Education in eastern Sudan: dropouts and deprived girls
Many children in eastern Sudan miss out on education, according to an official report issued by the Ministry of Education in Sudan’s eastern Kassala State. It blamed social restrictions on keeping girls out of the classroom.
Overall the number of pupils taking the basic education exams in 2012/2013 was in decline, the report said. Some 8,245 pupils sat the exams, 416 pupils fewer than a year earlier, largely because of South Sudanese people returning to their country and students dropping out in order to work at mining sites and search for gold.
A government, whether federal or state, should allocate a reasonable amount of its budget to education.”
Girls are particularly under-represented in education, the report showed. For instance, in the localities of West Kassala and Hamshkoreib only 77 boys took the exams but not a single girl.
Ali Muhammad, a well-seasoned Beja educator, welcomed the report for highlighting the problems -- as opposed to other official documents which focus solely on selling a positive story.
Muhammad argued that the root cause of the shrinking school attendance was poverty. We have to call a spade a spade,” he told The Niles.
The number of pupils who took these exams in the El-Gezira State was as high as 67,000, well above Kassala State.
The solution to this tragic situation should be borne by the Ministry of Education and all the components of the State and society,” said Mahmud Hassan, a retired teacher. A government, whether federal or state, should allocate a reasonable amount of its budget to education like most developed countries. People should be the focus of development but our government only allocates one percent of its budget to education.”
Mahmud al-Haj, a researcher in the issues of eastern Sudan, said reducing poverty and incorporating the mother tongue -- the Bedawi language of the Hadendoa people and the Tagri language of the Beni Amers -- into the curricula of grades one to three would promote education in the eastern region. The difficulty of understanding subjects in Arabic creates a psychological barrier between pupils and school,” he said.
The difficulty of understanding subjects in Arabic creates a psychological barrier between pupils and school.”
Al-Haj called on intellectuals from the eastern region to develop relevant curricula and said the current curricula have proven an utter failure”.
In addition to the role of the government, civil society can play an important role in this field, according to Ali Kanjar, a teacher interested in upgrading education in eastern Sudan. He believes that responsibility rests with the civil society and communities with respect to positive interaction, awareness of the importance of education and abandoning the worn-out habits that forbid girls’ education”.
Believes hampering girl’s education in eastern Sudan vary, however, early marriage is one of the main obstacles keeping girls out of school. Many consider the role of women to be limited as care takers only, therefore they believe girls do not need an education.
