Port Sudan / Kassala — An estimated 19 million children are out of school as the war continues in Sudan, UNICEF said yesterday. Meanwhile, as more than 5.5 million children living in areas less affected by the war wait, local authorities have not yet confirmed whether public classrooms can reopen.
In its latest report, UNICEF said that 6.5 million people have lost access to school due to increasing violence and insecurity in their area, with at least 10,400 schools closed in conflict-affected areas.
Before the conflict erupted in April, some 7 million children were out of school, and if the war continues, "no child in Sudan will be able to return to school" in the coming months. Experts warn of many immediate and long-term risks, including displacement, recruitment by armed groups, and sexual violence.
Mandeep O'Brien, UNICEF Representative in Sudan, said "Sudan is on the verge of becoming home to the world's worst education crisis."
"Children have been subjected to the horrors of war for almost half a year. Now that they have been forced away from their classrooms, teachers, and friends, they risk falling into a vacuum that will threaten the future of an entire generation."
October re-opening
Private universities and private colleges are set to resume their studies in mid-October, as per the direction of the Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research, Mohamed Dahab.
The Director General of the Education Sector in the Red Sea State, Hashim Issa, announced a meeting with the departments of primary, intermediate, and secondary education to discuss the implementation of the decision issued by the Council of Ministers to resume classes in October.
He warned of a shortage of seats and textbooks, stressing that they are working with the available resources, and did not rule out resorting to a two-shift system in one school in the event of a significant increase in the number of students.
Five schools in Port Sudan have been used as shelters, but plans are in motion to relocate residents a week before the start of the resumption of classes.
Disagreements
Many different parties have criticised the decision to re-open schools in light of mass displacement and asylum-seeking, in addition to the presence of students and professors in war zones and their inability to leave them.
The Kassala State Teachers' Committee announced its categorical rejection of the decision to resume classes under the current circumstances.
Sayeed Tamba, head of the committee, told Radio Dabanga that they would not allow schools to start because teachers' salaries had not been paid for over six months.
"57 schools in the city of Kassala had been turned into shelters for displaced people coming from Khartoum, and we are expecting the number to increase." He called on the authorities to pay teachers' salaries and on organisations to provide schools with resources to function.
Favouritism
In its statement, the Teachers' Committee rejected the decision to resume studies in safe states, calling it "an entry point to divide Sudan." They scorned the non-payment of teachers' salaries, the transformation of schools into shelters, and the lack of essential educational resources.
"This decision demonstrates unacceptable favouritism towards those who are able to continue education, without accounting for the wide spectrum of Sudanese people who will not be able to return to school."
They indicated their suspicion of "courtesy and collusion with the owners of private schools, who have transferred their activities to safe states or outside Sudan, leading to the expansion of private education at the expense of public education."
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Hisham El Nur, head of the preliminary committee for professors at El Nileen University, told Radio Dabanga that the decision to resume and stop studies concerned the university councils and not any other party.
In a statement to the press last week, Deputy Special Representative for the UN Secretary-General and Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator for Sudan Clementine Nkweta Salami said: "I have met families sleeping in makeshift shelters, struggling to find food and water, unable to access health care, their children out of school and the family breadwinners out of work."
Radio Dabanga sources reported from El Fasher in North Darfur that more than 500 displaced families from Nyala that found shelter in the Southern School for Boys. They are suffering from severe shortages of water and food.
