File: Teachers in Jonglei in a past protest over delayed salaries. Teachers, medical practitioners and security officers are among the least paid in South Sudan. /Courtesy

Some teachers in Jonglei state are demanding for their incentives, saying they have not been paid since June last year.

In October last year, secondary school teachers in Bor town went on strike over alleged mismanagement of the Impact incentives funded by the European Union.

The teachers believe their 6-month incentives worth 13,105,000 South Sudanese Pounds was wired into the account of the state Ministry of Finance in March.

The state ministry of finance admitted to receiving the money but said it spent the funds on other priorities.

But the government of the then Jonglei State promised to refund the teachers.

It later claimed that over 4.3 million South Sudanese Pounds were paid back, whereas the remaining balance would be cleared on a later date. The payment was, however, for the six months incentives for 2018.

Jonglei Teachers’ Committee says they haven’t received the balance for 2019 and new cash for the year 2020.

“We are urging UK-AID and the government of South Sudan through the Ministry of General Education, in particular, to clarify to us what exactly is the matter and what has been going on?” said Alier Jacob, the Committee’s Secretary-General.

Mr. Alier stresses that due to closure of schools, coupled with restrictions imposed by the coronavirus, teachers are not able to meet their families’ daily needs.

“The teachers are in dire need of those funds,” he insisted.

The European Union Teachers’ Incentives project was initiated after the Ministry of Education noted that teachers were leaving the profession due to low pay of about 2,000 pounds.

As per the project, each teacher is entitled to receive 40 US dollars per month as motivation.

This is expected to increase attendance of 30,000 teachers across the country, improve standards of teaching and encourage the teaching profession.