ANKARA (AA) - UNICEF, on Monday, said South Sudan is the least-spending country in East Africa on public education in 2019-2020.
While the international standard for public education funding is 20% of the national budget, South Sudan only spends 5.6% in 2019-2020, UNICEF said in a report.
It said that some 2.2 million children lacked access to quality education, "jeopardizing the future of the entire country,'' the UNICEF said.
The organization called on South Sudan to allocate more public funds for children's education in the report, Addressing the learning crisis: An urgent need to better finance education for the poorest children.
In the report UNICEF indicated that roughly one in three adolescent girls living in the poorest households worldwide "has never been to school."
"Poverty, discrimination due to gender, disability, ethnic origin or language of instruction, physical distance from schools and poor infrastructure are among the obstacles that continue to prevent the poorest children from accessing quality education," said the statement.