BUILDING AND CONSTRUCTION DEPARTMENT-YVTC/CD

This center targets 35 students each year but this intake had three dropouts, one lady because of sickness one male due to family issues and the second male was a drug addict who could fight in the dormitory and was discontinued from the course which brought the number to 32.

An instructor who has been at the center for five years mentioned that vocational training is a good approach to development.
He mentioned that they use the East African syllabus during their and priority is given to the practical aspect (80%) and 20% to the theory.
He mentioned that he uses his stories and experiences to encourage and motivate his students to promote learning. He also invites those who have been trained at the center to come and share their experiences with the students which further encourages them to learn. He also tries to show them the opportunities available for them in the field after completion of their course which further motivates them to teach for example the many companies who come to look for builder all the time from the center. He further mentioned that the former students have been asking him about how they can improve their practices in terms of acquiring more skills.
He further mentioned that the curriculum they are using is lacking some aspects of advanced technology for example auto card and technical drawing which is relevant knowledge and skills to the builders.
He further elaborated that they do not limit anyone from joining the institution and can have students from those between primary six and and secondary six of the Ugandan syllabus.
He said that the primary leavers however give them a hard time to teach but this is solved by the adult literacy offered for the first six months for those students who take it seriously.
He also handles the language issue by expressing himself in both English and Arabic to promote better understanding and learning.


In an observation made at this workshop, the students were working in groups and as individuals and this to my mind is a good practice because they are able to learn from each other. The students also had protective wear in the form of overalls and gumboots to safeguard their clothes and their feet from cuts. This is a good gesture according to me because it ensures hygiene and encourages them to work and learn better.
The bricks are made by mixing water and the soft soil and this mixture is carried with their hands to a wooden mould and then displayed on a flat surface for drying.
In the case of a lot sunshine, the bricks are covered with dry grass to prevent them form cracking. When they dry up, they are piled in a square form in preparation of burning.

Another observation made in this department was that the instructor leaves the students with work and models to construct in his/ her absence. The students continue to work in their groups until they come up with something similar to the hand drawn sketch left with them. This according to me is a good practice because it promotes creativity and gives the students a self drive even in absence of a teacher. On the other hand, some of the students were not actively involved in the model and therefore close supervision can be an option to encourage them be creative and motivate them.

Poultry keeping and animal husbandry

As one of the vocational practice in the Yei Agricultural Training centre and industry, the practice is appreciated especially at the centre because it is a source of income.
In a class of 48 students, 39 males and 9 females, the training at the centre takes three months. The students’ weekly schedule begins with a work experience from 6:30-7:30. This practice is aimed at ensuring that the students put in practice what they have learnt in class and improve their time management. The instructor highlighted that the students were lazy at waking up before and always had to wait for the bell. The students also have a daily practical course from 2:00-5:00pm but depending on the tutor concerned, the time may vary.

The students are taught livestock management i.e. basics of Agriculture since most of them are primary learners. Mr. Daniel Kenyi, an instructor in this field uses hearing, seeing and doing in teaching to facilitate learning. He said that most of the students are interested in learning but there is a limitation of lower academic level.
He said that most of the students from the government pay less attention to learning because they are not earning any money. These are however encouraged to learn by informing them about the benefits of Agriculture and that it can be applied every where possible for example begin with two chickens and increase with time.

The instructor uses a question and answers approach in class to involve his students in the lesson and relates what they study to what is happening in real life. He does so by involving the use of modern technology because most people in Sudan are still using crude methods of rearing animal for example introduction of animal nutrition, health management (vaccination and de-worming) . The instructor uses a curriculum in his department developed by him and has a good relationship with his learners much as there is a communication barrier with people from Upper Nile, Jongole and Central equatorial state.

My reflections about these practices.
Looking at the price of poultry and animal products in the market, it is relatively high and this may probably be attributed to few suppliers and high demand. Given an increase in the number of producers on the market will improve the quality of the produce and lower the price to a level when many people can afford hence meeting the needs of the local population.

This hence means that training people on improved methods of keeping animals and birds will lower the amount money spent on importation of food from neighboring countries, and the local community will readily be availed with the food any time and conveniently.

Complied by Aidah

24/11/08;12:19

Observations made in the laboratory at the medical training school.

Students take safety precautions while working in the laboratory for example wearing of gloves. The instructor was working with the students but not all the time, he would leave the students to work on things on their own with the help of the laboratory technicians.
While in the laboratory, students work in groups in the different departments of the laboratory. The students are 16 in number distributed in the six departments in the laboratory.

Henry Ucieth Adam, one of the students on practice said that the services offered by them are highly needed by the community and for the two hours spent in the laboratory every working day (11:00-1:00), they work on a variety of clients. He also mentioned that the one year spent learning the theory exceptionally helps them to work in the laboratory by use of that knowledge. This made me think about the demonstrations given in the course of the lessons being very relevant.
In a group interview with these three students, they said that the knowledge they learnt in class has become more real when they began to practice for two hours every day and have to revise several times to master what is learnt in class.

The kind of knowledge these students demonstrate and acquire while in the laboratory is that of microbiology and diagonosis of various illnesses in one's body using different specimen like blood, urine, feaces among others.

My reflections
1. The kind of knowledge the students demonstrate while in the laboratory is that of microbiology and diagnosis of various diseases using dhe different samples for example blood for blood sugar, malaria, typhoid e.t.c, urine, stool among others.

2. The discontinuation of students or causing tem to repeat due to failure may not be a solution to development of manpower. This is because many of the instructors at the school seem very convinced that it the only way the students will be caused to work hard much as many emphasized that the students hate repeating any level in their training. In my mind, I believe that once the student has failed, then the instructor has also failed to a certain extent and this should be handled seriously.

3. Since most of the students are of different levels in the same class, the instructor should find ways of making students learning from each others’ experiences especially in the classroom environment for example the use of buzz groups.
This is because most of the students hardly participate in class and when i asked them whether they did participate, they said they had no idea on what was being taught whereas others were fully involved in the lesson.

YEI NATIONAL MEDICAL TRAINING INSTITUTION.

The medical training school offers three basic courses under three different departments. These are;
· Nursing department. This department deals with registered nursing which takes two and a half years.

· Midwifery department. This department deals with an advanced certificate in midwifery which takes one and a half years


· Medical laboratory sciences. This department handles an advanced certificate in laboratory sciences which takes two years.

These departments do not act as very independent units since instructors from any of these departments attend to the different students in the different departments. Each of the departments has an average of three instructors instead of the ideal five which makes teaching and learning hard at this center. A case in point is failure to attend to students as timetabled because one is attending to a patient in hospital as most of the instructors are working in the hospital too.

Students are recruited by the ministry of health which receives students’ application letters and later invites the shortlisted candidates for interviews. The ministry then sends the students to the centers.

The academic year usually begins in October with preparatory courses of English, mathematics, chemistry and Biology for the new entrants. Only those who pass exams of the preparatory courses are promoted to the next level in their different departments. Incase one fails all the subjects, he/she can be given a chance to repeat the class and if he/she fails again, the individual is discontinued. Even when the student progresses to the next level and fails at the end of the first year, he/she has to repeat the year.
All students spend a maximum of six months of practice under supervision and guidance when they have accomplished their theoretical classes and demonstrations.

Observations made in a theoretical class of the second year students of nursing.

In a class conducted by Mrs. Agnes Jamba, a 31 year old female instructor who studied as a registered Nurse in Uganda 7 years back. The class has 29 students; six females and 23 males.

This lesson was about malaria cycle and the instructor used a chart as instructional material to demonstrate this. Students participated in the class by asking some questions although most of them were not answered to their expectations. The instructor uses a lecture method of teaching and sometimes brings in Arabic when explaining for students to understand what she is explaining.

The instructor rather advised them to do personal research to understand the topic better by using text books and the internet. The instructor also used the white board quite often especially for the scientific terms which were new for the students.

In the course of the lesson, some students came to a point of dialogged amongst themselves and the instructor in order to understand the topic. However the students who are introverts did not contribute anything in class.

When I talked to one of the students Mr. Benjamin Anei Deng, a 31 year old student who studied up to primary seen before joining this training, he said that learning theory is very important for him if he has to do something practically. This student also said that he understands better when learning in a group although learning in English is still a problem given his Arabic background.

Painting as a practice in the industry

Tauba Lubega- a 24-year old Ugandan painter and constructor with Ubuko Construction Company acquired his painting skills through practice and doing. He first learnt brick molding, building, construction and now painting. He learnt all these skills at the work place through practice from his father who is similarly a builder and practiced his painting first on trees where he was asked to use three different colours.

His six months experience in building and construction makes him think that his services are highly appreciated by many people especially those of YATC but needs to make himself known.





Reflections

• Having learnt by doing and no backup knowledge, this is likely to affect the quality of his work negatively forexample if he has no idea of colour shades or schemes.
• He had no protective wear and this may partly be affiliated to lack of this knowledge of safety during working.

Agribusiness department at YATC

Meeting with Nyomoni Joseline

She has worked at the agricultural training centre since August this year after she had been attached to a similar institute for five months on her bachelor of agricultural economics in agribusiness management of Uganda martyrs university Namugongo.

In her teaching, she uses learning groups (group work), lectures, assignments and exercises to assess the learning of her students. The continuous assessment tests contribute 40% of the students’ grading and 60% by the final examination.

She schemes and plans her lessons but nearly follows them she is limited by the time assigned for the course unit or module i.e. 30 hours in three months. She further recommended that this training should be prolonged since it is very intensive for both the students and instructors. During her planning, her priority is based on students understanding the concepts.

She also highlighted courses which are designed according to the interests of the learners like bee keeping and poultry keeping which take just two weeks. In my observation, this important because it caters for individual differences since most of the students have hardly gone to school and benefit more from the practical.

She also stressed that farmers lack business skills where they only cultivate and hardly assess their input in relation to the profits made. Given her background and experience, she was assigned a responsibility of supervising the orchard, the diary, poultry, beekeeping and fish pond units to gain money for sustainability of the center.

The students are given a chance of transferring some the acquired knowledge and skills in their home areas through the farmers’ training centers (FTCs) to the ordinary people.

Reflections about our dialogue.
Given the short period of training, most of the learning is more teacher-centered especially in classrooms.This means that slow learners may not be catered for and may therefore lack the

Yei Technical Training Center (community development)

CARPENTRY AND JOINERY DEPARTMENT.


The department started with 20 students in march 2008 and 3 students dropped out which bring the number to 17 who have persevered to the end .
Zacheous and onesmus said that what makes them to work very hard and learn is because they come from very poor families and want to improve their skills in carpentry and joinery to earn a living.
Zacheous said that all his brothers are drivers and mechanics and he really wants to develop his own skills different from all his family members.





Most of learning here takes place by doing since 80% of the coverage is practical and 20% thoery. this is partly because most of the students do not read and write and therefore doesnot benefit them at all to spend alot of time in class because they are more interested in the skills. This was also partly affirmed by the students when they told me that thay prefer being in the workshop working than sitting in class.

It is so because most of students cannot read and write which probed the administration to introduce adult literacy of English, maths, social studies and business skills. The business skills taught here are to help the students know how to market their products after produce. This adult literacy is in three forms;

1. form one for those who have not had any education at all.




2. form two for those who attained a primary leaving certificate




3. form three for those with an ordinary level certificate and above.

There are no female students in this department and an instructor said that the females are discouraged to join this field because most of the work is done manually. Similarly all the instructors in this department are males and this may be one of the reasons why there are no females in my understanding.

In my observations, these students continue to learn with their colleagues even in absence of an instructor which is a good practice.

Reflections

• Training in vocational institutions is still handled negligently and this makes the products incompetent to some extent.


• The nine months' training is not good enough to produce candidates for the labour market in South Sudan. This is because when one looks at the products at the end of the training, i would think that there is alot to be done to improve.

Alpha Unisex Beauty saloon.

The practices in this saloon include;

• Hair braiding


• weaving


• trimming


• treating


• pedicure and manicure

Most of learning in this saloon is by doing because the workers have not undergone any formal training. when i inquired about any students coming to be trained, i was told that the people around donot enjoy working very much and that confrimed an observation made that most of the workers in the saloon are ugandans.

Reflections

• The quality of work offered in this saloon is not the best and due to lack of quality trainig, adresser has spent alot of time handling one client.
• The environment around and in the saloon is not clean enough to attract clients to this saloon.
• Customer care is still lacking for example a client has to sit of the floor to be plaited and keeps there for a very long time.
• The saloon has only one dryer which makes clients to wait for long hours to wait the former clients to dry their hair and this is abit inconviencing for those who do not have alot of time.
• The way chemical is applied to clients' hair is unprofessinally done and this spoils their hair.
• The blades of the shaving machine are not changed frequently and the machine is not sterilized before use which is abit risking for the clients.

An instructor at Yei vocational training centre works with his students as they come up with items for their end of year project work. This facilitates learning in away that all the students were are motivated to work very hard to attain what is expected of them.

YATC graduands in the new dinning hall

Some of the grandaunts of the 12th batch of students who completed and graduated in their three months courses of basics in agriculture. The students said that the training they have got will help them train others although it was very hectic given the short period of training.

Meeting with the principal of YATC

·

·

Mr. Edward Salah is the principal of the agricultural training center. He trained in Bukarasa Vocational training center in Uganda and got a diploma. He also mentioned that the instructors and facilitators at the center have undergone short training courses at Uganda Management Institute in Uganda, Baraka vocational training college in Kenya and Bukarasa agricultural training centre in Uganda.

He mentioned that the centre emphasizes practical work to quicken the process of adoption since the program is intensive. The center looks at the situation in the field and does capacity through the short courses offered. The center also offers specialized courses for two weeks and one month basing on the interests of the beneficiaries. The center is targeting government workers and those working with several agricultural organizations or county departments and not yet vey open to all the members in the community. Emphasis for intake is put on people who have reached ordinary level (secondary four) but also those from the intermediate school like secondary one and two can be considered. The center also focuses on those who cannot understand English vey well and coaching is offered at the college in Arabic language.

He also mentioned that the instructors need to become more professional and welcomed the initiative to uplift their standards since all the trainers have undergone a similar training to that of their students. He also mentioned that the local community is very interested in their produce like the eggs, potatoes among others.Mr. Edward Salah is the principal of the agricultural training center. He trained in Bukarasa Vocational training center in Uganda and got a diploma. He also mentioned that the instructors and facilitators at the center have undergone short training courses at Uganda Management Institute in Uganda, Baraka vocational training college in Kenya and Bukarasa agricultural training centre in Uganda.

He mentioned that the centre emphasizes practical work to quicken the process of adoption since the program is intensive. The center looks at the situation in the field and does capacity through the short courses offered. The center also offers specialized courses for two weeks and one month basing on the interests of the beneficiaries. The center is targeting government workers and those working with several agricultural organizations or county departments and not yet vey open to all the members in the community. Emphasis for intake is put on people who have reached ordinary level (secondary four) but also those from the intermediate school like secondary one and two can be considered. The center also focuses on those who cannot understand English vey well and coaching is offered at the college in Arabic language.

He also mentioned that the instructors need to become more professional and welcomed the initiative to uplift their standards since all the trainers have undergone a similar training to that of their students. He also mentioned that the local community is very interested in their produce like the eggs, potatoes among others.

Programs Offered.

The center started in 1999 with a primary objective of improving agricultural food security and nutritional knowledge and skills of south Sudanese agriculturists but had now included diversification and elements of Agro-business.
This is offered through three different training programs offered for an intensive period of three months. These courses include;
· Basic agricultural training which involve; agronomy, agro-forestry, Nutrition, participatory agricultural extension, principles of live stock production and appropriate technology.

· Specialized agricultural courses which involve; poultry, diary cattle and goats, small scale food processing, fruit production, tree seed and nursery management, bee keeping, piggery, environmental protection, farmer group development and cooperative development.

· Participatory agricultural courses which involve; participatory project planning, participatory project needs assessment, gender issues, food security management, project cycle management, organic farming participatory extension and environmental protection.

YEI AGRICULTURAL TRAINING CENTRE (YATC)

Introduction

The Norwegian people’s Aids(NPA) project has been involved in agricultural training for the farmers and extension workers since 1995 in different locations of south Sudan.

The project had established throughout the years over 22 farmer training centers at payam level in Yirol, Rumbek, mvolo, Terekeka, Kajokeji, Marobo, Lainya and Yei from the equatorial state and Twic east, Duk,Nyirol, Wuror, Ayod (jangolei state),Longichuk, Maiwut, Maban and Baibetin the upper Nile state.NPA in collaboration with other organizations came up with atraining program as an umbrella to the farmers training centers hence the establishment of Yei Agricultural Training center.