Africa-Press – South-Sudan. The Ministry of General Education and Instruction has launched a $100-million major renovation project targeting 200 schools and teachers’ colleges across the country, with financial support from the World Bank.
The project is part of a five-year initiative dubbed Building Skills for Human Capital Development. It aims to boost educational infrastructure and teacher capacity, contributing to long-term national development and human capital growth.
Grace Legge, Resource Safeguarding Specialist at the Ministry of General Education and Instruction, speaking to SSBC during an inspection visit to Rajaf Primary School, one of the historical schools marked for renovation, said teachers will also benefit from the project.
“This project is called Building Skills for Human Capital Development. It is a five-year project. The project budget is about 100 million, and it is funded by the World Bank,” she said.
“It is done by the government of South Sudan, and that is why we are working very hard, and we want the community to support us so that it is a success. The project will support teachers, especially the ones that we are going to operationalize. We will bring teachers. The World Bank will be very blessed.”
The education ministry affirmed that in addition to renovating schools, the project will prioritize the development of teachers’ training colleges to strengthen the national teaching workforce.
South Sudan has the world’s highest proportion of out-of-school children, with 72 percent of children out of learning, according to UNICEF. A 2020 World Bank report also indicated that only 48 percent of South Sudan’s youths are literate.
Many schools in the country are made of makeshift shelters and even the concrete structures do not have air conditioning system.
The poor infrastructure of lower learning institutions has created challenging conditions for students, particularly during adverse climatic conditions like floods and heat waves, which forced the government to close schools twice in the last two years.
Public expenditure on education in South Sudan is also said to be one of the lowest in the world. The sector is also suffering from low investment and low capacity, with its administration and management weakened by conflicts.
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