(AWEIL) – Eight teachers in Northern Bahr el Ghazal State have been detained following a dispute over unpaid salaries and accusations of financial mismanagement within the state education department. The incident has raised concerns among education stakeholders, with fears it could further disrupt learning across the region.
The arrests came three days after the state Teachers’ Union submitted a formal petition to the governor demanding the removal of Valentino Anei Deng, the acting director general of education. The union accused Deng of mishandling teacher salaries and misusing education funds.
According to a teacher who spoke on condition of anonymity, the eight educators were arrested on Wednesday at the education ministry compound in Aweil after they reportedly refused to leave the premises during a break. The source said that tensions escalated when Deng allegedly instructed the teachers to vacate the compound, leading to a physical confrontation.
“The director general locked himself inside his office. There was confusion, and eventually eight teachers, including our union chairman Luka Lual Garang Lual, were taken to a National Security facility in Kabat,” the teacher told Radio Tamazuj.
The Teachers’ Union has condemned the arrests and is demanding the immediate release of the detained educators. They argue that the group posed no security threat and were acting within their rights to call for accountability.
In response, acting director general Deng denied the allegations of financial misconduct and insisted that the teachers had acted unlawfully by storming his office and refusing to comply with administrative decisions. He said the group had declined to hand over their duties following the dissolution of the teachers’ steering committee.
Deng further claimed that the teachers were not being held by National Security, but were instead in police custody, and that the arrest process followed legal procedures.
However, the incident has drawn public attention and sparked warnings from civil society. Dorothy Drabuga, executive director of the Women’s Foundation for Humanity, cautioned that politicising education could have long-term negative impacts on students.
“Bringing political power struggles into education will only harm schools and delay academic progress for children in Northern Bahr el Ghazal,” she said, urging officials to resolve the matter peacefully.
The national Ministry of General Education and Instruction has not issued any comment on the incident as of Thursday evening.
The arrests occur against a backdrop of continued financial instability across South Sudan’s public sector. Teachers, like other civil servants, have gone for months without pay, despite budget allocations approved by the national Ministry of Finance.
In Western Equatoria, two teachers reportedly collapsed from hunger earlier this year after working for months without receiving their salaries. The Ministry of Finance has acknowledged a “liquidity crisis” as the reason for the salary delays, but has so far offered no viable plan for resolving the issue.