AFRICA/SOUTH SUDAN - Free access to secondary education: the doors of the Seminary open to all children of the local community

Tuesday, 18 May 2021 education   school  

Tombura Yambio (Agenzia Fides) - The Catholic diocese of Tombura-Yambio has opened the doors of the major Seminary of St. Joseph to the public. In a note sent to Agenzia Fides, Bishop Eduardo Hijboro Kussala informs that the Seminary will also begin to welcome boys and girls, students who are not necessarily seminarians and who do not aspire to become seminarians. The aim is to offer children in the local community access to secondary education.
"St. Joseph Senior Seminary is located in a very remote place, where basic infrastructure is still lacking. There are no secondary schools in the area and parents often have to take their children to the city in Yambio and other places", Bishop Hijboro explained. "When I was a young priest in the Central African Republic between 1995 and 2001 - says the prelate - my bishop at the time allowed me to welcome children, not necessarily seminarians, both male and female, to study in our seminary. These students today do wonderful work in their communities". "I am opening the doors of our Seminary so that all secondary school-age children can study together with our seminarians. They will follow the rules, regulations and requirements already in force. I firmly believe that this is one of the best gifts the diocese can offer to this remote community where the seminary is located. Parents will no longer have to take their children away from home to offer them a secondary education. Until now, in fact, - concludes the bishop - many families have been forced to rent houses for their children who study abroad or to make them live with relatives, penalizing the already precarious economic resources, not to mention the risks of leaving the children alone in the city, vulnerable to predators of child abuse". (EH/AP) (Agenzia Fides, 18/5/2021)


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