South Sudan Makes Strides in Education

A report recently released by the World Bank shows positive trends in the educational system of South Sudan. Between 2005 and 2009, roughly 700,000 more children were registered for school. The chances of a child going to school are also up by 20% compared to 10 years ago. Although there is reason to be optimistic about South Sudan’s educational system, it is evident that South Sudan is still struggling to catch up to other African countries. The country still faces the challenge of reaching children in poor rural areas and increasing the quality of the educational system since each salaried teacher, on average, has 80 children in their classroom. Additionally, the state also faces the challenge of evenly allocating the teachers to the states. Only about 32% of the teachers in Jonglei, the largest and most populous state in South Sudan, are government funded and 84% are government funded in Eastern Equatoria.