Authorities in Yei River County in South Sudan’s Yei River state have decided to reduce the number of government schools this year due to security fears and lack of teachers, a local official said.

Speaking to Radio Tamazuj on Friday, Martin Woja Ballah, Deputy Director of Education in Yei, said the schools' management committee agreed to reduce the number of primary schools to four while the number of secondary schools will be three only to cater for the few existing learners in the area.

He explained that the government schools along the Yei-Juba road have been merged into Mahad primary school, while schools along the Yei-Kaya road are transferred to Jigomoni Primary school.

Ballah added that students from schools along the Yei-Lasu road will attend classes at Kinji Primary school and that the schools along the Yei-Maridi road will join Kanjoro Primary school.

“Schools on Juba road, the centre in Mahad, schools on Maridi road their centre is Kanjoro, and schools on Lasu road their centre is Kinji and schools along the Yei-Kaya road will gather at Jigomoni. We did this in order to have a good number of teachers," said Ballah.

 Ballah said the decision aimed at cantoning teachers and learners to ensure proper management and effective teaching.

“We have amalgamated the government schools, actually we reduced the schools due to insecurity because many parents have taken their children to Uganda while others have gone to the countryside," he said.

 "The other reason is that, most of the teachers have gone away that's why we decided to merge these schools together," he added.

The local official further said Yei Day Secondary School will be a centre, and Yei Girls Secondary School has been transferred to Emmanuel Primary School, whereas Kinji Secondary School remained at its original base.

The deputy director said the county is currently left with few private primary and secondary schools whereas all rural schools are shutdown indefinitely.

Ballah noted that before the conflict erupted in July 2016, there were 130 both government and private schools and 32 secondary schools in Yei River county.

File photo: Pupils singing national anthem at Kinji primary school (Radio Tamazuj)