A total of 32,000 primary school teachers in South Sudan will each receive 12,800 SSP as incentives next week, a government official said.

Kuyok Abol Kuyok, the Undersecretary of the Ministry of General Education, told reporters in Juba on Thursday that the incentive is under the IMPACT project funded by the European Union (EU).

In April 2017, the EU and South Sudan government launched the IMPACT project, with Cambridge Education's parent company, Mott MacDonald, contracted as project manager.

IMPACT pays incentives equivalent to $40, on a quarterly basis, to primary school teachers. This intervention aims to prevent the exodus of qualified teachers nationwide and promote teacher attendance.

 “We are paying teachers at this very difficult time when the schools are closed. We felt that teachers needed this money since the prices of essential food commodities have increased,” Kuyok said.

He added, “We have decided that payment of round 9 incentives for primary teachers should go ahead across the country and this is to cover the months of November and December last year.”

South Sudan on Sunday confirmed its first case of COVID-19, becoming the 51st of Africa's 54 countries to have the disease caused by the new coronavirus.

 Last week, President Salva Kiir imposed a curfew from 8 pm to 6 am and closed borders, airports and schools.