Juba, 11 February, 2020 / 4:29 am (ACI Africa).
The administration of a Catholic boarding secondary school for girls in South Sudan has pleaded with parents to present for enrollment only those girls that can stay in school for the entire four-year period of studies away from early marriages against the backdrop of increased demand for admission at the institution that has limited slots annually.
Sr. Orla Treacy, the Principal of Loreto Secondary School of South Sudan’s Diocese of Rumbek called on parents to stop enrolling girls that they intend to withdraw from the school for marriage before they are able to complete their studies. This, the school Principal said, denies more committed girls the valuable opportunity for formal education.
“Our appeal to parents and to girls is that, if you are serious about study and you can make the commitment for four years, come. If you know your daughter has that ability to study for four years, then send her to school,” Sr. Treacy told Good News Radio (GNR) of the Catholic Diocese of Rumbek (DOR), a Rumbek-based radio that is part of the Catholic Radio Network (CRN).
She added, “If you (parent) think after one or two years you are going to be looking into your daughter’s marriage, or you think she, herself is going to look at marriage, then please don’t waste our time and your time.”
The Irish-born Loreto nun urged both parents and girls notorious for abandoning their studies midway to “choose another school” in the upcoming academic years emphasizing that the Catholic school she has administered from its inauguration has become strict in its enrollment exercise.
