Africa-Press – South-Sudan. The local peace agency, Action for ConflictResolution (ACR) on Thursday launched a back to learning campaign to increaseenrollment of children, especially girls in schools for the next academic yearin Mayom County of Unity State.
The event organized by ACR with funding from the UNchildren agency, UNICEF featured speeches from the county education officials,teachers and parents as well as drama and poetry performance by pupils fromvarious schools in attendance.
“In Mayom County here, girls are forced tomarriage early before even completing primary education, and boys drop out totake care of cattle. So, the objective of this event today (Thursday) is tocreate awareness and encourage all parents to enroll children in school nextyear,” explained Joseph Batheng Khan, ACR education project officer in aphone interview with Juba Monitor from Mayom County.
According to UNICEF, more than two millionchildren, or over 70 per cent, were out of school in South Sudan, putting atrisk their futures and the future of the country.
TheChildren Agency said that majority of the out-of-school children live inpastoral communities, moving with their cattle, making it impossible toattend regular classes. The largest group of out-of-school children girls weredriven away from education by poverty, forced marriage and cultural and religiousamong others, UNICEF noted.
NyakemeYuol Pech, 16 and pupil in Mankien Primary School said that she wasdisappointed that there were no as many girls as boys in school because parentspreferred sending boys to study instead.
“Thereare not very many girls in my school. Education for girls is important. theywill take care of their parents and bring more cows when they finish school,”said the primary six pupil.
“It is not okay to force girls into marriageto get cows. It is not to only keep girls at home so that they cultivate, fetchwater and cook. Let them go to school to learn so that they become leaders in thefuture,” she appealed.
RiekMadit Dalenga, a school teacher, said that the back-to-school campaign eventhas helped parents understand that girls and boys were equal in all capacities.
Dalenga said the rights of a girl child shouldbe promoted. That day, (Thursday) parents understood thata girl was a complete human. A girl child was as capable as a boy and there wereno differences in their abilities, he said.
For More News And Analysis About South-Sudan Follow Africa-Press
