Ariang Boma Schools
Formerly, Ariang Network of Schools (ANS), Ariang Boma Schools supports three area primary schools, reaching over 2,500 students and 60 educators. The goal is to bring local schools together to establish stronger support networks, promoting long-term sustainability and enhancing the educational status of the entire community, thereby making it more equitable for all. To meet this goal, this program focuses on the following objectives: Provide quality education to the kids and promote equitable access to education for all students. Distribution of school uniforms, shoes, books & pens, and sports equipment to both teachers and students to help reduce the stigma that comes with a lack of access to basic school supplies. Develop schools' capacity so that schools can manage their operations and resources, and coordinate the teaching & support staff effectively. This includes providing teachers with learning opportunities and establishing and maintaining partnerships with other like-minded organizations. Construction of permanent school infrastructures such as classrooms, bathrooms & drainage systems, boreholes, and water storage units. Advocacy for girls’ education and support for girls to enroll and stay in school until they graduate. Addressing training gaps by recruiting qualified teachers and supplementing teachers’ salaries so that teachers can focus on teaching. Currently, teachers in ANS get an average monthly salary of between $20-$50 from the government. This salary bracket is insufficient to meet the needs of teachers. Through this program, their salary is topped up to create more fair living wages. What Are The Achievements Of the Ariang Network of Schools? Impact: Graduated 432 – up from a total school population of under 100 students in 2011 when Ariang opened its doors for students. Successfully developed a "feeder school" model where students in grades 7 & 8 all feed into Ariang Primary School allowing the most qualified teachers to be placed in these high-stakes and high-impact classes, therefore, benefiting all students living within the network of schools. Built Ariang Primary School from what used to be a cows’ resting place. Before the construction of the school, students gathered under trees in an open field to receive instructions. Today, Ariang School has 8 permanent classes for grades 1 - 8, 1 kitchen, 1 staff office, 1 food store/library & 1 kitchen, 12 permanent bathroom units, 1 septic tank, 1 hand-pump borehole, and a rainwater collection facility. While many schools were closing down in South Sudan due to the resurgence of civil wars in 2013, ANS ensured sustainability and continued learning of the 3 area schools. Ariang School, for example, has even become the testing center during national exams. Distributed 7,208 school uniforms, 7,208 pairs of shoes, and more than 20,000 school supplies (exercise books, pens, and sports equipment) since 2011. Set up a lending library that has over 500 textbooks and other learning materials. Supported 9 teachers to attend 2 teacher training programs in Kenya and successfully conducted a full-year of professional development for teachers of Ariang School. ANS aims to reach more teachers through a “turn-key training model” in order to develop more teachers’ capacity to teach. ANS has become a leader in quality education. In 2018 - 2019, ANS schools were among the top 3 best-performing schools in the primary school national exams in the county. Through ANS, the percentage of girls attending school increased from about 20% in 2011 to 50% in 2019.
Women Empowerment
These are girls' and women-specific programs.
Edutranet
Edutranet is a Learning Management System that is ideal for off-grid schools, integrating both student and staff management systems. The system aims to build a digital school, focusing on three significant objectives as expressed by the Ariang Network of Schools Education Officer. Core Objectives: In the wake of COVID-19, we learned how fragile contemporary South Sudan’s education system is, especially in rural communities. These objectives incorporate a technological approach as follows: Digitize school data. This is necessary for tracking the daily attendance of students and teachers in a database stored on a local server and accessible through portable devices. Teachers, school administrators, and the HFA Education Coordinator will access the database and mark attendance using smartphones, tablets, or laptops. Digitizing school data is a significant step that will help the Ariang Network of Schools compute attendance for 3,020 students and 60 teachers, as well as their relationship to both individual student performance and the school's overall performance. Digitize teacher training curricula: By digitizing teacher training curricula, we can develop interactive training modules that help teachers cultivate specific competencies, digitize lesson plans, and incorporate technology-aided learning resources, such as video modules and illustrations. The digital curricula will be hosted on a local server and accessed through a Local Area Network, allowing teachers to reach it via their phones, tablets, and laptops or to project the modules onto smart televisions or portable projectors. Digitize school and community empowerment curricula, following the guidelines of the Ministry of General Education and Instructions (MoGEI). The process will have two phases: Phase 1: Digitization of Pedagogies: This phase aims to digitize lesson plans and course outlines for common subjects, including Mathematics, Science, and Languages. This is necessary to help teachers follow a linear teaching path, thereby improving the quality of education and fostering a positive teaching culture. Phase 2: Curation of the existing community empowerment curriculum: This work started in 2022 and is progressing well. HFA collaborated with the community and a volunteer high school teacher in the United States to curate and enhance the Bany Akolda Leadership Training Curriculum. The benefit of this curriculum is to train the community to develop specific competencies that will enable them to address local challenges they face. Solar at ANS: Aid grade 8 revision: