Language, education and peace in South Sudanese schools: the impact of language of instruction choices

• In Event: Language, Literacy, and Learning: Evidence from Education Reforms

Proposal

This paper is based on in-country research into language choice in formal schooling, carried out between 2019 and 2025. The primary research methods were: participant observation in workshops, conferences and Ministry of General Education and Instruction (MoGEI) events; a series of open-ended stakeholder interviews; and extensive literature study. A rich context has thus been built for considering the study’s implications for future practice in South Sudanese education, and particularly Education in Emergencies.

The context
Approximately 30% of South Sudan’s school-aged children currently attend school (South Sudan Education Cluster Advocacy Brief, 2025). The government education system is weak, and international development organizations that implement Education in Emergencies (EiE) programming are influential actors in the provision of schooling (Burde et al., 2017; Maxwell et al., 2018; Pherali, 2019).

The national Language in Education Policy (LIEP) mandates the use of “the indigenous language of the area” as medium of instruction through Primary 3 (General Education Act, Republic of South Sudan, 2012, pp. 23, 24). Government implementation strategies include the development of P1-P3 teaching and learning materials (TLMs) in all subjects. So far, all Primary 1 subject TLMs have been completed in 5 languages and work is proceeding on TLMs for Primary 2 and Primary 3. The General Education Sector Plan for 2023-2027 (2023) calls for adding 7 more South Sudanese languages to the materials development and teacher training tasks.

Stakeholder response
Stakeholder response to this policy and its implementation has been tepid. Where parents are aware of the policy, they often ask, “Why would we pay school fees for our children to learn in the home language?” (I. B., personal communication, August, 2025). Many teachers are refusing the new TLMs (S. L., personal communication, August, 2025), despite evidence that the English-language curriculum is not serving young learners well (Mott MacDonald 2020; South Sudan Education Sector Plan 2023-2027, 2023, p. viii; UNESCO IIEP Regional Office for Africa & GPE, 2023, p. 128). Language of instruction is not the only cause of poor education outcomes, but it is a persistent and severe handicap to pupil learning (Reddick & Dryden-Peterson, 2021; Walter, 2025).

The EiE context
EiE providers are important education implementers in South Sudan, especially in the rural areas of the country (South Sudan Education Cluster Advocacy Brief, 2025). Official EiE policy is aligned with the national LIEP, promoting the use of learners’ L1 in the early grades. The 2012 INEE Minimum Standards document for South Sudan names “mother tongue [that is] different from language of instruction” as a barrier to the right to education (INEE, 2012, p. 15). UNESCO IIEP guidance to the MoGEI on rapid EiE responses (2022) also states that pedagogical materials should be available in local languages, and that staff should be able to “work effectively in multilingual contexts” (p. 11).

EiE practice in South Sudan
However, EiE schools in the country are largely ignoring this EiE recommendation, and using English as the LoI (Mott MacDonald, 2020). This choice of an international language of instruction over an African language is common in international refugee contexts, where the pupils come from different language contexts and even different national contexts (Reddick & Dryden-Peterson, 2021). However, in South Sudan, the rural communities being served by EiE programs are populated by South Sudanese citizens. In addition, for the most part there is one dominant South Sudanese language per school. The pupils are not international refugees, they are national citizens; they could, in fact, be taught in one indigenous South Sudanese language per school, in line with national policies.


This language of instruction choice appears to be shaped by beliefs that ethnicity, culture and language are major drivers of conflict in South Sudan (Carolan, 2021), leading to the conclusion that language and culture issues must be avoided. English is seen as the language best able to support peace in the classroom (Kuol & Oringa, 2021). So, despite most EiE-supported schools having one dominant South Sudanese language, English (the colonial language) is seen as the best language choice for peace in the classroom and the nation (Hammond, 2013).

Language, culture, education and conflict in South Sudan
This view is not an isolated one. In the literature, non-South Sudanese observers point to the historically ethnic-based conflict in South Sudan as a major driver of conflict today (Janke & Reisman, 2015; Roach, 2023). South Sudanese analysts tend to see a more nuanced picture, including the substantial impact of politically-motivated attempts to gain power by stirring up tribalist motivations among uneducated youth (Duany et al., 2021). Kuol and Oringa’s 2021 study of South Sudanese student perspectives on this issue found that students were three times more likely to attribute the causes of violent conflict to a lack of education, and the resulting inability to think critically, than to ethnicity or tribal competition.

Data from participant observation and stakeholder interviews aligns with the students’ views in Kuol and Oringa (2021), that the indigenous languages and cultures are not to blame for the conflict in South Sudan. One powerful illustration of this argument was seen in a recent MoGEI workshop for developing TLMs for Primary 1 learners in the Dinka, Nuer, Bari, Zande and Toposa languages. Despite the participants being from opposite sides of the current conflict, the 8-week workshop found them working together towards the goal of helping South Sudanese students to learn. They were convinced that education in the languages of the region could bring peace and development to South Sudan.

Language and critical thinking
The findings of this research indicate that in South Sudan, education is key to restoring and maintaining peace (Mayai, 2022) - but only if it is delivered in a language the students understand. Effective education for peace allows pupils to use their own languages and cultural knowledge to “critically consider the way they exist in the world they find themselves in” (Abiyo 2022:47). The use of South Sudanese languages in education is good for the country: it facilitates learning, and also teaches students to think critically about their context.

Authors

• Tanya Spronk, SIL

• Barbara Trudell, SIL Africa Learning & Development