UN urges South Sudan to increase investment, funding in education

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) have called for increased investment in education to adapt to constantly changing information.

 “We must go beyond formal education system to develop new tools to reach all people of all ages through learning approach that respond to the constantly changing information environment,” Julius Banda, the country representative for UNESCO said during symposium on media and information literacy held in Juba on Wednesday.

The two -day symposium on media and information literacy is being organized by Youth Media Initiative in partnership with the University of Juba with funding from UNESCO.

Banda revealed that the emergence of social media platforms and artificial intelligence (AI) have created challenges in information sharing, adding that UNESCO supports media development and information literacy to enable people’s ability to think critically.

He also revealed that South Sudan is among the 20 countries whose literacy rates are below 50 percent.

“Education system must absolutely build critical minds that can navigate today’s information flaws, verify sources, differentiate facts from fictions and resist hate speech and most of all make informed decisions about life,” Banda said.   

South Sudan literacy rate stands at 34 percent.