Southern Sudan

The Situation

South Sudan has seen 21 years of civil war. Millions have died, been abducted, recruited into militias, abused or separated from families. Now south Sudan's population will swell with people returning home, but the education system is under-resourced and run mainly by a nascent Ministry of Education. For 10 years it has depended on ad hoc programmes run by aid agencies and faith groups.We're working to build the government's ability to fund schools, teachers and materials.

We aim to increase the number of children - especially girls and the poorest children - enrolling in school and to help more of them complete their education in safety.We want to help the new government education department become better able to support and grow education on the ground and lobby for increased finance.

Our target

We need the international community to create a climate in which south Sudan has the resources and skills to deliver its education targets for 2009.We will support the south Sudanese government as it works to:

• increase the number of children enrolling in education to 52 per cent by 2009
• increase the number of girls enrolling in education to 35 per cent by 2009
• make education accessible to all.

Our direct practical work with community and government partners will help 250,000 more south Sudanese children go to school by 2009, and offer these plus thousands more a better and more relevant education.

How Southern Sudan measures up

• Around 20% of primary school-aged children are enrolled in primary schools
• 82% of school-aged girls are out of school
• Just 7% teachers have at least one year's pre-service college training
• Only 2% of enrolled pupils are likely to complete primary school 7 and just 0.8% of girls
• There is one teacher for every 35 students.

Full details

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