War… Education crisis highlights Sudan’s divisions
Co-authored by: Mashair Darrag, Mansour Al-Suwaim and Mohamed Saeed Halfawi
June 27, 2024 (PORT SUDAN) – The war has extinguished the joy of 6-year-old Marwan, who was preparing to start first grade at a private school south of the Sudanese capital at the end of 2023. Instead, he found himself displaced in the town of Dongola in northern Sudan, in a shelter where he had originally planned to study.
With the Sudanese government, which has taken over the eastern city of Port Sudan as its provisional capital, insisting on opening schools in safe states, millions of children in conflict zones have found no solution to their fate. This effectively means the division of Sudan into areas where education is available and others that have not been spared from rocket fire.
In the Kordofan region, in the west of the country, 2.5 million children have fled the region with their families, some seeking refuge in neighbouring countries. This statistic, released by the National Council for Children Welfare, represents the largest displacement of children of any country in the region.
Running in the camp yard
Marwan is running in the courtyard of the camp in Dongola, 600 kilometres north of the Sudanese capital, in the midday scorching heat. He does not care about his fate, whether he will stay here for a long time without an education, or whether he will be lucky enough for the war to stop. His mother, Maryam, 35, says (exclusive statement) that on the first day he arrived at the shelter after fleeing the hell of war in the Sudanese capital with his family, her child asked her if this was the school he would attend this year. The answer came through her tears, which saved her from having to answer.
The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) estimates that 18 million children have been left out of school during the war in Sudan. As the fighting enters its first year, that figure could rise to between 19 million and 21 million children as some age groups reach school age, according to education hope fading
Safia Mohamed Hassan, the headmistress of a government school in the Sudanese capital, does not see “hope on the horizon” to rescue Sudanese children from the education crisis. The woman, who has 25 years of experience in education, spoke of what she called the “fundamental reasons” why schools are failing, either because of the displacement of children, some of whom have left the country to seek refuge in neighbouring countries and are unable to attend school there, or because of the empty stomachs that afflict the majority of IDPs. As a result, the idea of sending a child to school has become a luxury.
Hassan believes that as the war escalates and societies are plunged into chaos and poverty, a large proportion of children between the ages of 12 and 18 will join the fighting, either alongside the army, the Rapid Support Forces or armed groups, out of a desire to bring money home to their families or to experience a new challenge in their lives, as they are unaware of the dangers of war and recruitment.
Safia Mohamed Hassan attributes Sudan’s education crisis to structural problems. Former Prime Minister Abdullah Hamdok and his government, which was overthrown by the military on 25 October, initiated effective plans to address them through the gradual introduction of free education and the dismantling of administrations linked to the deep state, which encourage the private sector to dominate education and prevent millions of poor children from going to school.
A dream on a plastic pillow
In a Port Sudan shelter, a plastic pillow on the floor serves as both a seat and bed for 60-year-old Ali Hassan, who yearns for home.
“Our children are out of school here,” Hassan laments. This coastal city has become a refuge for hundreds of thousands displaced from Khartoum, Al Jazeera, Kordofan, and Darfur.
The schoolyard, now a makeshift camp, echoes with the sounds of children at play, their voices competing with the roar of generators in the stifling 40°C heat.
“We seek safety and want to go back to our home in North Khartoum (Bahri)” Hassan continues. “There, my children attended a public school. But that can only happen when the war ends. For now, I need a job and income for rent and school fees, which is impossible without help.”
The solution lies in peace
Malik Dahab, a former North Darfur cultural official, where fierce fighting rages, asserts that education cannot progress until the war comes to an end.
“Piecemeal efforts aren’t enough,” Dahab states. “Education must be available to all 18 million children who have been deprived of it. They need to return to school with the assurance that the war is truly behind them.”
The ongoing arms race and dwindling hope for children’s education compound the tragedy of a nation embroiled in a potentially protracted war. While scattered initiatives attempt to salvage education, a comprehensive solution remains elusive.
The worst education crisis
UNICEF’s representative in Sudan, Mandeep O’Brien, says 18 million children are out of school because of the war, calling it the world’s worst education crisis.
In a statement, O’Brien reveals that 7 million children were out of school before the conflict, meaning that one in three children had never attended school. She notes: “Schools across Sudan have closed because of the fighting. While some states such as Northern, Red Sea, Blue Nile and Sennar have partially reopened, most children are still unable to resume their education.
O’Brien reveals that 14% of schools are now sheltering displaced families. UNICEF is working with partners to facilitate children’s return to school and to promote community engagement in education.
“Education is a lifeline for children,” says O’Brien. “It provides security, prevents harmful practices such as child labour and recruitment, and offers a sense of normalcy.”
O’Brien urges the reopening of schools across the country, especially in safe areas. She highlights UNICEF’s efforts, including the establishment of 1,000 safe learning spaces that have reached 941,000 children.
For children in conflict areas, UNICEF supports a free digital platform that provides access to the Sudanese curriculum. O’Brien explains: “The platform is designed for low-bandwidth access. Users can download updates every two months to study offline.
A dark spot and a glimmer of hope
Saeed Hijazi, deputy coordinator of the People’s Teacher project in Shendi, stresses that the school closures have exacerbated Sudan’s education crisis. Two graduating classes of high school seniors have been particularly affected and are facing psychological distress as a result of the delay in their Sudanese matriculation exams.
He added: “A large proportion of students in the third year of secondary school have entered the labour market or, in the case of girls, early marriage. Students in the sixth grade of primary and middle school have been affected by the lack of textbooks”.
Saeed also highlights the challenges faced by children who have fled with their families to neighbouring countries. These children are often bullied in their new schools and struggle to learn new languages.
In Damazin, the capital of the Blue Nile region, the People’s Teacher project, led by coordinator Ramzi Adam, has opened three education centres. The Al-Safa centre serves 120 children from Khartoum and other cities, while the Al-Hijra centre in western Damazin serves 160 children aged 10 to 16. A third centre in “Al-Shaheed Afandi” was opened last April and serves 100 children.
Destruction of production and education
Abdel Gadir Abdallah Abu, secretary general of the National Council for Children Welfare, a government body, says that 18 million of Sudan’s 24 million children (40% of the population) have been deprived of education as a result of the conflict.
He explains that the war has displaced three million school-age children from Darfur, with some seeking refuge in Chad and southern Sudan. In Khartoum state alone, 2.5 million children have been displaced, while 1.2 million have fled the Kordofan region. The war has not only disrupted education, it has also destroyed the means of production, further hampering the educational process.
The Rapid Support Forces deny these claims. They maintain their commitment to international treaties and claim to have opened several schools in the southern belt of the Sudanese capital and in the Arkweet area east of Khartoum in May. They also claim to have funded school supplies and encouraged children to attend school.
International inaction
In contrast, Mohamed Mamoun, a researcher with an education organisation, proposes radical solutions to the education crisis during the war. He believes that the hunger caused by the armed conflict in Sudan is reducing the willingness of communities to send their children to school, preferring to send them to the labour market.
He added: “A child leaves home to go to school and his stomach should not be empty. A community that is displaced and seeking refuge does not feel safe, so education becomes a secondary concern”. He went on to say: “The decision to open schools in some states has a political dimension that allows the local government to tell people that the situation is normal and everything is fine, while the opposite is true and people are dying of hunger.”
Mamoun says education in Sudan needs significant international support, linked to humanitarian aid, to first “silence hungry stomachs”. Then schools should be opened in the towns and villages where Sudanese have been displaced, through UNICEF, which should provide “generous support” for education throughout the country. He also proposes an internationally-backed agreement between the army, the Rapid Support Forces and the UN to ensure the smooth running of the school year and to prevent education being used as a weapon during the war.
He added: ‘International actors in Sudanese affairs, including UNICEF, are not doing enough to save millions of children from an uncertain and unknown future. In one way or another, keeping children out of school directly serves to perpetuate the war”.
Walking in the dark
Even before the war, Sudan was not immune to the widespread phenomenon of child labour and the recruitment of young people into the military. But with the resumption of widespread fighting, including in the Sudanese capital, which is in the midst of military battles, this tragedy could push hundreds of thousands of children into the labour market, into combat and even into developing harmful habits.
Psychological counsellor Inas Al-Hadi Al-Amin believes that children feel an endless emptiness during armed conflicts. For example, there are no plans from morning until three in the afternoon, which is the usual time for school, and the child knows his or her daily routine.
Al-Amin adds: “The great emptiness generates negative behaviours in children, such as aggression, imitation of war tools or fighting, leading to violent tendencies and the development of personality disorders through daily exposure to violence.”
She warns of increased rates of smoking among children due to prolonged war, poverty, deprivation and disruption of education, and even a sense of abandonment, especially among teenagers.
The consultant continued: “Some children develop a sense of responsibility, so they go to the markets to work or go with donkey carts to collect plastic materials from the rubbish heaps in big cities or contemplate becoming warriors and going to recruitment camps, especially some children who have a strong physique despite their young age. Sometimes one of them wants to boast to his peers that he has joined the war as a compensatory behaviour for the social marginalisation caused by poverty and displacement”.
Al-Amin recommends some alternatives to save children from educational isolation, such as home-schooling by family members or online learning in areas where internet and electricity services are available, particularly in the cities of Atbara, Port Sudan, Kassala, Gedaref, Dongola, Berber, Wadi Halfa, and Sennar.
Government solutions
The academic year started in early May 2024 in some states, particularly in the North, Red Sea and Nile states, while Gedaref, Kassala, Sennar and Nile states plan to start at the end of June.
In Red Sea State, which includes Port Sudan, the administrative capital of the government, the state’s Ministry of Education was able to open a number of schools with 136,000 students enrolled. There are 618 primary schools and 73 secondary schools, according to the state’s education minister, Hashim Ali Issa.
In an exclusive statement, Issa said that 12,000 students from displaced communities were attending schools in the state and that there were 138 secondary schools, an initiative that had been reintroduced over the past two years.
He continued: “60 schools in the governorate have been maintained as shelters, and students have been assigned to nearby schools according to where they live.”
Schools in the Red Sea, particularly in Port Sudan, operate throughout the week from Sunday to Thursday, while integrated schools operate on a rotating system, i.e. three days a week, with Saturday as a non-school day.
The Minister of Education in Red Sea State, Ali Hashim Issa, confirms that the new academic year will face challenges, including a shortage of textbooks and seats. He said the state’s Ministry of Education was working with humanitarian agencies to address the shortage.
He added: “We are facing a problem of overcrowded classrooms and a shortage of teachers, especially at the middle school level.”
Preventing the war from spreading
With the war now in its 14th month, more than nine million people displaced and one million on the brink of famine, volunteers say a balance must be struck between tackling hunger and education.
An official from the Sudanese Ministry of Education, speaking exclusively on condition of anonymity, said there were 60,000 teachers in Khartoum state before the war. They have not received their salaries collectively and 30% of them have left the country due to the armed conflict and the suspension of education across the country since mid-April 2023.
The challenges are considerable, he says. If the number of teachers in the 17 other states is added, the number of teachers who have left the country could reach 40%, which means that there are about 180,000 teachers left.