Prevent war - give South Sudan's youth an education

By Deng Simon Garang

Myriad challenges facing youths in South Sudan are typical of all countries in the Third World. The gravity of these challenges threatens the prospects of the country and so requires adequate attention from government and relevant stakeholders.

And if anyone thinks they can win in addressing these challenges, they should prepare to do so. Before going further let’s look at these:
 

Illiteracy
Generations of an illiterate community emerged, thrived and went by along the long road of history in South Sudan. That was convenient at their time, but as the world gears toward “modernization and civilization”, the need to boost education remains a big challenge particularly to South Sudan.
 

Born by civil war
The country has just emerged from series of civil wars that claimed over two million lives and forced more than four million others to flee their homes. Several generations have been lost to illiteracy as a result. 

This is time to establish a strong foundation for change and the youth to take the lead. But a considerable youths in South Sudan has not had access to primary education, let alone secondary and higher education. 

The overall effect of high illiteracy has been seen in the youths finding difficulty in forging common purpose among themselves, supposedly a duty of all youth but is left to the educated youth in urban centers who are not representative of the whole nation. 

How do we include youth in rural areas?
It (illiteracy) also dictates conduct of youth workshops and seminars in urban towns, while the majority of the youth remain in countryside, where there are rampant inter-tribal conflicts, child abduction and cattle raiding which are often perpetrated by the youth themselves. 

I believe a change of the mindset of the illiterate youth would plunge the country off its present threat of internal insecurity. The youth should be educated with the aim to achieving a lasting peace.
 

Young South Sudanese are far from facebook
In retrospect, less mobilization is achieved through technology due to illiteracy. Only very few of youths have access to internet and can explore famous sites like news agencies, facebook and twitter.

Today the rain season gets in the way of progress
During the April 2010 general elections and January 2011 referendum campaigns, the only mode of mobilization was traveling across the nation, conducting mass rallies. Many civil societies emerged but they suffered severe logistical problems and could not deliver much; some parts of the country are inaccessible especially during the rainy season and there is no alternative to waiting for the dry season of the year. 

Assuming that the youth are to engage in a rapid impact project lasting less than a week during the rainy season, how possibly could they achieve the goal in South Sudan? Or for how long should all national programmes be scheduled for the dry season of the year.

New schools will be build
In a move to fighting this enormous scandal in the country, recently the National Government has allocated budget for the construction of thirty primary and four secondary schools nationwide. 

Whether there is effective human resource to manage these institutions in order to bring about the expected change remains another question whose answer is beyond the scope of this writer. Over the past six years interim period, higher institutions of learning in the country were often associated with Khartoum, as South Sudan was a region within Sudan.

But with independence declaration on July 9, 2011 South Sudan had to assume all roles – whether it is prepared or not. The result: Higher education at halt, leading to many youth not graduating on time. In a nutshell, the government remains to do a lot in the aspect of youth empowerment, because empowered youth means better society.

Unemployment
If one were to precisely define the youth, they would say - or likely say something similar to – ‘they are the productive proportion of the population.” Here arises a question: How can the youth be productive when they do not have access to opportunities, when they are not capable of producing for themselves? 

Corruption, nepotism - and no private sector
As a country that has just acquired independence, South Sudan’s private sector industry is infantile. So the major employing sector is the government whose limited opportunities are often spiced with little – if we could be sympathetic and say less – corruption and nepotism. 

Consequently, there is a huge bunch of unemployed, unproductive youth who are likely to turn into criminals. Poor standard of living cannot go unmentioned here. However, hopes lies in the fact that the horizon is clear as most natural resources remain unexploited and the youth will have a better future.
 

Cultural conservativeness

Many youth ambitions have been assassinated in the political landscape of South Sudan. In most communities, it is unlikely that a young man/lady contests a political post in opposition to the elderly, who are perceived to have enough experience. So the youth find difficulty gaining tickets to contest during elections. 

Here, a sharp line is cut between the political elders with the right to be voted and the youth who are only turned into a pool of voters. Influential youth get included in the government through appointment to executive or political posts.
 

Keeping this stereotype in mind, the political bearing of South Sudan with respect to youth participation in politics cannot be changed without a considerable input to transform the cultural perspectives of the whole South Sudanese society.