By Taban Henry
Students sitting South Sudan National Certificate Examination are appealing to the government to pay teachers on time and regularly, to avoid some of the previous incidents of sit-down strike.
In recent days, learning institutions in the country have been in state of confusion where teachers, university lecturers went through strike to express their anger to the government over delayed salary payment.
Over 30,000 secondary school students started their national certificate of examination yesterday and will last till the 29th April, 2022.
One of the students who spoke to No.1 Citizen Daily Newspaper, Andrew Otto said the National Ministry of Education should get serious on the issue of teachers’ salaries. He commented that all students in government schools are always victims of strike as their teachers are being paid less and not in time.
He said earlier this year, some schools especially government owned schools were closed as teachers went on strike demanding payment of their salaries.
“For us in the government schools, we are facing a lot of challenges; earlier this year almost two-three weeks we stayed at home because teachers are on strike demanding payment of their salaries. This is very challenging, which affects us a lot at school. I am calling on the ministry of education to look into the issue of teachers’ salaries, so that what happened should not happen again to those who are coming behind us,” the student said.
Otto further said teachers should be paid monthly to enable them continue teaching well, and give good lessons to students. He said students in the government schools often cry, while those from the private schools are enjoying.
“Learning in the government school is not the same with the other private schools as I know private schools are seriously teaching and for us, we are just pushing sometimes our teachers give us main points but not full teaching. Ours is not compared with private schools because they go through the entire syllabus,” he stressed.
In addition, another student Debora Elijah Dut from Juba Technical noted that studies were hard, but she tried her best out of what teachers have given her. She showed her readiness and confidence in the examinations. She said exams are meant for testing everybody, and once you fail, you have to repeat.
She advises her fellow students not to worry about examinations, saying if one fails, he or she can still move on with life because no one is perfect. “I am encouraging you to be confident to be able to do the exams successfully.”