UNICEF starts preparing for expected surge in school enrolments in southern Sudan

With tens of thousands of refugees and internally displaced persons (IDPs) expected to return to southern Sudan over the next few months after the end of its decades-long civil war, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has begun preparing for an anticipated surge in school enrolments in a region with the lowest primary education rates in the world.

UNICEF has started training teachers, building schools, stockpiling classroom materials and tents and helping local education officials to enrol children ahead of the scheduled March re-opening of schools, the agency said in a statement issued today from the capital Khartoum.

More than 70 schools have been built already in Northern Bahr el Ghazal state, and classrooms are also being constructed in Western Equatoria, Eastern Equatoria and Upper Nile states.

Prospective teachers are taking intensive English-language courses – English is the language of instruction across much of the vast territory of southern Sudan – as well as instruction on such issues as HIV/AIDS, malaria, landmines and conflict resolution.

UNICEF’s Representative in Khartoum, JoAnna Van Gerpen, said it was vital to improve education services in southern Sudan, which has suffered from a lack of teachers for many years because of the civil war, its isolation and its lack of infrastructure.

“With the lowest rate of access to primary education in the world, southern Sudan needs to build capacity for its children and for future generations,” she said.

Earlier this month the Sudanese Government and the Sudanese People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) signed the final parts of a peace agreement ending their civil conflict that had claimed at least two million lives and forced up to four million others from their homes since 1983.