Students paraded at Supiri Secondary School before the 2022-2023 examination. March 20 2023. (Photo: Moyo Jacob).

Central Equatoria’s Director General of Education said the lack of funding to the state education sector has forced teachers to abandon public schools for private ones.

The 2023-2024 fiscal budget, which was passed in August last year comes to an end in July.

But Luate William said since the annual budget was enacted, the allocation for state ministry of education has not been approved.

“Education is not fully funded, and in the state level, the budget for this year has never been approved. We have only salary which is chapter one and little support,” he said during a press conference in Juba on Friday.

He said the lack of funding has prompted teachers to ditch government-run schools for private schools in order to earn better salary.

Mr. Luate said the situation has led to poor performance of public schools in the annual national exams.

“If you look at the performance, now performance in the private sector is far better than government schools because these teachers get their salaries and allowances in time.”

“Our government wanted to pay in time but since the crisis of 2013 and 2016 everything got disrupted. Let our parents and those in the Diaspora let them come and invest here in Education.”

A research by the Institute of Development Studies has found that teachers in South Sudan remain poorly and irregularly paid leading to qualified teachers searching for better-paying jobs.

This has resulted in schools hiring primary and secondary school leavers with limited ability in English the language of instruction.

Teachers have also been complaining of low payment and poor working conditions.