The Ministry of General Education has deplored the rise in the rate of girls dropping out of school.
Early and forced marriages and obligations to domestic chores are some of the issues preventing girls from pursuing education.
Eye Radio spoke to school-going girls at Juba Commercial Secondary School about the challenges facing them.
“I am always facing challenges from somebody who is paying my school fees; there are age mates who got married. And from my tribe they tell me that if a girl reaches sixteen years, she should get married.
“So, they are discouraging me –that: ‘why do go to school? Why don’t you to get married so that you have your family’? But I want to study so that I can be somebody in the future.”
Emmnuela Achayo says girls should demand to go to school.
“We as girls sometime have a lot of challenges; sometimes we are the causers. We advertise ourselves, but there is time for everything.
“At least I have to complete my studies so that I can see what is in the future.”
The deputy Minister of General Education, Madam Rebecca Okwaci, says girls should refuse all gifts that may lead to a forced marriage.
Madam Okwaci, who was speaking to students of Juba Commercial Secondary school, said once a girl is educated she will greatly contribute to the development of the country.
“We are suffering from dropout from schools because our girls are either cheated; they are weak, or they are desperate, or they are too young.
“Or because they think they do not have anything or because we mothers tell our girls, ‘if it was during our time, we would have got a hundred cows’.
“Or we tell our girls that they are too old to go to school.
“The same mother who will push you to go and do wrong, tomorrow when you come with a child, your mother will refuse and tell you that she does not have food, go back to the one who made you pregnant.
So, don’t be a laughing stock because you have your brain. If you do not have a uniform, don’t be deceived by someone so that you are given uniform.”
According to statistics from the Ministry of Gender Child and Social Welfare, nearly half the number of girls between the age of fifteen and nineteen are married off against their will.
Girls as young as 12 years have been married off in exchange for a dowry in the country.