Lakes State education authorities celebrated yesterday the “Go to School Initiative” in a bid to bring more children, especially girls, to primary instruction.
The celebration brought together pupils and teachers from all Rumbek primary schools yesterday in Freedom Square.Speaking at the function, caretaker governor Telar Ring Deng acknowledged with appreciation the contribution of different organizations to education in Lakes State, including UNICEF, Save the Children, the Catholic Diocese of Rumbek and the Ministry of Education.
Mr. Telar noted that as the government encourages its children to go to school, the same government has to expand the economic sector to include private enterprises and investment in order to absorb those who graduate.
Ruben Makoi Yuol, a teacher at Deng Nhial School, told Good News Radio that the institution has over 1,400 pupils served by 16 teachers, all of them male.
He added that many teachers left schooling due to what he described as “no good salary”.
Anip Aguek, a female pupil in Class 8 at Deng Nhial, said it would be better to have separate primary schools for girls to avoid pregnancies.
She added that five of her classmates left school last year because they got pregnant.
Lakes State has one of the highest rates of early girl marriage in South Sudan, and some of these girls dropping out of school to get married.