Education Needs Fairness, Not Punishment

On Monday, I made a difficult but necessary decision to transfer my son to a new school.

The reason was simple: he did not perform well in mathematics, despite consistently ranking second in his class throughout last year.

After an assessment test at his new school, the teachers described his performance as “average” and recommended that he repeat a class he had already completed.

This recommendation was made despite his strong performance in all subjects except mathematics.

I felt that this verdict ignored his overall academic record and violated the basic principles of fair, balanced and child centred assessment.

This experience contrasts sharply with his previous school in Uganda, where he was assessed holistically and promoted based on overall competence, growth and potential.

Any academic gaps were addressed through targeted support and corrective teaching, not through punishment or regression.

Why, then, does South Sudan’s education system appear to move in the opposite direction, penalising students for weaknesses that often result from school failures rather than individual effort?

This problem is not an isolated case. In South Sudan, many schools routinely force transferred students to repeat a class, or in some cases demote them by two grades, due to weakness in a single subject.

Such practices undermine students’ confidence, weaken their self-esteem, and disrupt their long-term academic development.

Education should inspire resilience, curiosity, and excellence. It should not reduce a child’s potential through rigid and unjust policies.

Urgent government intervention is needed.

Clear national guidelines and enforceable regulations must be established to ensure fair and consistent assessment of transferred students.

Teachers must be held accountable for learning gaps, and promotion decisions should reflect a learner’s overall performance rather than isolated weaknesses.

Schools should be encouraged and required to provide corrective support where gaps exist, instead of using demotion as a quick and harmful solution.

Every parent wants a high-quality education for their child. South Sudanese families should not live in constant fear that one weak link in a school system will derail a child’s academic journey.

Our children deserve an education system that is fair, supportive, and focused on developing their full potential, not one that punishes them for failures they did not create.

Taban Gabriel is a South Sudanese journalist. For enquiries about this article, he can be reached at: gabronn2014@gmail.com.

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