Teacher Adam Gabriel checks the work of his students Moses Justin, Daniel Adam and Salawa Emmanuel during a history lesson at St.Bakhita primary school. Credit: GPE/Jok Solomon

Partner since:

Total grant support: US$114,887,773

Grant eligibility:

  • Multiplier
  • Multiplier and Girls' Education Accelerator
  • System capacity
  • System transformation

Partnership Compact

Priority: Improve learning outcomes in a more inclusive and equal basic education.

Other key documents

Coordinating agency: FCDO, Norwegian Refugee Council, USAID

GPE Team lead: Morten Sigsgaard

Transforming education in South Sudan

South Sudan’s education system is characterized as a low investment, low capacity, but high demand system. The state building and peace building efforts of the national plans put high demand on the education system to expand fast, reduce inequity, and provide appropriate teaching. But public expenditure is one of the world’s lowest for education.

The basics of the sector administration and management are rudimentary, which started to develop, along with the rest of the civil service in the country, only after the 2005 Peace Agreement. But capacity building efforts of the government have been interrupted by conflict.

The General Education Sector Plan (GESP) 2017-2022, titled 'Planning for Safety, Resilience and Social Cohesion', is an effort to contain this stress on the system, and to give the sector a direction towards stability based on data, evidence and financing outlays.

The first two years of the GESP are framed as a transitional plan that is expected to rapidly increase enrollment along with building new infrastructure, supplying basic teaching and learning materials, regularizing teacher salary and training teachers to cope with the increased enrollment.

The following three years of the GESP are focused on institutionalizing teacher training, school supervision, and expansion of secondary and technical education.

The education system in the country consists of 8,000 primary schools (grades 1-8), 120 secondary schools (grades 9-12) and one university. There is only one functional teacher training college in the country to meet the demand for training teachers.

Result story

South Sudan: Securing a brighter future for children affected by conflict

  • South Sudan’s protracted conflict has taken a heavy toll on the education system.
  • The country has one of the world’s highest proportions of out-of-school children, with about 3 in 5 children outside of the classroom.
  • GPE, UNICEF and education partners are helping the government of South Sudan implement interventions to reduce the number of out-of-school children by 15%.

Grants

(data as of March 28, 2024)

 
  • Type: Program development

    Years: 2024

    Allocation: US$186,916

    Utilization: 0

    Grant agent: SCNORWAY

  • Type: Accelerated funding

    Years: 2023 - 2024

    Allocation: US$10,000,000

    Utilization: 0

    Grant agent: Save the Children US

  • Type: Multiplier

    Years: 2023 -

    Allocation: US$12,330,000

    Utilization: US$100,262

    Grant agent: WB

Civil society engagement

As part of its investment in civil society advocacy and social accountability efforts, GPE’s Education Out Loud fund is supporting the South Sudan National Education Coalition for the 2020-2023 period. This builds on previous support from the Civil Society Education Fund (CSEF).

Learn more

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