August 1, 2012 (BOR) – The Jonglei state minister for gender and child welfare, Rabecca Anok, said on Tuesday in Bor that “too many workshops” are tying the state’s leaders to towns, leaving little time to reach rural areas.

Jonglei state governor Kuol Manyang (R) attends the opening ceremony of the TOT workshop in Bor, July 31, 2012 (ST)

Speaking at the opening of a three-day training of trainers on the rights of women in the transitional constitution of South Sudan, Anok asked women’s leaders to go to the villages where majority of the population is based.

“Let’s go to the grass roots,” suggested Anok, as it is home to many of the people most in need of hearing the messages of the workshops.

Jonglei state governor Kuol Manyang said that low levels of female education had led many of them to not claim the rights they are eligible for.

A report published in April by the former UK prime minister, Gordon Brown, revealed that of the countries for which data is available, South Sudan has the worst level of secondary education enrolment. Also, less than five percent of girls in South Sudan complete primary education; and in some parts of the country there are 200 students to every teacher.

After more than two decades of civil war, woeful under-investment under the former rule of Khartoum and statehood achieved only last year, much of South Sudan’s infrastructure is in urgent need of development.

The workshop aims at educating women on the bill of rights in the Transitional Constitution of South Sudan. Participants are drawn by all the eleven counties of Jonglei state and line ministries. Non-governmental organisations are also participating in the training.

(ST)