🇸🇸 Education Crisis in Upper Nile: Why Kiir’s Regime Continues to Fail South Sudanese

Published by: South Sudan Youth Reforms (SSYR)
Date: July 2025

📚 A Nation Dependent: The Case of Upper Nile Education

In a land as rich in history and resilience as Upper Nile, the tragedy is not war alone — it is the systemic failure to provide its children with hope through education.

More than a decade after independence, President Salva Kiir's regime has done little to build sustainable education systems in Upper Nile or elsewhere across South Sudan. The region, like much of the country, still relies heavily on the generosity and structure of international NGOs and development agencies to do what the government should have prioritized long ago.

🌍 UN-EU Partnership Steps In – Again

One recent example is the UN-EU partnership in Malakal, which has launched a project to strengthen education and vocational training in Upper Nile State. The initiative offers renewed opportunities in areas devastated by conflict. Classrooms are being reopened, and young people are gaining basic literacy, numeracy, and trade skills.

However, while this partnership is commendable, its very existence is a loud indictment of the national government’s consistent failure to act. How long will South Sudan’s children rely on foreign intervention to learn how to read, write, and dream?

🛑 A Government That Builds Nothing

Let us be clear: education is not the only sector where the Kiir regime has failed. There are:

• No functioning public schools in many counties of Upper Nile.
• No government-funded hospitals equipped to serve rural populations.
• No safe, paved roads linking villages to towns.
• No investment in teacher training, materials, or education policy.

Instead of prioritizing schools and services, the regime has focused its energy on power consolidation, militarization, and patronage politics.

💭 SSYR’s View: It’s Time for Accountability

SSYR strongly believes that the continued neglect of education in Upper Nile and elsewhere is a deliberate political choice. A population that is uneducated is easier to manipulate, to divide, and to silence.

The failure to provide basic services is not due to a lack of resources — it is due to a lack of political will and moral leadership.

💬 Our Message to South Sudan’s Youth

We cannot wait for salvation from above. SSYR calls on young people across Upper Nile and beyond to rise up — through organizing, volunteering, and advocating for real reforms in education and public services.

Every child in South Sudan deserves:

• A proper classroom.
• A trained teacher.
• Access to books, uniforms, and safe drinking water.

These are not luxuries. They are human rights.

✊🏿 Join SSYR’s Campaign for Education Justice

We are launching a new campaign to monitor government performance in education, expose mismanagement, and support community-led school rebuilding projects.

If the government won’t do it — the youth will.