Education came to a standstill in South Sudan’s five public universities after the lecturers went on strike following the government’s failure to respond to a strike notice.
The lecturers are demanding for payment of salaries and bonuses owed to them after a directive from the Council of Ministers which had hiked salaries of all civil servants after the local currency was devalued by 84 per cent in December last year.
Immediate pay, medical cover, travel allowances and salary increase are the demands being made by the lecturers according to a lecturer at Juba University, Philip Finish, who also doubles as the spokesperson for the lecturer’s joint assembly.
“We sat in the general assembly of all the five public universities and resolved that if our demands are not met after the expiry of the seven days issued to the government, we shall have no option but to lay down our tools,” Mr Finish told journalists in Juba.
Juba, Rumbek, University of Bahr El Ghazal, John Garang University of Science and Technology and Upper Nile University, are the university to be affected.
Lecturers earn a minimum of 400 dollars a month which is proving very little to survive on with the inflation now standing at 224 per cent.
South Sudan government is wary of other civil servants demanding pay increase since the lecturer’s strike followed the April strike by medical workers.
