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Opportunities and limitations for peacebuilding in South Sudanese primary school textbooks

Mon, March 26, 1:15 to 2:45pm, Hilton Reforma, Floor: 2nd Floor, Don Diego 1 Section A

Proposal

Since gaining independence from Sudan following decades of civil war, the fragile and unstable peace of the world’s newest country was disrupted by a new civil conflict that erupted from 2013 – 2015. A peace treaty was established in August 2015 but has not been effectively implemented and extensive conflict and displacement has continued with devastating education and health implications for the population. South Sudan has the highest rate of out of school children in the world, with close to 72% of school age children missing out on their education (UNICEF, 2017). In a country that already suffered from an extreme shortage of schools, since December 2013, approximately 31% of primary schools have experienced at least one attack by armed groups, and 25% of primary schools that were at one point operational were found to be non-functional by late 2016 (South Sudan Education Cluster, 2017). Despite this instability, the government of South Sudan seeks to establish a full education sector plan, building upon its current 2012 – 2017 General Education Sector Plan (GESP) covering early childhood, primary and secondary education.

Among the GESP objectives are the finalization of a new national curriculum and accompanying teaching and learning materials. A consultancy was launched by the Ministry of General Education and Instruction (MoGEI) and UNICEF in 2017 for the development of primary and secondary school textbooks to accompany the newly approved national curriculum. The textbooks will be approved by a MoGEI technical committee comprised of education experts with gender, peacebuilding and conflict-sensitive lenses, and a three day workshop on making textbooks inclusive took place in June (UN Careers, 2017; UNESCO, 2017). Recognizing the intent of the government and UNICEF to develop new primary textbooks, this paper will analyze the opportunities and limitations of the existing primary textbooks to contribute to peacebuilding and equality, with the hope of informing the use of the learning materials currently under development to accompany the new curriculum, set to be rolled out in 2018. These materials will have substantive influence as, in contexts such as South Sudan where many teachers are underqualified and lack sufficient training and support, textbooks become a particularly important resource for teachers and students.

This presentation will describe the results of a document analysis of Grade 4 Social Studies, English and Christian Religious Education pupil textbooks and the corresponding English teacher book’s. The study follows the step by step coding process for thematic analysis described by Braun and Clarke (2006), to be conducted between October and December 2017. It builds upon the themes identified during the literature review, including a dependency relationship with international assistance, the militarization of education, the use of English as the sole language of instruction and a focus on Christian religion – despite high linguistic and religious diversity in the population. The textbooks will also be considered in light of new policy shifts that have taken place in the past two years and will draw upon the conceptual framework that positions education as having multiple potential roles in relation to conflict – transformer, accomplice and victim - noting that these roles can be overlapping and are not mutually exclusive.

Works Cited
Braun, V. & Clarke, V. (2006). Using thematic analysis in psychology. Qualitative Research in Psychology, 3, 77–101.
Ministry of General Education and Instruction. (2012). General education strategic plan 2012 – 2017: Promoting learning for all. Juba: Republic of South Sudan.
South Sudan Education Cluster. (2017). “Education Cannot Wait for the War to End”: The role of education in saving lives and averting the loss of another generation in South Sudan. Juba: South Sudan Education Cluster. Retrieved from: http://reliefweb.int/report/south-sudan/education-cannot-wait-war-end.
UN Careers. (March 8 2017). Development of teaching and learning materials. UNcareers.net. Retrieved from: https://uncareer.net/vacancy/development-teaching-and-learning-materials-99061.
UNESCO. (August 1 2017). Making textbooks inclusive for learners in South Sudan. Paris: UNESCO. Retrieved from: http://www.unesco.org/new/en/juba/about-this-office/single-view/news/making_textbooks_inclusive_for_learners_in_south_sudan/.
UNICEF. (2016). South Sudan. The impact of language policy and practice on children’s learning. Evidence from East and Southern Africa. Retrieved from: https://www.unicef.org/esaro/UNICEF(2016)LanguageandLearning-SouthSudan.pdf.
UNICEF. (April 24 2017). 25 million children out of school in conflict zones – UNICEF. New York: UNICEF. Retrieved from: https://www.unicef.org/media/media_95861.html.

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