By Hou Akot Hou
Northern Bahr El Ghazal State Minister for Peace Building has urged parents to send all children to school despite the economic hardship in the country.
Minister Abuor Gordon Nhial was speaking at the funeral rites of Late Dut Atak Mel, who passed on recently at Madhol Payam in Aweil East County.
Abuor said she has been observant enough and learned that girls’ enrollment in schools across the state has been sufficient due to cash transfers.
“I learned that girls’ enrollment has been increasing due to the cash transfer in the Girls Education South Sudan (GESS) project, which helped them attend lessons daily,” she said.
But Minister Abuor underlined that the worst scenario is pregnancy, which still affects most school girls.
“Boys impregnate girls and run to Sudan, and now that there is a war in Sudan, they resort to Juba, where crimes happen,” she said.
She cautioned boys never to spoil girls and run away but to take responsibility and educate them.
There is an ongoing education conference in Aweil that is looking at issues of improving education in the state, organized by the national ministry of general education.
Abuor said it is meant to look into matters pertaining to making education a priority in nation-building.
“There is no country that can be uplifted without education. Skilled and educated manpower is what improves the nation and hence development.”
“As a parent, always check what your child has learned in school and support them monetarily,” Abuor emphasized.
The Minister said the state government will employ stringent measures to punish the culprits who spoil girls in schools.
“It is still the role of the parents to advise their girls and boys to take education seriously, as they still need to spearhead the goals of supporting girls as the government of the state,” she added.