News
Life in South Sudan V
British Educational Suppliers Association (BESA)
SO Volunteer Bob Campbell reflects on his first few weeks working with the Ministry of Education in Juba Having temporarily swapped retirement in York to become one of VSO’s first volunteers in its new programme in South Sudan I am settling into my new lifestyle quite easily. Each morning I make my way from my one-room cabin to the communal shower block, breakfast on fresh fruit and have some water from my vacuum flask: my substitute for a fridge. If I have internet signal, I check my email and listen to the BBC Africa service on my laptop, before picking up my motorcycle helmet and heading off to work. My trip to work is not difficult, a short walk along a dusty dirt road and then a motorcycle or boda-boda taxi ride. The rider is usually a young man, often Ugandan or Kenyan, and together we weave through the chaotic traffic and the occasional goat to arrive at the Government Ministry of General Education and Inspection in Juba, the capital city of the new Republic of South Sudan. This is a society where people are made to feel very welcome and so as everyone arrives for work we all greet each other with a round of handshakes and a personal how are you? I am helping my colleagues to set up a national school inspection system and train school inspectors. My colleagues are civil servants and they have no experience of working in inspection. Our under-secretary for education has returned to South Sudan after several years studying and working in the UK. He is very interested in the Ofsted approach but as schools here are very different to those in the UK, we are also looking into the inspection systems of neighbouring countries. The main professional challenge is one of managing short-term expectations. Because everything is starting from next to nothing in this new country, there is no real experience to draw on and no comprehensive understanding of what is involved in the design and establishment of workable systems. This is a country that has been born out of decades of war and there is little infrastructure. Many schools have no buildings. Many of those that do have buildings have no furnishings. Class sizes are typically greater than a hundred. Many teachers have had little or no training and a large number will not have had a chance to complete the eight years of primary schooling, far less attend one of the two hundred or so secondary schools in the country. One of the big challenges is to get girls into school as they make up just 37% of the primary school population. Women are very poorly represented in the teaching profession; only 12% of teachers are women. My colleagues want to see their new country develop and welcome support. I have met many South Sudanese who have left successful careers in other countries and returned home to help build their new nation: just one of the many signs that things will get better. For any experienced educational professional looking to be active in international development I can think of no better way of doing so than by volunteering with VSO and, hopefully, coming to South Sudan.
Bob Campbell was Head of the Department of Educational Studies at the University of York. Following retirement, he was a volunteer with VSO Ethiopia for two years and was then with VSO Cambodia for two years before going to South Sudan.
Pupil Premium – make sure your pupils benefit
R
ay Barker, Director of BESA, considers the importance of making the most of the latest funding initiative The Government believes that the Pupil Premium, which is additional to main school funding, is the best way to address inequalities between children eligible for Free School Meals (FSM) and their wealthier classmates. It ensures that funding to tackle disadvantage reaches the pupils who need it most. To do this, you need to ensure that your pupils entitled to FSM do, in fact, register.
In 2012-13 the amount available for the Pupil Premium will double from £625m in 2011-12 to £1.25 billion. It will further rise to £2.5 billion by 2014-15.
Eligibility for the Pupil Premium in 2012-13 will be extended to pupils who have been eligible for Free School Meals (FSM) at any point in the last six years. Increasing overall funding for the Premium next year to £1.25bn will enable the coverage of the Premium to be extended to a further half a million pupils, while at the same time increasing the level of the Premium from £488 to £600 per pupil. This will ensure that a higher proportion of underachieving children are able to benefit from the extra funding provided through the Premium. Schools will have the freedom to spend the Premium, which is additional to the underlying schools budget, in a way they think will best support the raising of attainment for the most vulnerable pupils. However they will be held accountable for how they have used the additional funding to support pupils from low-income families. New measures will be included in the performance tables that will capture the achievement of those deprived pupils covered by the Pupil Premium. From September 2012, schools will need to publish online information about how they have used the Premium. This will ensure that parents and others are made fully aware of the attainment of pupils covered by the Premium.
British Educational Suppliers Association (BESA) Tel: +44 (0) 20 7537 4997 Fax: +44 (0) 20 7537 4846 Web:
www.besa.org.uk www.besa.org.uk/twitter
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www.education-today.co.uk April 2012
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