The Ministry of General Education and Instruction says it has raised the issue of teachers’ poor working conditions with the President.
Teachers on government payroll across South Sudan are poorly paid. The salaries range from $1 to $5. The salaries are also often not paid on time. It takes between 3 to 4 months for a teacher to receive wages.
This has forced most of them to abandon the teaching profession and seek employment with the NGOs, businesses, and private schools.
“All the qualified teachers have gone away…some have gone to charcoal business and others are battling on the streets to make a living because the salaries given is not enough and doesn’t come at the right time,” said Martin Tako Moyi, the Deputy Minister of General Education and Instruction.
He acknowledged that the absence of qualified teachers has led to underperformance in the public schools.
In 2022, private schools were among the best performers in the Primary Leaving Examinations. All the top 15 best performing learners were from the private schools.
“All the qualified teachers have gone to this private schools and their results are always better than our public schools,” he stated.
Mr. Tako mentioned that they raised the issue with the President and are looking forward to a positive outcome.
“Teachers’ condition is a national issue, we met the President and explained to him why the results are very poor – not only this year, [but] even last year, and we [still] expect the same results. We want to address this situation as soon as possible; improve the working conditions of teachers so that teachers can come back to teaching profession.”
He disclosed that a new budget has been submitted to the parliament to improve teachers’ salaries ad working conditions.
