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August 10, 2011 (JUBA) - Improving South Sudan’s education system will top the country’s recently initiated national development plans, President Salva Kiir told the first joint sitting of the national legislature on Monday.
- South Sudanese school, Muniki Center Basic School in the Muniki Payam, a north-western sub-district of Juba (UNICEF)
Specifically, he said, the government will focus on female education, given South Sudan’s high rate of school drop-out mainly due to early marriage practices and other cultural attributes.
“No country has ever achieved development without educating its population. It remains a major challenge that only a minority of our children in South Sudan have access to education,” said Kiir, adding that, “When it comes to girl’s education, it is even worse.”
In addition to encouraging development partners, Kiir noted, his government will also engage communities in school building initiatives.
The president pledged to ensure that 30 new primary and four secondary schools are constructed within the first 100 days of his new government in office.
Also, an ambitious strategy is launch a teacher training development program targeting 7,000 teachers in the next three to five years is reportedly under way.
Kiir also alluded to the construction of universities when he said, “We cannot afford to lose our next generation leaders because of the absence of higher education institutions.”
An estimated 340,000 children, according to the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF), were enrolled in primary schools at the time Sudan’s 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement was signed.
In 2009, it adds, primary school enrolment was at 1,362,941 - about 860,000 boys and 502,000 girls. But, according to UN Education, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), less than two percent of these children complete their primary school education.
South Sudan’s literacy rate is 73 percent according to the Ministry of Education, 27 percent according to the CIA and one of the lowest in the world according to most observers.
(ST)
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