By: Deng Athian
The Education Director in Twic County of Warrap State, John Kongor Thou, has refuted allegations of fund mismanagement.
In a statement to the media, Kongor publicly refuted claims of embezzlement in the student examination fees, stating clearly.
This is in response to the report last week by some teachers who accused him of mismanagement of examination fees.
A group of teachers issued a letter accusing the Director of Education of embezzlement of 21.9 million South Sudanese Pounds (SSP) meant for examinations.
The director claimed that there was no amount of money that had been stolen in the county as propagated online.
He emphasized commitment to transparency, clarifying that examination fees collected from learners were delivered to the state examination office.
“The money collected from Primary Eight students for filling examination forms is being used for its primary purposes,” he said.
He expressed that his administration remains committed to ensuring that all the money collected must be accounted for.
“There is no money loss or unaccounted for. Kindly disregard any sort of misinformation perpetuated by enemies of progress to assassinate my immense personality,” Kongor stressed” he added.
Idea of Free Education
In 2023 President Salva Kiir Mayardit called for free primary and secondary education in the country.
“All levels of government should ensure that free education policy is adhered to as provided by the law, including free registration of pupils and students,” said the presidential order read on state-owned radio SSBC on Monday.
The order directed the ministry of general education and instruction to come up with policies that shall promote and attract free and compulsory primary and secondary education.
The ministry of finance and planning together with development partners was also ordered to avail the necessary funding to the ministry of education to ensure that the policy is executed.
However, till now such initiatives continue to face challenges since they are no longer free.