Books Offloading Delayed By Lack Of Crane

This article was last updated on May 25, 2022

Canada: Oye! Times readers Get FREE $30 to spend on Amazon, Walmart…
USA: Oye! Times readers Get FREE $30 to spend on Amazon, Walmart…

Joak said that he requested the United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) crane for lifting the books but it was not possible due to the poor roads.

The minister said that they have a plan to transport the books through the White Nile until they reached Melut County then to be offloaded using the crane used by the petroleum company in Palouge.

The containers received in Malakal hold approximately 720,000 textbooks, teacher guides and readers destined for the primary schools and Accelerated Learning Program (ALP) centres located in 10 counties in the state.

“The National Textbook Distribution delivered 83,000 primary textbooks in 5 subjects (Science, English, Mathematics, Religious Education and Social Studies for 32 lower and higher grades in Primary and books for the ALP centers located in Malakal Central, Malakal South, Lelo and Ogot payam,” the distribution officer Mr. Huub Gales reported.

A amongst the books earlier delivered, Panyikang, Fashoda and Manyo County headquarters received a total of 6 containers with books.

Some of the books distributed according to the minister were missing the upper classes, primary 5, 6, 7, 8 which he claims to be due to poor planning and distribution of books.

The minister in July confirmed the arrival of the remaining last 20 containers from Juba shipment which were delayed due to poor accessibility to the land locked state.

In the first week of June the SPLA garrisons in Renk and Malakal received 24,985 textbooks and teacher guides for further distribution to the armed forces primary schools and Accelerated Learning Program (ALP) centers in Upper Nile State.

The book distribution took place in all the 10 states of South Sudan, in which a total of around 9.6 million books was proposed to be delivered to around 5,000 schools, both ALP and primary schools including both private and government managed schools.

The distribution was an initiative of the Ministry of General Education and Instruction (MoGEI) in support from United Kingdom (UK)-Aid through their Department for International Development in Juba. 

Two containers for schools in Malakal County were stuck in Jonglei State because of the bad road conditions which were holding a total of about 73,000 books for Malakal County.

Gales said that the deliveries were delayed because the ferry in Malakal was not working and there was a backlog of vehicles waiting to travel to other side of the Nile.

He said that the distribution team will continue with the deliveries in those counties.

Meanwhile the one transported using Jonglei State s’ Ayod and Duk padiet roads were affected by poor roads accessibly.