Seven thousand four hundred and fifty primary school teachers in hard-to-reach areas across the country are to benefit from an EU-UNICEF monthly cash incentives for two years.
The project will be implemented in collaboration with National and State Ministries of General Education and Instruction.
Of the 7,450 primary teachers to benefit from the program, 1,950 are qualified and 5,500 are volunteers.
In this year’s OUTREACH program, the teachers are expected to receive the monthly financial incentive as a training allowance under the Continuous Professional Development programme.
This EU and UNICEF say, will build capacity of volunteer teachers and enhance teachers’ retention in neglected areas and support regular teaching activities.
In a statement seen by Eye Radio, the EU Ambassador to South Sudan, Christian Bader said “we are happy to keep providing incentive payments to primary school teachers in hard-to-each areas where educators work in extremely difficult circumstances.”
According to the partners, the teachers were identified by the Ministry of General Education and Instruction after an assessment by the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification and the Education Cluster of People in Needs.
The programme will also include piloting of mobility allowance to 100 female teachers to attract and retain them as role models for female students in hard-to-reach areas.
UNICEF’s Country Representative, Hamida Lasseko said, “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.”
For her part, the National Minister of General Education and Instructions, Awut Deng Acuil said the funding is timely.
“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”
There is no mention of the hard-to-reach areas.
But the monthly teachers’ incentive is expected to attract and retain teachers in schools with the aim to improved learning for children in those 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.
