By Charles K Mark
Juba Parent Primary School students, teachers, and parents were jubilant on Wednesday for scooping the Juba Primary Schools Mini Competitions’ for the years 2023–2024.
The competition was intended to bring the learner’s understanding closer to intelligence. It ran only for one month.
The students who participated in academic debates, spelling bees, speed quizzes, and speeches said the competition was tough.
Christine Yante, a Form Eight candidate at Juba Diplomatic Primary School, said it was difficult to balance the regular school routines as well as concentrate on the activities of the competition.
“It wasn’t easy to master two things at once. But actually, I feel good to be here, and I wish we made it and took the trophy home,” she exclaimed.
Yante worried that the tight schedule of the program couldn’t offer ample time for them to focus on revising books, which could affect her academic performance.
“But this one is very important because we needed to take the trophy home and needed to raise the name of our school,” Yante said.
The candidate agreed that though losing might be painful, there are more gains in participating; hence, she had to congratulate the winner.
“There is always a loser and a winner. And what I would like to put in my mind is that I also learned more things from it,” the second runner-up admitted.
While Juba Diplomatic Primary School wished to take the trophy home, their counterparts, the Juba Parents Primary School, were already celebrating in vibrations.
A fifth-grade pupil from Juba Parents School, Ebenezer Duku, breathed hard and deeply to portray the hardship of lifting the trophy.
And it was very challenging to reach this far. But as it is said, ‘trust yourself to do better heights, so as I was,” the boy muscled up.
Like Yante, Duku also did not have ample time to revise for examinations. He said he was overwhelmed by the semifinals.
“We had an examination. Some we did yesterday, and some we did on Monday. But we were only practicing, so that’s why today we are jubilating,” he recalled.
Duku urged that there is a need to engage more schoolchildren in such activities to carry the flag of South Sudan higher to reach the level of other countries in the region.
“For today, I am very glad to have won the finals, and I am very glad to have represented our school. I congratulate our competitors for trying their best, and I congratulate all those who represented Juba Parents for their best performances.” Duku expressed his joy to this outlet.
The pupils were encouraged that there is no higher grade in losing or winning but only trust in God, “I would like to tell them to trust, be faithful to yourself, and trust in God.”
The Juba Primary Schools Mini Competition is going for its second year since its first attempt in 2022.
Excellence Foundation for South Sudan’s coordinator, Emmanuel Karaba Ezra, said the program, approved by the State Ministry of Education and Juba City Council, is trying to reach all primary schools in the country.
He revealed that the program, which launched last year with only six schools, has expanded to fourteen schools this year.
“Our overall objective here is to see that these learners get exposed to the level of learning that we are expecting,” said Karaba.
He said the mission is to catch up with countries like Uganda, Kenya, and South Africa, plus other countries within Africa that have advanced in learning techniques.
In the ranking, Juba Diplomatic Primary School got 86.99 in debate, 83.5 in speech, and 67.35 in quiz and spelling, for an average total of 74.41.
The winner, Juba Parents School, scored 91.25 in debate, 89 in speech, 65.96 in quiz, and 57.33 in spelling bee, making an average total of 75.89.
The best debater was Aliu Kediende, and the best speech presenter was Adhar Mayik, both from Juba Parents School.
The top quiz was done by Amal Philip and Minerva Majak from Juba Diplomatic School, and the top spellers were Aliu Kediende and Minerva Majak.