Pupils playing during a break in one of Mundri East's Schools / Photo by John Sylvester through Amadi TV

Three government and community-based schools have closed in Western Equatoria’s Mundri East County with another 30 on the brink, due to a shortage of teachers, according to an education superintendent.

Evans Ibrahim Ramadan, the Education Director for Lui and Lozu Payams, in Mundri East County of Western Equatoria State – said parents had withdrawn their children from 13 out of 30 government schools as teachers deserted teaching due to low pay and poor working conditions.

“We have 30 (public and community) schools in Lui and Lozu Payams which are struggling to operate because of lack of teachers,’ he said in an interview with Eye Radio over the weekend.

“We have another government school called Midiloko Primary School that has collapsed in Lui Payam. We also have a community school called Gangi SDA Primary School that has closed”

The county education official also revealed that two primary schools – Mildiloko and Galanjo SDA – have closed down while Lui Girl’s National Secondary School was nearing collapse after qualified teachers left for greener pastures.

In another government-owned Gwori Primary School – the official said – only a handful of pupils have been admitted to the school this year compared to 200 registered last year.

“A few of them (pupils) that registered this year in Gwori Primary School is 29, according to the statistics from the head teacher of the School, and there are only five teachers who have remained behind to teach these few. In Lui, we have five government schools and in Lozu, we have 8 schools – and in all these schools, we have a problem of a low number of teachers in all the schools,” Ramadan stated.

“And, we have Lui National Secondary School which is coming to collapse because there are no government teachers. Only volunteer teachers are teaching there but what they want is not met, and what they are given is not enough.”

The official said the government plans to recruit more teachers next year.