South Sudan education sectors inductors a lot of challenges despite the struggle to increased enrollment in 2012, only 27% are literates in the country and only 5% literate women and girls according to the research. Non-profit organizational researchers said, 70 percent of South Sudanese rural children from the age of 6-17 have never set a foot in classrooms. Out of 30% that are in school, 13% only reach the cycle of 8th grade and 17% dropout between the 4th and the 8th grade. The rate of dropout is very high in girls than boys.
In order to get development in South Sudan the education sector must boom, and most especially look at the factors that hinder its development.
Girl education is the most challenging aspect in most developing countries, and if you look at the reasons why in most cases it`s poverty, most developing countries have high population of low income earners. 72% of families in developing countries live under the poverty line and have the lowest living cost of lower than a dollar per day; this have hinders their ways of living especially educating children.
Most families that are low income earners look for a way to survive, I spoke to Linda a woman who grew up in one of the rural area in South Sudan, Linda said as a child she loved school and when her parents realized that they cannot afford her school fees, they send her for early marriage. She said her parents explained to her why they had to marry her off, her parents said that they needed the dowry from her husband to pay for her brother’s school fees so that her brother in future will look after their family after his studies and get a well-paid job.
Linda accepted to get married at the age of 15 and now she is 33years old, Linda said at the age of 25 she went back to school, Linda is a teacher now and when I asked her why she went back to school, she said that, I have 4 girls and I don’t want them to go through what I went through as a young wife and mother it was terrible I wish parent would not give out their girls because of poverty but I don’t blame my parents, they taught me how to sacrifice and now I want to do it to my children.
Linda said all mother and girl sacrifice for this world, if only the world will notice some day and give it back to them; the world will be a better place to live. Support girl child education and build the world.
Written by kaltuma