Minister says free education to improve school enrollment

The National Ministry of General Education and Instruction on Tuesday promised to ensure children who dropped out of school rejoin learning.

This was revealed by Awut Deng Acuil, the national minister for general education and instruction following the recent order by President Salva Kiir on allowing learners to attend school for free.

“The head of state has now taken up to be responsible for education of children, we still have 2.8 million children out of school, we are sure that all the children will go to school,” said Acuil while opening a Science laboratory for Maridi Girls Secondary School in Western Equatoria State.

“We need qualified teachers to return to class, the salary of a teacher is not anymore 2000 SSP or 5000 SSP, it is more than that, we will pay teachers in class, education will not be the same again,” she said.

Alfred Futuyo Karaba, the Governor for Western Equatoria State urged the transitional government to oversee public schools, noting that public schools are left empty as children join private schools.

“The state and the national government need to look after schools in Western Equatoria state, the private schools should not take all the children and government schools remain empty,” said Karaba.

“We need to focus on teachers, if a teacher is paid 7000 or 20,000 SSP what will that do? the state and the national government will need to increase their salaries,” he added.