Commissioners praise Futuyo for ‘saving county education’
The commissioners of Western Equatoria State have hailed the area’s governor, Alfred Futuyo, for funding the state’s education sector.
According to them, although the money is little, it will help salvage the endangered education sector in the state.
Last week, Futuyo donated SSP 10 million to each of the 10 counties in Western Equatoria State to support the education sector as well as the operation cost of the counties.
Mvolo County Commissioner, John Komo Dee, told The City Review that Governor Futuyo deserves a high honour for his decision to directly give such support to wake up education at the county level. He also expressed optimism that the money would be disbursed transparently, likely to minimise cases of misappropriation.
Dee said the SSP 10 million was very vital for the kick up plans for the education system in the counties, especially in revitalising the poor education system across the counties.
The commissioner revealed that there has always been money given to education, mostly for government schools, but there was nothing given by the previous government to the authorities.
“We can start with this and since this current government is concerned about education, we hope the money meant for education will continue to go to the rightful hands, especially the education authorities,” he stressed.
Zelipha Dawa Justine, the commissioner of Mundri West County, said revitalising the endangered education system was a collective responsibility of every level of the state government.
Dawa appreciated the state government for such a great initiative and called on the government to prioritise injecting more funds into sectors like education and health to enable the citizens to enjoy the fruits of independence and peace in the country.
“Since the beginning of the war, the state’s education system has nearly completely collapsed, so injecting such money into the education sector is a huge success in bracing the state’s collapsing grassroots education system, ” Dawa said.
However, she said more funds are required to be injected into the education sector, and that the amount received would only help kickstart plans to re-establish a good and viable education structure in the state.
“The money is not enough. As a standing order from the governor, we will begin with perhaps the maintenance of one or two schools, ” Dawa added.
“We wanted to select the 40 government schools and restate them. Then we will make sure at least 10 staff are recruited in each of the selected schools.”
According to Dawa, the SSP 10 million was allocated for the restructuring of government schools. These include the renovations, the selection of the schools and the recruitment of the staff, but not paying the teachers’ salaries.
“Counties are the pillars of the state because counties are the ones carrying the state. The states carry the national government, so we are appealing to our national and state governments to continue supporting us,” she said.
Support for schools
Last week, Western Equatoria State Governor, Lt. Gen. Alfred Futuyo Karaba, injected SSP100 million into the education sector, and each county got SSP 10 million.
In the letter, Futuyo directed all the county commissioners to use the money allocated firmly for education.
He also directed the county commissioners to include all education directors, paramount chiefs, chiefs, and parents’ council in the use of the funds, which target 40 public schools in the county.
The governor urged the commissioners to hand in copies of their work after the completion of each program.
He also directed educational authorities to employ 400 teachers in each county according to grade.
The governor promised that teachers would be paid on a monthly basis.
The governor also ordered all the school-going children in the state to go to school and all the teachers to report to their places of work.
The same order is to be implemented by the county commissioners, education directors, paramount chiefs, parents, guardians, and organised forces.
The order further directed all county education directors to ensure that teachers attend to their work regularly and that for anyone who fails to comply, administrative action will be taken against them.
