At least 7,450 primary school teachers in hard-to-reach areas will receive monthly cash incentives for 24 months through the OUTREACH programme, the Ministry of General Education and Instruction has said.
The project, which is funded by the European Union, will be implemented by the United Nations Children’s Agency (UNICEF) in collaboration with national and state ministries of general education and instruction.
The beneficiaries, who include 1,950 qualified teachers and 5,500 volunteers, will receive the monthly financial incentive as a training allowance under the Continuous Professional Development (CPD) programme.
It will also ensure the building capacity of the volunteer teachers, enhance teacher retention and support regular teaching activities in hard-to-reach areas of South Sudan.
Though the minister did not name the out-of-reach areas, some parts of the greater Jonglei State and Pibor Administrative Area, Upper Nile, and Unity states, among others, have been suffering from inaccessibility due to unprecedented flooding and insecurity.
“Teachers in hard-to-reach areas of South Sudan face multiple challenges, and there is a lack of qualified female teachers,” said National Minister of General Education and Instructions, Awut Deng Acuil. She added that the OUTREACH programme will help overcome the shortage of teachers by building the capacity of volunteer teachers already teaching in the hard-to-reach regions.”
Selection process
The ministry made the selection of the 7,450 teachers based on a comprehensive assessment of schools in hard-to-reach counties through the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), the Education Cluster People in Need (PIN) mapping, and the mapping of out-of-school children (OOSC).
“While the European Union had to phase out the general incentives’ support for teachers and hand over this responsibility to the South-Sudanese authorities, we are happy to keep providing incentive payments to primary school teachers in hard-to-reach areas where educators work in extremely difficult circumstances,” said the EU Ambassador to South Sudan, Christian Bader.
According to a statement by UNICEF issued on Monday, the programme will also include piloting a mobility allowance for 100 female teachers to attract and retain them as role models for female students in hard-to-reach areas.
“Without teachers in classrooms, children cannot learn, and these incentive payments will help to bring them back to the classrooms to facilitate quality learning for our children. Schools are also safe spaces for children where they are protected and can play and meet friends, ” said Hamida Lasseko, UNICEF’s Country Representative.
The education partners pointed out that the monthly teacher incentive payments will attract and retain teachers in schools, and the training will improve their teaching skills and eventually contribute to improved learning outcomes for children in such areas.
In 2021, the first phase of the OUTREACH programme provided a one-off payment of incentives to 34,312 teachers nationwide for the back-to-school campaign.