Invest in education, invest in teachers, invest in the future
In South Sudan, almost 3 in 5 children are out of School
In 2023, an estimated 2.8 million children are out of school; of this 53 per cent were girls. This reflects a significant increase from 2.2 million in 2016. One in five enrolled children drop out of school.
While there has been improvement in payment to teachers in 2022, there is still work to be done to ensure regular, timely, payments are made by the government of South Sudan to teachers – especially in hard-to-reach areas. The lack of trained teachers is an additional factor for the high levels of out-of-school children and drop-outs. Less than half of primary school teachers have received some form of training. More than 80 percent of teachers are volunteers who are not on Government payroll. There is a high turnover of teachers, particularly of female teachers and inadequate qualified teachers in hard-to-reach areas. The main reasons are insecurity and safety; very low salaries which are paid irregularly and often delayed; and female teachers may also leave the teaching profession due to concerns over (menstrual) hygiene, and safety in the workplace. There is no clearly articulated and up-to-date policy to inform teacher recruitment, training, accreditation, and deployment making the teaching profession in South Sudan unattractive to most young people.
UNICEF, the European Union, the African Development Bank, the Global Partnership for Education, and the Norwegian Embassy support the Ministry of General Education and Instruction to improve access to quality education for children in South Sudan. This is achieved through the training of teachers, the construction and rehabilitation of classrooms, the provision of teaching and learning materials, organization of back-to-school campaigns, and mobilizing parents to send their children to school.
