South Sudan's English Daily Newspaper
"We Dare where others fear"
By Simon Deng
The Vice Chancellor of the University of Juba, Prof. Robert Mayom Deng, has revealed that a funding shortfall has hindered efforts to expand the campus to accommodate the 43,000 students currently enrolled at the institution.
“Universities are lacking the basic requirements. We have a problem; we are trying to revive one of the campuses across the river, but unfortunately, we don’t have the funds to do that. With a population of about 43,000 students at the moment, the facilities are insufficient,” said Deng during China, South Sudan high-level symposium on peace and development .
“I am currently working with a group of volunteers at my institution because if you don’t provide people with the benefits of their work, their motivation wanes. This is a crucial issue that needs to be addressed,” Deng added.
Deng highlighted that institutions of higher learning are not adequately funded, noting that many scholars from South Sudan are seeking training abroad.
“If you look at our universities, our scholars are going to other countries for training. In my opinion, this is related to funding; institutions of higher learning in this country are underfunded,” he stated.
Martin Elia Lomuro, the Minister of Cabinet Affairs, acknowledged that while the government has been paying salaries for university lecturers, no budget has been allocated for infrastructure development at the universities.
“I understand that all the experts are in the universities, but we are not actually providing any funds for infrastructure development, equipment, or the modernisation of universities; we have not done that,” Lomuro explained.
“The intention to fund education has been discussed several times in cabinet. Investment requires a significant amount of money for universities to be able to provide quality education that will enable us to develop our own human resources,” Lomuro concluded.
