Ogolli William Orem is the head teacher at Ayii Central Primary School in South Sudan. He is from the local community, and has served the school since 2008. The school has about 500 students, half of them are girls. There are 10 teachers, only four are trained and two are women.
Ayii Central Primary School reflects the UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS)data available on South Sudan, where the student-to-teacher ratio is 50:1 and the percentage of trained teachers is 44.
Without urgent action, massive teacher shortages across sub-Saharan Africa will get worse with the rising demand for education from a growing school-age population. To achieve universal primary education in Sub-Saharan Africa by 2030, 6.2 million teachers will need to be recruited; 79,000 just in South Sudan, according to UNESCO.
To accommodate the growing demand, many countries resort to hiring teachers with little or no training, at the cost of learning quality.
Read our blog on Ogolli William Orem's school.