Education in Sudan

Education in Sudan is free and compulsory for children aged 6 to 13 years. Primary education consists of eight years, followed by three years of secondary education. The former educational ladder 6 + 3 + 3 was changed in 1990. The primary language at all levels is Arabic. Schools are concentrated in urban areas; many in the South and West have been damaged or destroyed by years of civil war. In 2001 the World Bank estimated that primary enrollment was 46 percent of eligible pupils and 21 percent of secondary students. Enrollment varies widely, falling below 20 percent in some provinces. Sudan has 19 universities; instruction is primarily in Arabic. Education at the secondary and university levels has been seriously hampered by the requirement that most males perform military service before completing their education.

The literacy rate is 70.2% of total population, male: 79.6%, female: 60.8%.

In the 1850s the Turks, who were ruling Sudan through the Khedive of Egypt, decided to open five schools in different towns in northern Sudan. These taught Islamic studies, arithmetic, and the Arabic and Turkish languages. The teachers in the schools were Egyptians. The schools were all destroyed during the Mahdist period between 1881-1898.

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. These taught little more than the memorisation of the Koran, and even these were disrupted by the disorders before 1898. There were no educational facilities at all in the south.

The policy of the condominium was to gradually Sudanize the administration in the Sudan, replacing the Lebanese and Egyptians who had previously held official posts. Lord Cromer in 1903 defined the policy clearly, and also insisted that education policy should concentrate on a basic elementary education for the masses. With this in mind, in 1900 the colonial authorities started to create a school system, geared to provide Sudanese officials for the lower grades of the administration, and decided to appoint as many Sudanese as possible to posts not requiring education. They made efforts to reopen as many kuttabs as possible, by giving subsidies to teachers. Instructional workshops were set up at Kassala, Omdurman, and at the Gordon College. But higher class Sudanese refused to send their children to these workshops. So 4 government primary schools were created. 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.

However, this all concerned education for boys. It was in 1907 that education for girls began on the initiative of Sheikh Babikr Bedri at Rufa`a in the Blue Nile province. Eventually this, too, received a government subsidy.

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