JUBA, June 4 ( Xinhua) -- At least 1.5 million South Sudanese children have enrolled in school in 2018 despite the ongoing civil war that has displaced more than four million people, data released by the country's education ministry on Monday shows.
According to statistics from the School Attendance Monitoring System, an online education monitoring platform, school enrollment this year reached a record breaking 1.5 million in May, up from less than one million in 2013.
Michael Lopuke Lotyam, undersecretary at the Ministry of General Education, attributed the improvement in school enrollment to introduction of school meals, cash incentives for school going girls and teachers, strengthened partnership with aid organizations in the education sector and improved security.
Lotyam added that enrollment for female student across the East African country increased from 39 percent in 2014 to 45 percent this year.
"Based on an analysis of enrollment patterns and number of admission registers and school budgets received, it is now expected that academic year 2018 enrollment will reach 1.7 million pupils, reporting from 3,800 schools across the country," Lotyam told a news conference on Monday.
According to the UN, South Sudan's education indicators remain among the worst in the world, with 73 percent of the country's population of an estimated 12 million people illiterate and 2.2 million children out of school.
Another 19,000 children are estimated to be in the hands of armed groups in South Sudan, according to the UN Children's' agency UNICEF. The country's education crisis is blamed on protracted conflicts and under-funding by the state.
Despite the little gains, Lotyam warned that the number of out-of-school children in South Sudan could rise to 2.5 million in the next two years if the ongoing conflict does not stop.
"The number of out-of-school children has increased by almost 500,000 children since 2014 and if this trend continues, in the next two years, we are going to see more than 2.5 million children will be out of school and this is because of the ongoing crisis in the country," said Lotyam.
