Central Equatoria State has held a training workshop for secondary school head teachers in Juba County to learn management skills.

At the closing of the three-day workshop on Saturday, State Senior Inspector of Schools in Bandrule Matthews said the training was meant to be for one week but due to budget shortfall they kept it shorter than planned.

“This three-day workshop for head teachers was organized by the department of secondary education in the state ministry of education, Central Equatoria. The workshop was funded jointly by the schools and the ministry of education. It covered 15 secondary schools, 10 government-aided secondary schools and five private secondary schools,” said Matthew.

“The main objective is to give the head teachers administrative and managerial skills,” he said, explaining that the course covered Introduction to Administration and Management, Elements of Administration and Management, School Administration, Qualities Required of a Head Teacher and Teachers’ Code of Conduct.

Bandrule said the current workshop cost around 16,000 SSP but a bigger workshop to engage all teachers in the state would cost more.

Jackline Dere, one of the female teachers who attended the workshop said South Sudan’s education system by this time should have been better than it is. She said many teachers remained at home due to low pay.

James Pitia Lazarus, director for teachers’ affairs in the state education ministry, said there is hope for teachers to get better pay but he blamed the national education ministry for failing to take action on the point.

“The situation of teachers is not good because their salaries are not good… some teacher now left the work and ran to the organizations and to the army because the money is not enough for them,” he said.

Badrule echoed concerns about the state of schools, citing overcrowding and lack of teachers. “The general situation in our secondary schools is indeed appalling.”