South Sudan Shutters Schools Amidst Rising Temperatures Causing Student Fainting Spells
Amidst a blazing inferno of a heatwave, South Sudan has decided to shutter all schools for the next fortnight. It’s a move prompted by an alarming reality: some children have fainted under the intense sun. How did we get here?
For the second year in succession, this nascent nation, already grappling with severe climate oddities that flood its lands in the rainy season, finds itself at odds with the February-March heat spikes. Deputy Education Minister Martin Tako Moi paints a vivid picture of an average of a dozen students succumbing to the fierce heat in Juba city each day. A staggering number when one envisions bustling classrooms reduced to scenes of children wilting under the sun’s relentless gaze.
South Sudan’s schools, often just metal-roofed structures without the whisper of electricity, find themselves parched for solutions. Cooling systems, a distant luxury at best, are missing altogether. This raises pertinent questions: What steps could be taken to alter this harsh reality? Are these classrooms destined to be arenas of discomfort?
Environment Minister Josephine Napwon Cosmos steps in to advise. “Stay indoors and keep hydrated,” she counsels as forecasts predict mercury levels soaring to a blistering 42 degrees Celsius. And in a bid to prevent further health crises, she floats the idea of government employees working in shifts—a wise suggestion, some might argue, in the relentless grip of the sun.
Nonetheless, education experts are voicing their discontent, signaling the need for a school calendar that heeds the country’s climatic whims. Wouldn’t it be more prudent for schools to go dormant in the fiery clutch of February and awaken in the mild embrace of April? Abraham Kuol Nyuon, dean at the University of Juba’s Graduate College, urges a tailored approach, one responsive to the diverse weather across South Sudan’s ten states. “Tailoring education to the environment, that’s how we prevent a silent collapse of learning,” he remarks.
Against this backdrop, the civil advocates at Integrity South Sudan cast a caustic glance at the government, deeming the recurrent school closures a sign of its failure to place the education of its children at the fore. Could these educational interruptions be a bitter fruit born of inadequate foresight?
The nation’s tribulations, however, are not new. It bears the scars of a brutal civil war, which, between 2013 and 2018, claimed nearly 400,000 lives. A hard-won peace tremulously holds, yet the political spectrum remains jittery. Elections, now an elusive goal, were pushed forward two years due to depleted coffers. And further deepening this economic chasm was a wretched twist of fate—a rupture in the vital oil pipeline to neighboring Sudan, mended only after considerable financial and temporal cost.
In a country where the immediacy of crises often eclipses long-term planning, are we witnessing the spiral of infrastructure caught unprepared by natural extremities? How can South Sudan build resilience against such severe disruptions? The queries linger, demanding answers as earnest as the scorching sun itself.
Edited By Ali Musa
Axadle Times International – Monitoring
