JUBA, June 28 (Xinhua) -- South Sudan's Ministry of General Education on Wednesday launched EU-funded project worth 22.7 million U.S. dollars to pay monthly incentives of 40 dollars to over 30,000 primary school teachers across the country.
General Education Minister Deng Deng Hoc told reporters that the ministry and partners would start paying at least 16,000 teachers within this week in order to enable teachers to teach and schools to function amid a biting economic crisis and insecurity.
Hoc said the 18-month program dubbed "IMPACT" would be supported by newly designed Schools Attendance Monitoring System (SAMS) to enhance accountability mechanisms to ensure only public teachers who are working and regularly attend school receive the payment.
He said the project will provide critical support to South Sudan's weak education system which has been impacted by civil war, poor infrastructure and low salaries to teachers.
"This project is adding value in the sense that it will give teachers extra money to improve their purchasing power which will in turn improve the quality of life of the teachers. That will motivate the teachers to go work on regular basis and improve the quality of education in the country," Hoc said.
South Sudan's education indicators remain among the worst in the world. Official data from the ministry of education shows annual allocation to education stood at just 6 percent for 2015-2016.
A report by UN children's agency (UNICEF) released in September 2016 said South Sudan is the second country in the world after Liberia with the highest proportion of out-of-school children. Enditem
