Anglicans in Development - News

Episcopal Church of Sudan's Juba Diocese today marks the start of building works for its new secondary school. At a ceremony at the building site the Archbishop of Juba, Most Rev. Joseph Marona, will lay a stone in the foundations of the new buildings. The school, to be called Juba Diocesan Model Secondary School, will open in early 2007, with three Senior 1 classes of up to forty pupils each, and will eventually have 360 places.

The school will have an Anglican Christian character: it will be open to children from any background, on the basis of examination results.

The new school is being built within the CMS/former El-Nahry site. The first buildings (three classrooms, a teachers' common room/office, and a latrine block) are being built on the foundations of derelict classrooms. The construction project has been funded by ECS' long-standing partners, the Diocese of Salisbury, with St Francis' Parish, Salisbury, taking the lead, and by the British Government's Sudan Bilateral Fund.

Archbishop Joseph Marona, himself a distinguished teacher, observed: "I am delighted that ECS is today beginning to construct a new secondary school for Juba. Education is one of the most important things the church can do to serve its community, and is at the core of our Christian witness.

"I am especially pleased by the Central Equatoria Ministry of Education's agreement to second teaching staff to this school. ECS is keen to work with Government of Southern Sudan and our partners from Britain and elsewhere to help deliver the best education we can for all the people of Sudan. I hope that other state ministries of education will follow this example, and help ECS and its sister churches to help more children - particularly those whose parents are least able to pay school fees - by supporting teachers' salaries."