This archive report was first published on 31 July 2019.
South Sudan, a country ravaged by war, is struggling to provide its teachers with a decent living wage. According to reports, the global benchmark for absolute poverty stands at two dollars per day, a threshold that many South Sudanese teachers have long crossed.
With the government of President Salva Kiir allocating increasingly more resources to security than to physical or social infrastructure in the 2019/2020 budget, the situation for teachers has only worsened. Officially, a teacher's salary should range between $40 (Sh4,000) and $260 (Sh26,000), but the reality is far more sobering.
Teachers in public schools earn between five dollars (Sh500) and $22 (Sh2,200) per month, making the profession a subject of ridicule. Mr. James Lado, the assistant head teacher of Juba Day Secondary School, has resorted to farming to supplement his income, citing a meager and irregular salary.
"I do agriculture in the nearby village in Rajaf in south west of Juba. The salary cannot meet my needs. It is meagre and does not come on time," he said.
The cost of living in South Sudan is on the rise due to falling output and currency devaluation, with the government often mortgaging future oil production to meet its foreign obligations. This has led to a demoralized teaching force, with many feeling trapped in their profession due to the war, which has infested most rural areas with land mines.
"Despite their vital role in enlightening and inspiring the next generation of leaders, they work in very poor conditions which do not help them to fulfill this mission well," Sr. Akumu Lilly Grace, a teacher at the Catholic Church-sponsored Comboni High School in Juba, said.
As the country relies increasingly on relief aid, the government has announced plans to borrow $500 million (Sh50 billion) from the Africa Export Import Bank to pay public servants and construct infrastructure. The loan is expected to be repaid in four years, with the government hoping to earn $2.76 billion from oil this year compared to $2.3 billion (Sh230 billion) last year and $1.7 billion (Sh170 billion) in 2017.
