The European Union has announced that it will provide a monthly incentive of 40 US dollars to primary school teachers across the country.

The Ambassador of the European Union to South Sudan, Stefano De Leo, says the funds will help primary schools stay open and keep the social fabric together.

Under the EU’s IMPACT programme, some 30,000 teachers will receive the monthly incentives over a period of 18 months.

The money will be paid by program known as the BMB Mott MacDonald, which also leads the consortium implementing the GESS project, a program to motivate girls to remain at school.

On its website, GESS says the funding will provide critical support to the education system, enabling teachers to continue in the profession and schools to continue to function.

GESS says the funds will increase teachers’ attendance, improve standards of teaching and support thousands of children in South Sudan to go to school.

It says the programme will be supported by strong accountability mechanisms to ensure only teachers who are working and regularly attending school will be paid.

GESS says this will be assured through real-time teacher attendance reporting via SMS and complemented by the national roll-out of the EU-funded Human Resources Information System for Education.

The funding comes after reports confirmed by the Ministry of Education that teachers were leaving the profession due to low pay.