideration is language both for instructors and students, because using a familiar language involve learning.

Learning process

The first year training begins with two months of basic courses i.e. preparatory courses such as
• Workshop safety is explaining to the students the importance of putting on some safety materials during the workshop practice. The safety materials are like, helmet, gloves, shoes and overall dress.
• Languages such as English which is compulsory and official language to be use in Southern Sudan, Arabic as second language, which is also important and prefer by many students than English. Books are still in Arabic not yet translated into English, some in Italian.
• Technical education is informing the students the importance of having vocational skills in the local market or industry today. They have to be responsible for their learning in the vocational training. They are also taught the crucial points when they will be distributed in the local industries for entrepreneurship.

Practical

The syllabus taught in the first year had the general introduction to building and construction, where the students are shown the different types of bricks use in construction, type clay/mud, cements, and gravel for concreting in the workshop practice.
They are taught drafting walls (designing the building), ground preparation, foundation, concreting (floor and plastering), scaffolding, boundary walls, technical designs and working drawing.
The students are given opportunities individually during the workshop practice to manifest his or her talents and skills by constructing a concrete wall and floor. To ensure that learning is taking place the instructor will divide students in groups (4 in each group) to construct a scaffolding for one month. They have to work as a group, learn and enrich each other’s knowledge. Constructing this building is of important because then an instructor will know where to improve his method of teaching and guiding.

Observation

The student demonstrate learning process when they are in group because they learn from each other in terms of punctuality, cleanliness and asking clarifications and questions from each other when something is not clear.
The students work as a team, some mixing clay/mud, others putting bricks along the foundation, others make sure there is enough water both for mixing the clay/mud and drinking, first aid personnel, to mention few.
The presentation of the work was in group and one person or leader presenting the difficulties and challenges they face during construction. For instance, the materials they lack such as gloves, mesterina, and spat. The cooperation among them was not up to date but despite the pros and cons, they have learned working together as a team, taking care of each other in terms of first aid.
Finally the instructor gives the general observation and remarks for improvement.

Reflection

In my mind, the common reason for drop out is the school fees which the students cannot afford to pay. The amount to be paid is 120 Sudanese pounds which is equivalent to $ 60.
The major reason however, for leaving the school is language. The majority leaving the school are IDPs (Internally Displace People) because the education they received mostly in Khartoum was in Arabic.
As far as I understand the learning process will not take place at all with students if the language use is not familiar to them.
To me, the note given in English and explanation in Arabic is not the best way to ensure learning process.
In short, the students may acquire skills but the knowledge of this skill may be difficult to impart to others.