GESS Supports Improved School Governance

Since the first phase of GESS started in 2014, Girls’ Education South Sudan (GESS) has been working tirelessly to put in place education management structures at the school level, such as School Management Committees for primary schools and Boards of Governors for secondary schools. The role and responsibilities of these management bodies are to ensure school development plans and budgets are managed properly and accounted for so that the school can experience year-on-year development in line with key priorities. 

As stipulated in the General Education Act 2012(a), the administration of government schools shall be vested in a governing body to be known as the Parents and Teachers Association (PTA) at primary levels and the Board of Governors (BOG) at secondary levels, where PTA members will elect a School Management Committee which shall be responsible for matters related to resource mobilization, academics, discipline, co-curricular activities and the general welfare of learners. School Management Committees are like the traditional PTAs but include the voices of the learners through the inclusion of the Head Girl and Head Boy.  

GESS has made efforts to strengthen school governance through school-based training in more than 6,000 schools across the country. “With continuous support from GESS’ central team, we managed to visit schools that completed school governance training. We came to notice that there were remarkable changes that happened in government schools,” Andrea Amet told us. Andrea is the GESS Team Leader for Western Bahr el Ghazal state. More than 540 government, community, and private/faith-based schools across the three counties of Western Bahr el Ghazal state have been supported through school governance training. 

One school stands out for Andrea – Kuanya Primary School. “We sat down with members of the School Management Committee, headed by Alfred Bol Lual, the group’s Chairperson, and Head Teacher Martin Aken Majak, to better understand the factors that helped them to effectively collaborate to achieve impressive school improvements,” said Andrea.  

“The school was established in early 2004 as a community school, but in 2014 was handed over to the government. The school was selected as a priority school [in the first phase of GESS] and received school governance training. However, the school management changed, and the remaining Committee members seemed to not have grasped  the training well and consequently, the school management began to deteriorate and got closed for one academic year – 2021/2022,” Andrea added.  

The devoted School Officer, Dominic, responsible for Jur River South schools, noted the status of the school and ensured that it was re-selected for school-based training in 2023 after the pre-training assessment was carried out successfully. “The 13 management committee members came together, and they received eight training sessions where the members got skills and knowledge of how to run the school and mobilize resources for school development,” stated Dominic.  

Photo 1 Kuanya Primary School – School Management Committee  

GESS trains the school governing bodies to increase their capacity. The areas of training and responsibilities of these bodies include: 

• Carrying out a needs assessment in schools 

• Identifying development priorities 

• How to compile a school development plan 

• Mobilising additional funds to implement the school development plan
  Carrying out school improvement and school development activities. 

• Monitoring learners’ attendance 

• Monitoring teachers’ attendance 

“Moreover, all the sub-committee members began mobilizing children to come to school and the enrolment of the children had risen from 285 in 2021 to 440 in 2023. It is worth noting that the sub-committee on fundraising worked tirelessly, lobbying for funds until they managed to get support from the UN’s Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS), which is now constructing two classroom blocks – one office and a store, as well as the government constructed two semi-permanent classrooms,” the Head Teacher explained. 

If we turn our attention to Warrap State, just next door to Western Bahr el Ghazal, we find more positive stories of school development through school governance training. In 2024, 60 schools received school governance training across the six counties of Warrap state. The selection criteria prioritized schools in hard-to-reach areas and schools that had no prior training in school governance.  

Rumdit Primary School fit the bill as a school in a remote area and was one of 14 schools selected to receive the training. It is a community school established by a group of volunteer teachers in 2005, located in Twic County of Warrap state. The school had its classes under trees until 2017 when six classrooms were constructed using local materials. Sadly, all six classes collapsed during the flooding that occurred in 2020.  

Rebecca Nyankor Bol is a 45-year-old mother of five children and the Chairperson of the School Management Committee. She is a hard-working housewife respected by both men and women in the village. Although she welcomed her election, once selected as the Chairperson, Rebecca wondered what she should be doing with her members to improve the school. “I did not know what to do in the school before the training and I thought such a role should have been given to men since women are busy with cooking and taking care of the children at home. I also thought management of the schools is the responsibility of government.” 

During the training, the School Management Committee members acquired skills in fund mobilization through community engagement. Rebecca identified that one of the main challenges faced by the school was how both learners and teachers would run home when they saw rain or heavy wind coming, often interrupting learning for days. The school needed more sheltered classrooms. Rebecca called for a community meeting to raise funds for the construction. “There was huge attendance of the village members and Rebecca requested all the members to contribute 10,000 SSP each household and one man contributed 60,000 SSP worth of bricks,” said Rebecca. 

Many community members contributed and one block with two classrooms and gender-segregated latrines were constructed. “Community members and parents became happy and gained trust in the SMC members and promised to contribute again for the construction of another block with four classrooms in 2024,” said Rebecca. 

GESS believes that an active and empowered school governing body will transform schools for the better. “We don’t train SMCs and BoGs to only utilise capitation grants. but also, to mobilise resources through other means for schools to run smoothly. If they grasp this and implement it, they will not wait for donations and that’s what we hope for. An active school governing body which is empowered means a better-managed school. A better-managed school means better performance and that is the end goal- for children to be taught well and excel,” Kute, GESS Team Leader in Unity State. 

Categorised in: Capitation Grants, Human Interest Story