Educators in South Sudan's Akobo County say there are few prospects for students who passed primary school exams last year to continue to secondary education, owing to lack of teachers. They are appealing to international organizations to provide secondary education to these children.

Head Teacher of Akobo “A” Primary School John Lam Tot told Radio Tamazuj that 189 pupils in his school sat for primary school exams last year, with the assistance of Save the Children organization.

He said 106 students passed the primary exams but pointed out that the area lacks secondary schools. Lam appealed to education organizations to provide secondary school education in the county.

Lam explained that the government of South Sudan stopped providing salaries to teachers in Akobo County, which falls under the control of the rebel group SPLA-IO.

According to the Acting County Education Director of Akobo County,William Gatluak Chol, another factor is that the humanitarian crisis has provided other work opportunities with aid agencies. He said most of the teachers formerly teaching in different schools in the county quit teaching for better payment in different humanitarian organizations operating in the area.

Lacking pay, some primary school teachers are instead receiving an 'incentive' provided by Save the Children, according to head teacher John Lam. He said Save the Children provides incentive of 300 pounds monthly for each of 120 teachers at 20 primary schools in the county since June 2014.

But he stressed that even the primary schools lack sufficient teachers, scholastic materials, and classrooms to accommodate the increasing number of pupils coming as refugees from areas like Bor, Ayod, Malakal and other counties.

For his part, a local staff of Save the Children in Akobo confirmed that the organization is supporting the education system in Akobo County. He pointed out that they provided a limited number of both textbooks and exercise to primary schools and constructed some classrooms.

But he noted that Save the Children has no plan to introduce secondary education in the area.

Akobo County located near South Sudan's eastern border with Ethiopia is controlled by SPLM/A-IO. Its population was about 136,000 as of 2008, the last time a census was conducted. Throughout 2014 the population was swelled by tens of thousands of refugees coming from elsewhere in the country.

File photo (CMAID)

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Trapped civilians in Bor denied secondary healthcare (4 April 2014)

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