Roundup: More funding for education crucial to S. Sudan stability: experts

Despite South Sudan's education being disrupted by ongoing conflict since December 2013, the sector remains critical if stability is to be achieved in the war-torn country, experts have said.

Michael Lopuke, the undersecretary of education ministry, says that for quality education to be achieved, the annual education budget must be increased for positive development in the country.

According to experts, the national budget of education must be increased from less than 7 percent to more than 15 percent to get the country out of its political and economic troubles.

Economist James Alic Garang of the Juba-based Ebony Center for Strategic Studies told Xinhua that increased investment in education will improve the human welfare and democratization process in the war-torn country.

"For democracy to be advanced, you need an informed citizenry to fully participate. Education will help the poor compete on merit with the rich and it can be the saviour of this country," Garang said.

He lamented that Upper Nile University where he teaches and other schools remained closed due to the political crisis.

"Education seems to be those institutions that are weak and not strong and vocal like the military, interior ministries; these are sectors that demand huge budget. What the government says about education is not matched in terms of funding the sector," he noted.

Philip Finish, senior lecturer at University of Juba, said that the government should improve funding education to help sensitize South Sudanese whom he said largely take instructions from their traditional elders and tribal chiefs.

This, he added, tends to promote violence along tribal lines due to lack of education.

"Education helps to inform people on democracy and not basing their choices and decisions on ethnic group," he said.

According to the UN children fund (UNICEF), South Sudan has an adult literacy rate of 27 percent out of 12 million, and 70 percent of children aged six to 17 have never set foot in a classroom.

The UN agency noted that the completion rate in primary schools is less than 10 percent, one of the lowest in the world.

Ayuen Akuot, degree holder from University of Juba, education can help dissuade South Sudanese from engaging in reckless armed conflict involving various militia groups that tend to recruit from the largely uneducated and unemployed population in the countryside.

"Most of the youth among armed groups have not attained enough education. They are also unemployed," Ayuen told Xinhua in an interview in the capital Juba on Friday.

Abraham Awolich, public policy analyst at the Sudd Institute, said that education will help to mitigate the damage caused by communal violence.

He says peace education is one of the key components needed to minimize conflicts on the periphery.

"Our education system must change these mindsets through integrating peace education for these young people. They should know they are not warriors but engineers, lawyers," Awolich said. Enditem