Dear Yasing,

Education is of paramount importance if we need good changes in our families, communities, counties, states, and nations. The importance of education must be recognized and accepted because it is a transformation of humans from their state of nature and to the state of intellectual sophistication, and to the state of knowing "how to think." So the reason we go to school, and the reason we encourage people to go to school is to attain that standard of mental transformation or transition from the state of nature to the state of mental maturity. In formal education, we learn how humans could improve their lives by discovering, inventing, and innovating resources in their environment to improve their standard of living. In education, we also learn how to protect, conserve, and sustain the resources in our environment for the future generations.

In education, we also increase our competive advantage nationally and internationally. Politically , socially, and economically a people who have no education always fall in the lowest class in the country, because they can't simply compete with super and sophisticated intellectuals in other areas.


So education is truely important and for that reason we have to devote our resources and efforts to improve the educational system in our counties and Aweil state. The future of Aweil state is in our hands-it is our responsibility to set a strong foundation that will change Aweil state and people in it to be better.

Finally, I support your point of emphazising the improtance of education to everyone in our counties and Aweil state, both in disapora and back home. We have to give everybody a courage and motivation he or she needs to attain a fundamental standard in education. We also need to be in open communication with people back home to know how they are improving the education and what those in disapora need to do support education back home.

Before I quit, I need you to read these two articles below. Both were written about year ago on Madingaweil website. I wrote the first and the second is the response from James Alic Garang.


"Dear all,

As we all know that illiteracy rate is extremely high among our people who have been marginalized both by government and other discriminatory policies for the last fifty years of arm struggle which has resulted to serious social, political, and economic problems. On that ground, it is a time to prepare ourselves and fight illiteracy and other problems like health problems and extreme food shortages in our state, Aweil. Personally, I believe that our state has resilient, competent, courageous, and forward-looking people whom their main problem is now lack of education and insufficient food, which are actually the major concerns as far as a recovery effort is concerned. There is no community that can expect to succeed with no more educated people and lack of enough food for the inhabitants of that community, and therefore we must give a top priority to these major issues: illiteracy and food shortages in our state. Having considered that to be the most imperative concern, we have to focus on developing education and improving food production in our area. We must find some better ways to deal with these issues more appropriately to be able to be on our feet in term of food production and educational development in our state. We must give it a top priority. Our leaders should move forward and ask help from us whenever required, and that is how we can develop or improve that community, which has been devastated by the longest war. Leaders must lead or guide the community toward the major undertakings like education and food production and then ask the rest of the community to support them. This is the only way we can build a powerful capacity of Aweil state and it is also the only way to prepare the next generations for the future challenges. Our commissioners/leaders should commence working hard to promote education and food production in Aweil, to bring hope and optimism back to our people who have undergone the worst years of anxiety and desperation. Aweil leaders/citizens, the principal aim of addressing this issue is not to show that I see farther than you do. However, I am addressing this issue to share with you what I believe could have bad repercussions in the future [if not addressed right now], or could deny us some important opportunities like participation in major positions in national politics.

Unquestionably, it is true that there is no development without education. In another word, you can only achieve better health standards and sanitation if people are better educated. In addition, better life is always made by better educated ones in the community and I believe there is no way Aweil community could go around it to achieve its developmental objectives. We must accept the facts of these situations we are facing though the means to achieve them or to solve them are hardly available. The important thing, is that we should have the priorities in our state and I believe and so do most of you, that the priorities are: education and food production.
Therefore, I am one of the people who have been wondering about educational programs or policies in Aweil area though there is little I/we can do to help that situation. Moreover, there is another problem and that problem is a lack of connection between us: people currently residing in Aweil and their counterparts residing in foreign countries. There seems to be a tremendous gap between them in term of communication. For that reason, I wonder why there is no link between us and our people back home and yet there are people who have opportunity of coming back and forth to Southern Sudan and Kenya. I was thinking these people would act like middlepeople between us and people back home. I am worried that the situation would deteriorate more because the people outside Aweil State don't really know what is affecting people at home, on the other hand, people inside Aweil don't know really whether they would get help from those outside the state. This is actuatlly the situation that is existing between us because there is no communication at all. I have realized recently that lack of communication is indeed responsible partly for some problems though there could be some other contributing factors involved.

The reason I thought of this issue of educational improvement being given less attention is that, recently I had the opportunity to talk with my friend who went to Aweil area. This friend of mine told me that education in Aweil is indeed suffering because the local administrations are not competitive to attract learnt people to teaching in local schools. He said that most of young men who got their education in Kenya and Uganda are being attracted to organizations because there they get better pay and other benefits which they hardly get in the local schools. He added that there are no policies or educational programs yet to address the issues of the educational demands among the locals. He told me that these high school or secondary graduates are actually being pulled out from the teaching to the jobs in organizations because the local administrations like commissionerships have not been co-operating with them to boost the educational strength. It was indeed a shocking news because this is the situation most of us don't expect. Here we always think that things will just work out automatically or will be self-adjusting which is completely a tremendous misconception. This friend of mine told me a lot of stuff which are undermining education including lack of qualified teachers to meet the standards of teaching but he stressed the fact that there is no educational support from the local leadership. Obviously, we all know that finding qualified teachers is not an easy task because war circumstances denied a lot of people educational opportunities, on the other hand, I blame the local leaderships for not taking the issue of education more gravely. Our local leaderships and other educated people should know that we can't get this community moving unless we give education top priority. Leaving those desperate children in the isolated villages and bushes is not appropriate for us at this crucial time.


Brothers and sisters, there is a possibility that these young people who have education could be attracted to teaching in local schools. It is indeed the obligation of the local leaderships to make our local schools more competitive in term of better pay and other incentives. Our local leaderships can make these schools more competitive and better learning environments for every child in Aweil and this must be done or fulfilled by the commissioners. Mind you, I am not campaigning negatively against their work; however, I am trying to point out where Aweil mostly fails, and then later after two to three decades they start complaining of being not considered or included in the system. This is how it simply happens. Now less attention is being given to the things that are important or beneficical to the entire community but more attention is being given to individual progression. What kind of the community are we in? Would this counter-productive strategy be foundational to the futures of the next generations? No, I don't think and every one including yourself wouldn't either. In practical sense, based unpon what I learnt from friend of mine, our state [Aweil] is heading to the wrong direction. They have no educational objectives nor policies to enhance the value of education in the state.What does this mean to the futures of our state? Do we expect to participate in our government if we don't value the importance of educaion in our area? No, that can't happen unless by miracles. Who would educate our children or support education in Aweil if not our commissioners and Aweil populace? Where will we get our representatives if we are unable to plant our own seeds and nurture them until they are mature and competent to fill the top challenging positions?
Why do we always indirectly promote others or give them opportunities which are indeed ours?

Commissioners in Aweil should know that it is their responsibility to work hard to compete with other communities because they are the heads of Aweil. They should know that it is their responsibility to work hard to lobby organizations for education in Aweil. They should know that the future of Aweil is in those children they have abandoned in forests and isolated villages in our state. They should know that they are aging and their replacements are those children whom they give less attention. The importance of education is not something that we need to remind our local leaderships of but it is something that they should have been cognizant or aware from the very beginning. They have ability to make education in Aweil more competitive and attractive in term of conducive learning environment and better incentives. This is possible and the ways of doing them are obviously clear to them.

For instance, currrently in Kenya and Uganda, there are good number of Aweil high school graduates who have nothing to do, but because there is no concern or lack of communication our local leaders never know that there are people who can help them with their local school problems. Our commissioners, since they care less about education they never ask whether there is help somewhere or not. They [commissioners] never know that it is their responsibility to know where to find help or assistance; they also don't know that it is responsibility to make schools better places for the qualified or educated people and this is actually where we have seemingly irreradicable educational problems.

Mind you that I am not educationalist nor professional teacher but I am indeed seriously concerned citizen in Aweil. I feel that it is not appropriate for our local leaderships, particularly the commissioners to sleep while other commissioners from different areas are supporting the education of their children. This is the vital opportunity to learn for those who don't know yet. Those who are holding top positions have a capacity in their respective authoriteis to promote education in Aweil.

The bottom line is that I urge the commissioners to take the issue of education and food production more seriously this time on.

Those who have profession in education and skill in food production should take up these issues more seriously to help commissioners and other organizations operating in our state.

Further, a few professional individuals like Sabrino Majok Majok could be a person our community leaders should use to help them with educational problems. Sometimes, I don't mean somebody should be physically present in the state, Aweil, but you can still help our people back home if you have communication with them. Having experience and knowledge can be passed down to a people who need it in distance places through many ways.

Dear travellers,

For those who have or had opportunity to go to Aweil. It would be important if you sometimes tell us what you find there. You should also talk to the leaders to find out or to know what they are lacking.



Thanks,

Garang Aher"

The below article was written by Alic Garang in response to above article written by Garang Aher on MADB.

"Dear Mayik,

You are right; Aweil leaders and laypeople have got to be proactive in providing and supporting educational opportunities if we are make a way forward respecting to development.
First and foremost, there has to be accountability and basic rule of law now that peace agreement is in place and that we are in interim period enjoying peace dividends. Yes, accountability will ensure equal participation in both civil and political process in fragile society like ours.
Emphatically, experience has shown that education is one of the vital variables of economic development. Educated populace or electorate makes informed decisions, which has a bearing on development. Thus, educational promotion is one way of furthering development.

In short, education has to be made a priority herein and thereafter.

Cheers,
James Alic Garang."



-- Edited by garang_aher at 13:46, 2006-04-10