Lakes State Governor Rin Tueny Mabor has ordered state education officials to give him data on the existing teachers, saying he suspects ‘ghost’ teachers on their payrolls.
Ghosts, in this case, refer to non-existent teachers presumed to be teaching and are paid salaries in the state.
“My priority, starting from today, I need accurate data on full functioning schools, trained teachers, untrained teachers and volunteers,” Governor Rin said at the closure of a three-day general education annual review conference in Rumbek town on Friday.
“And I want to emphasize the issue of volunteers. I am sure the volunteers are your women, your relatives, your brothers and your uncles. There should not be volunteers. Where do you want to take public funds to?” he asked.
The senior state official believes that his measure will reveal ghost names on teachers’ payroll across the state. “When we start going through payrolls, I am sure we will find your children’s names there. Even illiterates who cannot read and write their names are on the payroll as volunteer teachers,” he stressed.
The governor, however, did not set a deadline for the education officials to provide data on the number of teachers in the state.
Meanwhile, the National Minister of General Education, Awut Deng Achuil, who is visiting the state, said the education review conference in Rumbek was an eye-opener. Minister Awut said she came to know about things she did not know before in the education sector in the state.
“I am very grateful that we talked with honesty. The executive director of Cueibet County has given us a new word, that we were raiding cattle and we were raiding money at the same time. Let’s stop raiding money so that we begin using the resources to educate our children,” she said.
According to reports, the education sector in South Sudan faces high demand but suffers from low investment and low capacity as well as corruption.