Developments In The Education Sector In Jonglei

9 November 2010 – (Bor) – Jonglei state has experienced remarkable development in the education sector in the last four years.

The state minister for education, Stephen Par Kuol outlined some of the achievements to SRS in Bor last week.

[Stephen Par Kuol]: “Now Jonglei state is able to set its own examinations. In the past all the examinations were set in Khartoum and Juba. The other thing is that in terms of infrastructure, we have built a good number of schools in the last four years and we have been able to bring back our secondary schools from Upper Nile. The enrollment has increased. The other development is that we have opened a teachers training institute in Makuach and we are building another institute in Nyirol as well as a vocational training center there. We also have just finished building Pibor Secondary School and we intend to bring back the Pibor Secondary School which is now operating in Juba to its base in Pibor.”

On the contrary, the progress has been hampered by a lack of qualified teachers in the region, says Kuol.

[Stephen Par Kuol]: “The challenge we have right now is lack of qualified teachers. The schools need a lot of teachers because as you open new schools you also need new teachers. New schools also mean many new students. This also requires us to recruit teachers every now and then.”

Kuol however is optimist that the teacher’ training institutes set up in the region will be able to provide the much needed professionals.