The head teacher of Torit Day Secondary School in South Sudan’s Torit state is complaining that many teachers have abandoned classrooms for greener pastures leaving a huge workload and compromising the quality of education.

Valery Afara Ohiri told Radio Tamazuj that teachers leave teaching due to poor and unreliable pay.  

“Teachers are leaving because they are not satisfied in a way that the little they are having cannot even satisfy their needs. And as such they go to where they think they can manage to make a good life,” he said.

The head teacher said he is optimistic that if teachers are paid well and motivated, they will return to their jobs. He said the teachers in Torit have not received their salaries for about five months now.

“How can a person wait when having problems like that? Unless these cases are settled, the government should see into it that education is the key to everything so that these learners should remain in school. Which means teachers must be motivated in a good way,” he added.

According to Afara, Torit Day Secondary school has a total of 525 students and a teaching staff of 13 teachers, 9 of whom are part-timers. He said a Grade 9 teacher is paid 3,000 SSP an amount that cannot buy a sack of maize flour in Torit market.