The future of education in light of the political crises in Sudan

Written by Hiyam Mukhtar

Some schools and universities were directly affected by the shelling with heavy weapons. On April 18, 2023, three students were killed as a result of a shell falling near their home in the East Nile region. Othman Abdel Moneim, 17, is scheduled to sit for secondary school exams on the tenth of next June, according to what the Ministry of Education in Sudan announced, but he put his pamphlets and books aside and began to follow with interest the war that broke out ten days ago. Between the Sudanese army and the Rapid Support Forces in Khartoum.

He was stricken with anxiety and fear from the sound of heavy weapons and bullets, which penetrated the ceilings and walls of homes and led to the deaths of a number of his peers. Othman prays to God for the war to end and says that this situation does not augur that the academic calendar will proceed as planned.

Othman’s condition is no different from that of more than 500,000 male and female students who will sit for the Sudanese certificate exams this year. They abandoned their notebooks after they saw on television and various media the fires and corpses lying on the ground, and they fear the same fate, said the spokesman for the Teachers’ Committee, Sami Al-Baqer. for «Middle East»

He added, “The academic year will be affected if the war continues between the army and the Rapid Support Forces for a period after Eid al-Fitr.” “The academic year will be affected because it is the scheduled date for some classes to sit for final exams,” noting that the academic year is scheduled to be 180 days, but it started 50 days late after it was suspended for 30 days due to the teachers’ strike.

He pointed to efforts to compensate for the 80 days that were lost by increasing school hours during the day and making Saturday a school day and not a holiday, in addition to extending the school year for an additional 15 days, and he said: “If the war continues between the two parties, treatment becomes impossible, so the year becomes The study is not internationally accredited.

He pointed to efforts to compensate for the 80 days that were lost by increasing school hours during the day and making Saturday a school day and not a holiday, in addition to extending the school year for an additional 15 days, and he said: “If the war continues between the two parties, treatment becomes impossible, so the year becomes The study is not internationally accredited.

However, the director of secondary education at the Ministry of Education, Abd al-Karim Hassan, told Asharq Al-Awsat that the school year will not be affected by the war between the two parties to the conflict because the calendar has been amended so that secondary school exams will be held on the tenth of next June. However, he did not specify an exact number of students who will sit for the exams because the ministry has not finished counting them. He continued, “Last year, about 500,000 male and female students sat, and usually the number of those sitting is more than the year before,” noting that first- and second-year secondary students will sit for final exams on May 13, pointing to the difficulty of listing the schools that have been affected. war at this time.

The Director of the General Administration of Education for the Basic Stage in Khartoum State, Mohamed Hamdoun Al-Bashir, said that the academic calendar has ended, and the basic education exam, which includes the primary and intermediate stages, remains and is scheduled to start on the fifth of next month, and the primary certificate exams on the 22nd of the same month. Al-Bashir added, “Before the war broke out between the conflicting parties, the Department of Measurement and Educational Evaluation in the Ministry was carrying out the final procedures for entering the data of the students examining the primary certificate, but it was stopped due to the current events.”

The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) indicates that more than 7 million children need regular education, in addition to the need of more than 8 million children for humanitarian assistance. Educational expert Ahmed Mustafa told Asharq Al-Awsat that the vision is not yet clear about the fate of the academic year, but if the war continues between the army and RSF, it will inevitably affect the academic year and all the Sudanese people, and he called on the two parties to the conflict to sit down for dialogue.