| dc.description.abstract | This study examines the influence of human conflict on education of children in primary
schools in South Sudan’s Juba region. In the study, several scenarios were considered: First,
human conflict is likely to destroy a country’ system of education through the loss of
infrastructure and personnel. Second, families who are displaced may be more concerned about
security or lack of it for their children that education may seem a lesser or even non-existent
concern to majority. The insecurity of parents in regards to their children seems related to the
vulnerabilities of the children relevant to the human conflict experiences. Such vulnerabilities
may include kidnappings by armed forces and being made soldiers, shrapnel wounds, rape and
worse cases being death. Third, parents' may decide to keep children from school, as most
schools would be closed. Some other reasons that may reinforce parents’ decision to keep their
children from schools include; fallen education standards, and lack of logistics to sustain
meaningful schooling including children’s transportation to and from schools, as well as feeding
program at such a time when children are at school. Fourth, a delirious but yet another
significant cause may be the drawing away of funds for increased military expenditures to fight
the conflict. Using UNESCO education data, the researcher examined the percentage change in
participation of educational activities and primary school attendance for schools in Juba region
from December 2013 to April 2014. The researcher used a measure of when the region was in
human conflict, a dynamic post-conflict measure, an interaction with military spending, and
relevant control variables. A target of 103 schools was used to derive a sample of
270respondents whose results were used for analysis. Questionnaires were distributed to the
respondents and interviews conducted and the data that was obtained, analyzed using Statistical
Package for Social Scientist (SPSS) version 20.Results of analysis were presented in frequency
tables and regression analysis was performed to ascertain the influence of the independent
variables on the dependent variable. This study has shown that in the majority of contemporary
human conflicts, military forces and non-state armed groups use schools and other education
institutions for purposes such as bases, barracks, detention facilities, torture centers, firing
positions, and munitions caches. In addition to the risk of death or severe injury from attacks,
pupils’ attending classes in schools occupied by military forces witness violence and are
exposed to physical or sexual abuse by the combatants. Further findings also indicated that the
presence of troops in schools also influences young people’s right to education, and leads to
students drop out, reduced enrolments, lower rates of transition to higher levels of education,
loss of motivation or absenteeism by teachers and faculties, overall poorer educational
attainment and recruitment for violent activities. Reasons as why troops prefer to occupy
schools compared to other institutions calls for further research to remedy the situation. The
study recommends that the government criminalize all attacks on education and educational
facilities and ensure all attacks on education are impartially investigated, and those responsible
are duly prosecuted – whether through civilian or military courts and prohibit the use of schools
and other education institutions by military, security or non-state armed actors through domestic
legislation and military doctrine. If lessons learnt from this study are implemented and
replicated in other states and counties of South Sudan, then this could help in improving the
country’s education indicators, which still remain among the worst in the world. | en_US |
