UN: More than half of South Sudanese kids not in school

FILE - In this Tuesday, Dec. 31, 2013 file photo, a young displaced boy rests on the wheel arch of a water truck while others fill containers from it, at a United Nations compound which has become home to thousands of people displaced by the recent fighting, in the Jebel area on the outskirts of Juba, South Sudan. The U.N. children's agency said in a statement Tuesday, Jan. 12, 2016 that more than half of children are not in school in South Sudan, which has seen violence for two years as government forces battle rebels, the highest proportion of children out of class in any country. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis, File)

By Associated Press January 12, 2016 1 min read

JUBA, South Sudan (AP) – More than half of the children in South Sudan are not in school, the highest proportion in any country, the U.N. children’s agency said Tuesday.

Fifty-one percent of children between ages 6 and 15, or 1.8 million children, are not in school in South Sudan, which has seen violence for two years as government forces battle rebels, UNICEF said in a statement Tuesday.

Even before the conflict began, 1.4 million children were already missing class. Since the war broke out, over 800 schools have been demolished and more than 400,000 children had to abandon their classrooms.

South Sudan is followed by Niger, where 47 percent of the children are not in school, according to Phuong T. Nguyen, UNICEF’s chief of education for South Sudan.

Only one in 10 South Sudanese students who enter school finish primary education amid a shortage of facilities and trained teachers, Nguyen said.