Education officials in Sudan's White Nile State have made salary increments for South Sudanese refugee teachers in the camps there.
On June 20, as the world commemorated World Refugee Day, Radio Tamazuj highlighted the plight of refugee teachers in Sudan's White Nile. The teachers complained of poor pay, saying it was difficult to sustain their families amid the country's economic crunch. They also said that they had gone without salaries for more than nine months.
Speaking to Radio Tamazuj last week, Abu Obeida Ibrahim Babiker the director of NGOs in the White Nile education ministry said they had reached an agreement with the UN refugee agency, UNHCR, to revise the salaries and job grades for refugee teachers.
He said, "The monthly salary of a teacher has been raised from the minimum 1,600 Sudanese pounds to 14,000 Sudanese pounds. Job grades and contracts will be prepared by the Legal Adviser for Civil Service Affairs after consulting the South Sudanese Teachers Committee, to express their observations in the contracts before agreeing on it."
According to him, the teachers will now receive their dues in time, stating that past delays were due to administrative procedures.
For his part, Paulino Akany Deng, the head of the South Sudanese Teachers' Committee in the camps, confirmed that they had received an official notification for teachers' salaries adjustments.
He, however, said they have submitted a note to UNHCR to ensure that they are paid in US dollars.
According to Akany, there are slightly more than 400 teachers in White Nile State refugee camps spread across 16 primary schools and seven secondary schools. But, he says, the number of teachers is still very low as a class could have an average of 200 students.