South Sudan: a new Lasallian high school for country’s future

South Sudan, which gained independence in 2011, after a long and bloody war with North Sudan, counts some 80,000 students, however a 70% school drop-out rate does not bode well for their empowerment and for the young nation. The country continues to be plagued by a civil war that began in 2013 and there is a dire lack of schools, qualified teachers and teaching materials.  Currently less than 27% of  the population is in school and only 16% of girls and women can read and write. 

For this reason the Lasallians have chosen to celebrate their Jubilee on the  300th anniversary of the death of their founder, Saint John Baptist de La Salle, by setting up a new school.

The middle and high school for boys will be located in Rumbek, in the Western Lakes State where a secondary school for girls run by the Loreto Sisters since 2006, today offers education to some 300 young Sudanese.