Benghazi / Kampala / El Radoom / Reheid El Berdi / El Geneina / Nyala — The Sudanese Ministry of Education has set the start of the secondary school exams for the school year 2023-2024 on December 28. Many students, however, will not be able to sit for the exams, due to the continuing war between the Sudanese army and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) that erupted nearly 18 months ago. The administrations of Darfur states controlled by the RSF did not receive an official notification.
When Malaak Bakheet (17) heard that the Sudanese Ministry of Education had announced new dates for the Sudanese Certificate examinations (as the secondary school exams are called in the country), she thought about her school days before the outbreak of the violence in mid-April last year. At that time, she was ready to sit for the exams, "only a few weeks away", in her hometown Nyala, the capital of South Darfur.
Malaak, who was forced by the fighting in Nyala, occupied by the RSF in November last year, to seek refuge with her mother and brothers in Libya. She left her schoolbooks at home and after she heard about the ministry's announcement, she started searching for books online so that she will not miss the opportunity to sit for the exam this time. "I have begun studying and preparing. For sure I will face many difficulties, but I have no choice, this is my only chance," she told Radio Dabanga correspondent Abdelmonim Madibbo yesterday.
"I wonder if the ministry will send the exam papers to Benghazi so that we can take the exam here," she wonders. "I don't know if there are other Sudanese students in Benghazi who are going through the same situation as me. I wouldn't know how and where to sit for the exams."
The situation Malaak is going through is experienced by thousands of students who were prevented by the war to sit for the 2024 Sudanese Certificate (as the secondary school exams are called in Sudan). Many of them were among the more than 13 million people in Sudan who fled their homes and sought refuge in other places in the country (8,1 million) or crossed the border into a neighbouring country or travelled abroad elsewhere (2,9 million).
'Download the books'
When Madibbo asked Sudanese WhatsApp groups discussing the possibility of taking the Sudanese Certificate about their problems, Fatima Bishara, the mother of Samar Abdallah, who fled with her children to Kampala in Uganda, responded by saying that "we even do not know the date set by the ministry for the exams.
"Many questions have been running through my head about the future of my daughter who should be doing her exams now," she replied. "Here in Kampala, we are trying to get Samar to sit for the exams, but she does not have the required books. We tried to get the books from Port Sudan or Juba, but failed," Bishara added.
She said she heard about a school in Kampala where Sudanese students are able to attend classes reviewing the subjects of the third year of the secondary school curriculum, "but the school is far away, so I could not enrol my daughter. So, we downloaded some of the books from the Internet."
Her daughter has now filled out the exams form sent by the Ministry of Education in Port Sudan to the Sudanese Embassy in Kampala. "We are now waiting to see what will happen in the coming days."
In Nyala, Nihal Adam was forced to prevent her daughter Ola from attending classes when the Sudanese Air Force intensified its airs raids after the RSF had taken control over the city in the end of last year. She told Radio Dabanga that "Ola continued studying for 43 days after the fighting ended in Nyala, but I stopped her when the airstrikes on the city intensified."
She told Madibbo that her daughter was not ready, "even though she has filled out the exam form but we have not received her seat number yet".
Adam Bashshar in El Radoom in South Darfur told Radio Dabanga that "My two sons have been harmed by the suspension of studies. This has destroyed the future of my sons." He demanded the schools to be be opened so that his sons can continue their studies and sit for the Sudanese Certificate exams.
Secondary school teacher Ibrahim Ahmed told Radio Dabanga from El Radoom that "we heard talk about exam dates through social media but have not received any official information about the start of the exams".
He stressed that most students have not completed their curricula, and that many teachers have fled to other places. "In addition, the school are not prepared and the teachers have not received their salaries since the start of the war."
El Hadi Ahmed, director of the El Radoom Secondary Education Department, explained that there are five secondary schools in the locality that lack teachers and seats. "All these circumstances make it difficult to conduct exams in El Radoom."
Weakened motivation
Students in South Kordofan are facing the same problems. "There is a possibility of holding the Sudanese Certificate exams in the region, but the negative points of holding the exams are more than the positive ones," a teacher in Delling in northwest South Kordofan told the Radio Dabanga correspondent.
"The deteriorating living and security conditions the students now experience, are undermining their morale that in turn will affect their academic achievements. Moreover, most students will have difficulties in absorbing the subjects due to the long period they have been out of school," she said.
"Most students have now become displaced, and many are doing odd jobs in the markets or anywhere else they can earn some money to be able to buy food. Therefore, it takes time to readjust them to the studies, and the time allotted for exams is very short."
An educational expert in Habila in South Kordofan confirmed the difficulty of holding the Sudanese Certificate exams at the present time. "If they are held on the date set by the ministry, the exams will not achieve their true objectives."
'Supposed to be equal'
Student Hasan Burma from Keilang in Reheid El Berdi in the southwestern part of South Darfur said that he heard the exams will be held in the end of December.
"We have not received any information from the state education ministry or the Reheid El Berdi locality education department. "I don't know whether we will be able to sit for the exams or not," he told Madibbo.
"How can we compete with students in for instance River Nile state and Northern state, or Red Sea state [under control of the army] where the students have continued their studies. They have completed their mock exams and are now preparing for the exams in study camps, unlike us, who were forced to stop attending classes when the war broke out," he explained.
"This is not fair. In the end, these are Sudan Certificate exams in which all Sudanese students are supposed to be equal."
Under RSF control
The federal Ministry of Education in Port Sudan, Red Sea state, recently announced that the postponed Sudan Certificate exams for the year 2023-2024 will begin on December 28, while the exams for the year 2024-2025 will be held in February next year.
South, West and East Darfur were seized by the RSF in the end of last year. The native administration* leaders, appointed by the paramilitary commanders to deal with the management of these three states, confirmed that the states' education ministries have not been notified of the dates of the Sudan Certificate exams.
"If the federal ministry chose the path of conducting exams for students in some of the states only, this could lead to more injustice in the country and widen the gap between the classes in Sudanese society," the head of the West Darfur native administration, El Tijani Karshom, told Radio Dabanga.
He said that they had heard talk about the exams, "like any other Sudanese", via the media.
"In the past period, the native administration, through the West Darfur Education Ministry, community initiatives, and partners from international organisations, have made efforts to reopen some schools, and enable to offer a large number of primary school students here classes again," he reported. "However, the major challenges facing education is that it seems that no one bears responsibility for education in the country.
"We are now thinking of making [the state capital] El Geneina a centre for the state's examinations, in case the federal ministry decides to hold examinations for all students in Sudan. We, as the state's city administration, will secure and prepare these centres."
Regarding the transfer of the exams, Karshom said that the most appropriate option is "that they are sent by Port Sudan to Abéché [in neighbouring Chad]. The native administration could then transfer them from Abéché to El Geneina and distribute them to the examination centres. After the exams are done, the papers could be sent to the location specified by the federal ministry to deliver them to the correction centre".
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Mohamed Hasan, head of the native administration in South Darfur, head, said they did not receive an official notice from Port Sudan.
He indicated that "the transfer of the exams to South Darfur and returning them for correction cannot be done except through the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) or any neutral mediator, because the government in Port Sudan does not deal with the native administrations in the states controlled by the RSF" and added "that the native administration cannot not guarantee the conditions outside their control in the state".
Hasan warned that "if things go in the direction of holding exams for students in some states and not others, this could lead to more injustice in the country and a widening of the gap within the Sudanese society.
The situation concerning education in areas controlled by the RSF confirms the stance of the de facto government in Port Sudan. The Sudan Media Forum reported in September that the federal Ministry of Health considers the areas under RSF control 'unreachable' and neither provides medical aid nor financial support to the health ministries in these areas.
In October last year, the federal Education Ministry's instructed the resumption of studies in the areas controlled by the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF). The Sudanese Teachers' Committee rejected the decision to resume studies in safe areas, calling it "an entry point to divide Sudan". A member of the River Nile state Teachers committee commented a month later that "We do not want an elitist education that serves half of the students in the country, but a normal education that includes all."
* The Native Administration was instituted by British colonial authorities seeking a pragmatic system of governance that allowed for effective control with limited investment and oversight by the state. The state-appointed native administration leaders also took on new responsibilities for executing policies, collecting taxes, and mobilising labour on behalf of the central government. According to the Darfur Bar Association (DBA), Sudan's native administration during the 30-year rule of dictator Omar Al Bashir did not represent the real community leaders.
