National, News

Professor criticizes South Sudan’s weak education system

By Bida Elly David

Vice Chancellor of Bahr-El-Ghazal University has slammed South Sudan government over poor education system in the country.

Professor, Victor Loku Kwajok said most students with high school grades suffer serious challenges in higher institutions of learning.

The vice chancellor was speaking during the declaration of Certificate of Secondary Education (CSE) examination results in Juba last week.

He said that students attaining high marks in secondary schools mostly underperform with low results at universities.

He blamed the education ministry for not being serious about omitting academic malpractices to boost the level of understanding for students across the Country.

VC Loku warned that the tendency to admit students with low grades in medicine at the University is dangerous for the health sector in South Sudan.

“This happened because of the education system we have adopted in South Sudan,” he said. “There is a general intake, which is normal for certificates to compete, but the problem happens with private intakes where games are being played.”

Loku cited an incident that happened in the College of Medicine at Bahr-el-Ghazal University, where 26 students qualified for admission out of 234 who applied.

“Most of the students, there are those who are having high marks, but coming to the Universities, the students fail most of the subjects, and this is indicating something different,” Loku echoed.

He claimed that two-thirds of students being admitted through private intakes into the schools of medicine and other tough faculties in the universities are children of the staff of the Universities.

“The University of Juba ended up with an 86% average for the College of Medicine, the University of Bahr-El-Ghazal with 83% for Medicine, and Upper Nile University with 84 per cent,” he said.

According to the vice chancellor with the general intake through the University, low certificates are accepted because most of the students are related to staff working in the universities.

He exclaimed that low degrees have been accepted to study masters in other high colleges, noting that it would be very dangerous for the Country in terms of service delivery and employment.

“For the students passing from secondary schools to the universities, the standards are really not expected to be high because of the system of education in Sudan and South Sudan,” he said.

He said they, as academics have been facing challenges as some students admitted through the directorate couldn’t meet the standard of the course to be undertaken.

“It is not really helping because as we get students through our admission department of the directorate, the standards of the students of specialization are really low at all levels,” he underlined.

Prof. Loku said unless South Sudan reforms its education system from the worst to the best, the Country will continue to suffer academic sickness.

“We need to come up with a plan together to improve the education and the standard of our students going to the University,” he emphasized.

The vice chancellor maintained that the Universities need to produce students that are going to help this nation.

Comments are closed.