JUBA, March 23 (Xinhua) -- South Sudan, in partnership with the Chinese Embassy and the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), on Monday launched the distribution of about 1.1 million China-aided textbooks for primary school learners.
The textbooks, consisting of science, math and English for primary, will be sent to four states, including Lakes, Western Bahr El Ghazal, Unity States and Abyei Administrative Area.
Minister for General Education and Instruction Kuyok Abol Kuyok said that the arrival of the textbooks signals their ambitious mission to improve quality learning in the country.
"We are on a very ambitious road of implementing a new education system. We are very ambitious in the sense that we try to implement the curriculum at the same time. So what this project offered us was the opportunity to revise, train and review the textbooks," Kuyok said during the ceremony held in Juba, the capital of South Sudan.
These textbooks were earlier sent to Ruweng Administrative Area, Pibor Administrative Area, including Jonglei and Central Equatoria States.
Kuyok said that the textbooks printed by Shanghai Educational Publishing House, under Phase II of the China-aided Technical Cooperation Project of Education in South Sudan, were reviewed by local teachers.
The UNICEF, through the Global Partnership for Education, has offered to transport the textbooks to schools across the country.
Noala Skinner, UNICEF representative in South Sudan, stressed the need for safe and unhindered access to ensure that the books reach the intended recipients in the country.
"My only call and my only ask is for the safe and unhindered access to all parts of the country for these textbooks to be delivered. These textbooks need to get into the hands of children, they need to get into the schools and the schools need to be opened," Skinner said.
Chinese Ambassador to South Sudan Ma Qiang said that the distribution of the textbooks marks a major milestone in the field of China-South Sudan educational cooperation.
"These textbooks, provided by the Phase II of China-aided Technical Cooperation Project of Education in South Sudan, are about to carry knowledge and hope into the hands of the students across the country," he said.
Ma noted that under the Phase I and II of China-aided Technical Cooperation Projects of Education in South Sudan, millions of carefully compiled primary and secondary school textbooks were delivered to Juba, over 920 teachers received training in China and nearly 150,000 students benefited from them.
