This is the VOA Special English Education Report.On July ninth, South Sudan becomes the world's one hundred ninety-third nation.Almost ninety-nine percent of voters last month chose independence from the north.South Sudan will also be one of the world's least developed nations.This follows years of war and neglect by the Sudanese government in Khartoum.South Sudan is about the size of France. Yet it has only fifty kilometers of good roads and almost no public electrical or other basic systems.Illiteracy rates are high. There are estimates that more than eighty percent of the population cannot read or write.There are five universities. Three of them moved their operations to the north during the war.The southern government has brought most of the students back.Officials estimate that about twenty-five thousand students have registered at the five universities.Classes were supposed to start in April. But the Ministry for Higher Education in the southhas now moved the opening date to the middle of May.
