A Crisis of Education: Female Secondary School Enrollment and Completion through the South Sudanese Civil War

Abstract

On July 9, 2011, South Sudan became the 54th country in Africa and the youngest country in the world. Less than three years after independence however, the South Sudanese Civil War broke out, killing and displacing millions of civilians over the following five years. One consequence of the war was the immense toll that it took on the development of the education sector. Today, nearly nine years after independence, South Sudan is in a crisis of education. It is the country with the highest proportion of out-of-school children in the world, and there are extreme gender imbalances within the system.

This thesis examines the status of female secondary school enrollment and completion and explores the ways in which the South Sudanese Civil War has obstructed girls’ ability to remain in school. The intersection of war, gender imbalances, and secondary education in South Sudan provides a unique lens through which to analyze how the War has impacted a subsection of the population’s more vulnerable members. This thesis employs education and gender reports from NGOs and International Organizations as well as South Sudanese government policies on education and gender, to reveal how the challenges that girls face in continuing their education past the primary levels have been exacerbated, and to expose weaknesses in government policies that were meant to improve the education system and tackle preexisting education gender disparities.

In response to the War, the rates of child, early and forced marriage (CEFM) have increased. I argue that the laws and regulations against CEFM have fallen woefully short due to loopholes concerning ‘customs and traditions’ and a lack of enforcement at the local level. Additionally, education has been crowded out of the South Sudanese Government’s top priorities. I argue that this has compounding consequences for girls in particular, who suffer from extremely high dropout rates between primary and secondary school and often require external support to continue their education. New education policies must be informed by these consequences of the War; otherwise, stark gender disparities will persist.