A new campaign launched by the United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF) aims to bring education opportunities to 400,000 children whose schooling has been interrupted by the conflict in South Sudan.<\/p>\n
UNICEF\u2019s \u2018Back to Learning\u2019 campaign, which was launched in Juba today by the agency and the President of South Sudan Salva Kiir, will reach out-of-school children in all 10 states, including areas currently engulfed in conflict, over the next 12 months.<\/p>\n
\u201cAround 70 per cent of the 1,200 schools in the major conflict states have closed, raising grave fears that a generation of children could be left behind by the ongoing civil war,\u201d said Jonathan Veitch, UNICEF\u2019s Representative in South Sudan. \u201cQuality education is the single most important element for a country to develop economically, socially and culturally. It is also a critical human right.\u201d<\/p>\n
The $42 million campaign aims to allay disruption caused by the war, which has compounded the effects of an education system that was already weak at best. Before the war, primary education reached just 42 per cent of school-aged children, with only 10 per cent completing school.<\/p>\n
UNICEF and partners will provide a comprehensive package of education support for children aged three to 18 years of age who are sheltering in camps for internally displaced people or in host communities devastated by the war, where no education services are available.<\/p>\n
The UN agency will work with 20 local and international non-governmental organisations and aims to reach 200,000 children in schools and learning spaces in the conflict areas with pre-school and basic education, catch-up programmes for adolescents and psychosocial support in the classrooms.<\/p>\n