The government of South Sudan’s Eastern Equatoria State has resolved to sponsor 16 primary and secondary school teachers annually to improve the education standards in the state.
The resolution was arrived at during an extraordinary Council of Ministers sitting number 26/2022 on Thursday in Torit.
The state information minister and government spokesperson Patrick Oting Cyprian addressed the press after the meeting.
“We lack qualified teachers but as the council of ministers, today decided and resolved that we need to look at the issue of secondary and primary school critically because it is the backbone and the future of this state, he announced. “The government of Eastern Equatoria State is going to set aside scholarships for two teachers from each county. So, we will be having 16 teachers from the eight counties, male and female so the government will sponsor them.”
Oting adds, “They will go to Juba University or any other university basically to do education and the government wanted these people to finish the degree, and then they will come back and teach in the schools or the counties where they are from. So, we will do these on an annual basis, 16 each year,”
The minister said the decision was made after thorough deliberations on the deteriorating state of education in Eastern Equatoria. The cabinet also discussed the lack of an official university in the state dwindling students’ dreams to further their education.
Oting noted that the government is working to motivate teachers to discourage them from deserting their profession.
“We also know that the national government under Minister Joseph Bakosoro is working hard on increasing the public service salary. We as the state government have done our part and we lay low because we wanted to wait and see what the national government has done. We deliberated into it that these teachers at the end of the day as we also embark with the national government to ensure that at least teachers get a good salary,” he said.
In addition, the state minister of higher education Lopeyok Sammy Aperengole said the selected teachers will remain on the government payroll to support their studies.