More teachers are likely to leave the teaching profession due to little pay and its irregular payment, a member of the Transitional National Legislative Assembly has said.

Over the years, teachers across the country say the education sector has been impacted by lack of better remunerations.

On top of that, most teachers go for months without pay. Some have quit the profession for well-paying NGO jobs.

The educators say they are not enjoying the profession because there is also a lack of educational materials and tools needed to deliver quality education.

In 2018, the Ministry of General Education and the United Kingdom started an initiative of motivating primary teachers across the country – an incentive of $40.

It is meant to motivate them to stay in their profession. However, the project has been marred with reports of corruption and mismanagement.

Last month, Secondary school teachers in Bor Town, Jonglei State, went on a peaceful strike over alleged mismanagement of the EU Impact incentives by the state authorities.

In Jubek, some state officials who were not entitled to receive the incentives reportedly included their names, causing the Ministry to suspend those schools.

The chairperson of the Parliamentary Committee on Education at the national legislative assembly, Hon. Ahmed Mohammed Musa, says such malpractices will continue to push teachers away from the profession.

“In five years to come, we may not have qualified teachers who graduated from universities,” Hon Mohammed registered his fears.

“In the last two intakes to the five public universities, there is no single student who applied to the college of education.

“That means we will not have students who will be graduating from college of Education.”

Two weeks ago, South Sudan and the African Development Bank signed a grant agreement worth $17.7 million aimed at improving the education sector in the country.

Over 2,000 teachers are expected to benefit from this project through training.

The program also involves rehabilitation of some teachers’ institutes and building of schools in the Upper Nile Region.