Gov’t schools facing shortage of teachers due to low, unpaid salaries – deputy minister

JUBA – South Sudan’s public schools are facing serious shortage of teachers due to COVID-19 pandemic, unpaid salaries, and poor working conditions, official said.

South Sudan Deputy Minister of General Education, Martin Tako Moyi, disclosed that nonpayment of teachers’ salaries by the state government has pushed them out of the workforce.

“The education system in this country is very much affected, there are no teachers and I won’t go to the reasons why we don’t have teachers as it used to be because we all know the situation of this country,” Tako said during the release of the 2020 Primary Examination results in Juba on Friday.

Moyi revealed that the significant number of public schools continued to experience difficulty in attracting teachers due to poor pay.

“You are aware of the situation we face. Education system not only in this country but in the region and in the world is affected by COVID-19,” he said.

He said the shortage of teachers affected the outcome of 2020 primary examination as the exams were marked by unqualified teachers.

“We have very few qualified teachers to mark the examinations and the majority of them were volunteers with or little experience in marking examinations,” he said.