Thousands of children are learning under trees in Uror County of South Sdan's Jonglei State, amidst a lack of access to scholastic materials.
Speaking to Radio Tamazuj, several school-going children said they are being taught under trees and that they lack stationeries as schools reopen for the first time since 2013.
“There are only two temporary structures for use in class 8 and those in class 7. The rest of the pupils get their lessons under trees. Going to the issue of scholastic materials, we lack things like exercise books, textbooks, and pens," Mai Rial, a pupil at Nyajar Primary School in the county headquarters, Yuai town, said.
Another pupil, Nyathok Nyang, said: “We are really suffering since schools reopened in the county. We lack uniforms, stationery, and even no water sources. We rarely get our lessons because when it is about to rain, teachers ask us to go home since there are no classes.”
The pupils urged the government and its partners to intervene by building classes and making other services available.
The county education director, Rial Oyual, said about 20 primary schools have been reopened for the first time since 2013, but children are learning under trees because buildings were dilapidated during the civil war.
“Almost all the schools are operational under trees. There are no buildings. Buildings were destroyed during the war. It is this only primary school in Yuai with two building blocks," Oyual said.
He added, “We have thousands of pupils in the county. I cannot give you the exact number because their attendances depend on the rains. We also have volunteer teachers, and there are no school materials.”
For his part, Tang Chatim, Uror County commissioner also decried the suffering of the school children there and called on the aid agencies in the country to intervene.