Schoolgirls in South Sudan | Credit | Girls Education South Sudan/GESS

The chairperson of the education committee at the yet-to-be reconstituted parliament has said the education sector should be allocated 10 percent of the national budget as required by law.

According to the General Education Act of 2012, basic education “must be free and compulsory” to all children in the country.

To enable this, 10 percent of the annual budget is to be channeled to formal learning.

“But since we came to parliament in 2010, this has not been the truth,” said Hon. Ahmed Musa, during the launch of back to learning campaign in Juba on Monday.

In September, the Ministry of Finance unveiled to the cabinet over 218 billion pounds estimates for the 2020-2021 fiscal year.

In the 2019/2020 fiscal year budget, the education sector was allocated 967 million pounds, just about 4.6% of the entire budget.

Hon. Musa argued that this was not enough because education should be a priority.

“Without education, we would be living in the ancient century while we are in the modern century,” he stated.