President Salva Kiir Mayardit has vowed to promote girl child education in the country.
Kiir made these remarks on Saturday at a public rally held in Wau town of Western Bahr El Ghazal State.
“No child should stay at home without being taken to school, I urge you to take all the children to school especially girls,” Kiir said.
He warned parents not to force their daughters into early marriage.
“Girls are no longer sold for high bride price but must go to school and contribute to development of the country,” he said.
On 6th February 2023, President Salva Kiir declared free primary education and directed the Ministry of General Education and Instruction, the Ministry of Finance, and the development partners to implement the constitutional requirement of free education in all public schools.
Subsequently, the National Ministry of Finance announced that it has released the first tranche of the capitation grant amounting to SSP 1 billion to public schools to facilitate free education program.
According to a report by the United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF), South Sudan has one of the lowest budget allocations to the education sector in the East African region.
However, in the 2022/2023 annual budget estimated at SSP 1.3 trillion budget, education sector received an allocation of SSP107 billion which was a significant boost when compared to past budgets, but this still cannot meet all the requirements.
One of the legacies of this underfunding is the whopping 2.2 million children out of school, according to UNICEF.
