5 million Sudanese children are trapped in conflict areas and are at risk of losing access to education and basic protection services (Reuters)

Khartoum -

Millions of students in Sudan face an ambiguous fate as the war between the army and the Rapid Support Forces continues and extends to about 9 states out of 18, where the educational process has been completely disrupted in light of widespread displacement and major destruction of educational institutions, and hundreds of schools in safe areas have been turned into camps sheltering those fleeing. From fighting.

The conflict, which has been ongoing for 9 months, has caused the internal displacement of nearly 6 million people, half of whom are children and about 1.5 million others who have sought refuge in neighboring countries.

Five million children find themselves trapped in areas of active conflict, putting them at risk of losing crucial access to education and basic protection services, according to Save the Children.

As the fighting expands outside the capital, Khartoum, spokesman for the Sudanese Teachers Committee, Sami Al-Baqir, confirms to Al Jazeera Net that most public education institutions in the areas affected by the conflict are not ready to receive students due to their destruction as a result of the bombing or their use as a war platform or military barracks.

Many schools in safe areas in Sudan have been turned into shelters for displaced people (Associated Press)

The danger of illiteracy

The same speaker confirms that many schools in safe areas have been turned into shelters for displaced people, pointing out that 11 million students who should have been in schools have been absent from them throughout this period.

Al-Baqir points out that more than 3 million children in the early educational stages - the first, second and third grades - are now at risk of illiteracy due to long absences from school.

Nearly 1,100,000 secondary school students also face an unknown fate after exams that were scheduled for May 2023 were unable to be completed.

These obstacles, according to the spokesman for the Teachers Committee, cast a heavy shadow over the future and conditions of secondary school students in the second year and middle school students who have become vulnerable to dropping out.

According to the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), about 19 million children in Sudan are out of school, a statistic it announced 6 months after the start of the armed conflict, warning of "a disaster for an entire generation."

The organization said - in a statement last October - that about 6.5 million children lost access to school due to increasing violence and insecurity in their areas, with at least 10,400 schools closed in areas affected by the conflict.

More than 5.5 million children residing in areas less affected by the war are waiting for local authorities to confirm the possibility of reopening schools.

Teacher Elias Bassil warns of thousands of students in Sudan relapsing into illiteracy (Al Jazeera)

The worst educational crisis

“Sudan is on the verge of becoming home to the worst education crisis in the world,” said the organization’s representative in Sudan, Mandeep O’Brien. “Children have been exposed to the horrors of war for nearly half a year. Now, forced away from their classrooms, teachers and friends, they are at risk of falling into a vacuum that will threaten The future of an entire generation.

The fierce fighting will extend to many states, which will increase the number of students unable to access stable education.

Al Jazeera Net monitored the closure of schools in several states, including Kassala and Gedaref in the east of the country, which are among the areas that were not affected by the war, but most of the buildings were turned into shelter centers for displaced people from the states of Khartoum and Al Jazeera.

Primary and middle school teacher Elias Basil estimates the number of students in Sudan at 11 million male and female students, including 9 million in the primary and middle levels, distributed among approximately 22,000 schools throughout the country. He warns of their relapse into illiteracy and the high dropout rate with the continuation of the war and the deteriorating economic reality.

Speaking to Al Jazeera Net, Bassil believes that the displacement of millions of families is a dangerous indicator of the future of the educational process, noting that a third of the teachers, students and students in Sudan were in Khartoum, where the fiercest battles took place.

The educationist describes the current educational conditions as “the worst crisis” that this sector has experienced in Sudan since the beginning of formal education, as all school-age children are at risk of falling into illiteracy in the lower grades and dropping out in the upper grades.

Bassil criticized "the absence of the role of the Ministry of Education in light of this incomprehensible reality and unknown results."

He pointed out that saving the educational process begins with stopping the war and providing safe places and paths, stressing that all educational institutions are not currently qualified to receive students after they have been destroyed or turned into shelter centers and perhaps military barracks.

Bassil confirmed that studies would be halted in all five states of Darfur, as well as the states of Gedaref, Kassala, Blue Nile, Khartoum, and Al-Jazira, considering that attempts to resume studies in the northern states, the Nile River, and the Red Sea aim to “achieve political gains.”

handicaps

Despite attempts by safe states far from conflict to resume the school year,

The obstacles to the education process prevented this.

Chief among them is the lack of availability of the textbook, especially for the third intermediate grade, as its copy did not reach schools operating in Sudan nor those that opened their doors to students outside the country. Teachers also suffer from a lack of salaries.

Teachers Committee spokesman Sami Al-Baqir confirms that the suspension of salaries since last April 15 has had a negative impact on teachers economically and socially, forcing hundreds of them to search for alternative and marginal professions.

Al-Baqir talks about the catastrophic conditions surrounding more than 350,000 teachers, administrators, and workers in the education sector, including patients who cannot afford treatment, and widowed teachers or families. All of them faced forced displacement and asylum without receiving salaries.

Several Sudanese schools made attempts to accommodate tens of thousands of students who took refuge in neighboring countries, led by Egypt, by opening branches of schools that operate according to the Sudanese curriculum.

Large numbers enrolled in schools in Cairo governorates, but the connection to the Sudanese calendar and curriculum made it difficult for some students to continue studying for some classes and curricula in light of the lack of clarity in the educational vision due to the continued closure of schools in most Sudanese cities.

Al-Baqir calls for concerted efforts to continue and resume the educational process, because stopping it further means more destruction. He stresses the importance of agreeing on the foundations for restoring it, which is justice, and that education should not be a means of continuing the war, but rather a means of curbing it, limiting it, and keeping it out of schools and homes.

The same speaker calls on both parties to the conflict in Sudan and regional and international organizations working in the field to make efforts to restore the educational process.

Sami Al-Baqir adds, "The de facto government has a role in providing workers' salaries, textbooks, etc., and the same applies to Sudanese civil society organizations. If these efforts are coordinated, the educational process can be restored, and we must - as a society - end this war, which has brought calamity to Sudan."

Source: Al Jazeera