Education in Sudan

[3] Schools are concentrated in urban areas; many in the South and West were damaged or destroyed by years of civil war.

[9] Prior to the establishment of the Anglo-Egyptian condominium in 1898, the only educational facilities remaining in the Sudan were the village Koran schools, or kuttabs, in the Moslem north.

By 1914 the policy was working, and the students from these schools were filling the lower ranks of the administration, including the sons of the three Kalifahs and various Mahdist Amirs.

It was in 1907 that education for girls began on the initiative of Sheikh Babikr Bedri at Rufa`a in the Blue Nile province.

[13] Between 1898 and 1930, the condominium government policy in the South was simply to maintain a basic military control of the area, which otherwise remained undeveloped.

Although the government made clear a wish that the schools should focus on social and educational work rather than conversion, the distinction was in practice meaningless.

In addition, membership in the Popular Defense Forces, a paramilitary body allied to the National Islamic Front, became a requirement for university admission.

[19] Before 2005, instruction was solely in Arabic with few exceptions, among which was the University of Juba; teaching in English there recommenced as stipulated in the peace agreement of 2005.

[19] It began as Gordon Memorial College, a secondary school, and then became affiliated with the University of London in 1937, offering bachelor’s degrees.

[19] About 70 faculty who opposed al-Bashir’s Islamist reforms were dismissed in the early 1990s, and in January 1997, the university closed temporarily to allow students to join the armed forces.

[19] Higher education was primarily the domain of Northern Sudanese after independence, particularly those living in the capital region.

[19] These postsecondary institutions and universities had provided Sudan with a substantial number of well-educated persons in some fields but left it short of technical personnel and specialists in sciences relevant to the country’s largely rural character.

[19] In a parallel development, a number of provincial colleges were upgraded to university status, including those at Nyala, Dongola, Port Sudan, Kassala, and Al-Gedaref.

[19] The Islamic University of Omdurman, founded in 1921, existed primarily to train Muslim religious judges and scholars.

[19] Academics, professionals, and businessmen founded it in 1982 to meet the ever-growing demand for higher education and practical training.

[19] Its curriculum, taught in English and oriented to job training pertinent to the needs of Sudan, proved popular.

[19] Consequently, buildings, laboratories, libraries, and other facilities deteriorated seriously, especially at older institutions, along with the qualifications of the student body.

[19] The impact of Arabization and Islamization of the universities’ curricula produced a preoccupation among students with the passing of examinations rather than with the development of skills of analysis and critical thinking.

However, data from a 2006 household health survey in North and South Sudan showed that only 53.7 percent of children were attending primary school.

Unfortunately, many students came to school or not as their situations allowed, and perhaps half or more were unable to complete the education program mandated by the national government.

A second program was designed to address the problem of education among nomadic groups, at least 80 of which still existed in Sudan.

Many resided in North Kordofan State, where most primary schools, supported with UN funds, went only through fourth grade.

A third initiative, also launched in 2009, aimed at increasing the enrollment of girls in primary schools in the North by more than 1 million by 2011.

A two-year investigation made by Fateh al-Rahman al-Hamdani during 2018–2019 into 23 khalwa schools, with the support of BBC News Arabic, documented evidence of chaining, beatings, torture and sexual abuse.

[20] By December 2020, the film had led to a major public reaction in Sudan, with legislative changes and governmental promises of prosecutions.

[21] However a follow-up report by Al-Hamdani in December 2020 found the government had been slow to respond and there had been little real change.

[22] Girls’ education was traditionally of the most rudimentary kind, frequently provided in Muslim areas by a khalwa, or religious school, in which Quranic studies were taught.

It offered a mixture of academic and practical programs, such as those that educated women to teach in rural areas.

The newly wealthy elites considered Ahfad as the first choice for their daughters, and its graduates often went on to advanced studies abroad.

Stipends were also available to women students of modest means, a step toward improving access by females to education at all levels.