President Salva Kiir has ordered the Minister of Finance and Planning to immediately meet the grievances of public university staff.
Academic staff at the public universities have been protesting salary arrears and failure by the finance ministry to effect the 100% pay rise.
Last week, students at the University of Bahr el Gahzal in Wau took to the streets to protest against the sudden cancelation of the 2nd semester examinations by the staff who also went on strike over unpaid salary arrears and allowances.
In addition, the University of Juba and Upper Nile University gave notices of strike if the government failed to meet their demands by April 10.
“President Kiir has directed the Ministry of Finance to pay February and March salary arrears and allowances to all public universities based on the current salary scale,” Dier Tong, finance minister, told the media on Thursday.
The development came in a meeting held between President Kiir and the Minister of Higher Education, Gabriel Changson and Tong Ngor on the matter.
“…the meeting discussed a follow-up of resolutions made by the Cabinet on salaries adjustment for lecturers and their payment on time,” said Changson.
The meeting also resolved to pay the universities based on the new salary structure, which has been increased by 100%.
Currently, a professor receives 540,000 SSP, lecturer gets 341,000 SSP, and a teaching assistant, 145,700 SSP.
