UNESCO representative hands over connect teaching tablets loaded with the Pastoral Livelihoods and Education Field Schools learning materials and monitoring applications to NPA and IIRR.

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, UNESCO has introduced a mobile technology project to provide literacy and education services to cattle keepers in the country.  

The project is expected to benefit pastoralists in 21 cattle camps in Gok, Western and East Lakes as well as Terekeka states.

The connected mobile tablets contain installed learning materials, teachers’ guides, syllabus as well as learners’ books.

These include a syllabus for Science, Mathematics, English, Religious Education and social studies for level 1, 2 and 3.

Solomon Bekele is the Pastoralist Literacy and Education Specialist at the United Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural Organization.

He says the new technology will be easy to use within the cattle camps.

“The tablets are loaded with curriculums. It is an integrated curriculum prepared jointly with lines ministries. The syllabus, the learners’ book, the teacher’s guide are on the tablet,” Mr. Bekele said during the handover of teaching tablets to the implementing partners on Friday morning in Juba.

Thirty-three teachers have been trained to conduct lessons in nearly 11 cattle camps in 5 counties.

“For this phase, we scale it up to 21 cattle camps so we have a total of 63 teachers,” Bekele added.

Meanwhile, Ronya Thomas the Project Coordinator for Norwegian People’s Aid believes the new initiative will help reduce cattle related crimes.

“After taking the cattle for grazing, most of the youth are idle, they have nothing that is engaging them, that is why sometimes they end up involving in other crimes,” he asserted.

Phase two of the Resilient Pastoral Livelihoods and Education Field Schools project is an extension of the first phase which is funded by the European Union.

It is implemented by Norwegian People’s Aid and the International Institute of Rural Reconstruction.