Up to 2.8 million children out of school in S.Sudan

By Winnie Cirino

There are 2.8 million out-of-school children in South Sudan, a new report released by the UN children’s agency, the Ministry of Finance and Planning, and the Ministry of Gender, Child and Social Welfare has said.

The 200-page report titled the Situation Analysis of Children and Women in South Sudan, further indicated further exclusion, stigma and name-calling for children with disabilities.

The situation analysis report was produced following a study carried out from 2018 to 2020 with consultations from government representatives, UN agencies, Non-Governmental Organizations, civil society organizations, journalists and children.

In 2017, there were 2.2 million children who were out of school. But the number has increased drastically.

“About 2.8 million children are out of school in South Sudan, this is representing almost 3 in 5 children in South Sudan who are out of school and these children are at risk of being excluded from education and they include girls who are exposed to high risks that often lead to child marriage, early pregnancies,” said John Yuggu, the Education Specialist at UNICEF.

“Also, we have children who are with disabilities and they are excluded from accessing education, and we have children who are forced to work or live in the streets.”

Yuggu noted that the increase in the number of out-of-school children is a dire situation in the country’s education sector.

He pointed out inadequate funding and the lack of implementation of polices to improve the education sector for te dire situation.

“Only about 13 percent [teachers] are trained and qualified, so this affects the teaching-learning process in the schools, also the schools themselves are very limited in number, not sufficient to take care of the huge school-aged children, and given that there are few schools in South Sudan, you find that there are long distances for children to go to the schools, even the schools that exist have very poor sanitation and water facilities making the school environment unsafe,” Yugu explained.

The report recommends that barriers to education including school fees, lack of schools, and poor sanitation facilities in schools, especially for girls be addressed.  

According to the education specialist, there are also many out-of-school children because many parents are poor and struggle to get registration fees or money to buy school requirements, much as the government says education is supposed to be free.

The report further says many children are traumatized by war and are living in fear. It says untreated mental health conditions are a major contributor to disability in South Sudan and urges Juba to sign the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and to ensure that the needs of children with disabilities including health and education needs are provided for.

It pointed out that justice professionals including the police, prosecutors and lawyers all lack the specialized training to support child survivors, victims, witnesses, or alleged offenders. It says many of these people may not understand the vulnerabilities girls face when coming into contact with the justice systems.

The report recommends that justice systems work to protect and support not only children who have experienced violence and other rights violations but also those who have witnessed a crime. It also recommends that juvenile detainees be separated from adult prisoners and calls on the government to operationalize a separate court for juvenile defendants.