As Covid-19 continues to spread across the globe, South Sudan has initiated distance learning program for students. .Photo credit: Bruno Bierrenbach Feder.

A human rights activist has criticized the Long Distance Learning initiative by the Ministry of General Education, saying it will benefit only a few South Sudanese pupils.

In March, the government of South Sudan suspended learning institutions as part of coronavirus preventive measures.

This prompted the Ministry of General Education to initiate a Distance Learning program to close up the gap, as schools remain closed in response to Covid-19.

The Girls’ Education South Sudan or GESS said it would support the proposed adaptive project that would involve the use of radios and other media, such as SMS to reach out to pupils across South Sudan.

However, this approach according to a human rights activist will only benefit a few pupils of elites, leaving out the vulnerable majority population who don’t have access to electricity and radios.

Reech Malual who is the director of the Screen of Rights organization called on the Ministry of General Education to seek other alternatives or invest those resources into fighting COVID-19.

“Let’s take education as a right, you cannot come up for example and say a thousand pupils whose families are enjoying government services or they have their parents that are well off to be the one to benefit from that program, it doesn’t make sense,” he said on Thursday.

“You are trying to rule out the majority of South Sudanese, some of them may become doctors or presidents in the future, you cannot rule them out because they don’t have the capacity.”

According to GESS, the program will be supporting learners, education managers, and practitioners and helping with recovery efforts so that schools can reopen safely.