The delivery of primary school textbooks to Northern Bahr el-Ghazal is underway again following a twelve day hold-up at customs in Nimule as the books were being shipped into South Sudan from a storage facility in Kampala.
The distribution of primary school books to the state is part of a nationwide project funded by the UK’s Department for International Development (DFID) which aims to deliver textbooks to all primary schools and Accelerated Learning Program (ALP) centres in the country.
The delay was caused by ‘the withdrawal of an import tax exemption letter’ on the materials, according to a press statement by the logistical managers, Charles Kendall Consulting. However, this has been overturned by the South Sudan Ministry of Finance in order that the project can continue.
So far, Central Equatoria State schools have all received their deliveries along with 137 institutions (17%) in Northern Bahr el-Ghazal state. The delayed shipment also includes materials for Warrap state which will receive its first books of the 11th March.
Other containers of textbooks are however still being held in Kampala awaiting an import tax exemption in order that deliveries to the remaining states can begin. The entire process is said to include the delivery of 9.7 million textbooks in order to benefit 2,816.847 primary pupils and ALP students.