Global Education Executives 

SUDAN

 

Sudan’s work towards quality education has been severely hindered by internal strife and a lack of resources and support, seeing one of the sharpest declines in education in recent years despite previous years of progress. Though it is Africa’s third largest country with a population of almost 50 million people in 2024, over 60% of Sudan’s population is considered impoverished, caused by an ongoing history of factional strife, multiple overturnings of the government, violence, and dissent within the country, and poor agricultural grounds. COVID-19, especially, has had severe tolls on the country, leaving more and more families struggling to merely survive. 

​

All of these factors directly impact the education of the youth within Sudan, which saw about a decade of educational progress between 2008 and 2018—2800 schools were opened, allowing over one million students to enroll, and the number of students proceeding from primary to secondary school increased by 100,000—before the pandemic and continued political strife frustratingly decimated all years of progress. Today, about 6.9 million children in Sudan are out of school, with most if not all of these children experiencing a disruption in education since 2019. Sudan also sees a high number of gender-driven dropouts: gender inequality, which has possibly been aggravated in Sudan since the repercussions of the pandemic, has severely affected young Sudanese girls. If not for economic reasons, then early marriage, pregnancy, and FGM have negatively affected the enrollment rate of girls in Sudan. As is the case with other impoverished countries, there is a clear lack of personnel and resources, with underpaid and under-trained teachers commonly leaving for better-paying jobs.

​

Despite all of this, there is still hope. UNICEF, as expected, continues to work hard in supporting Sudan with basic-level trained teachers and humanitarian help whenever possible, focusing on marginalized, disabled, or even just female children. They have also implemented a unique approach to boosting Sudan’s quality education with the introduction of E-learning and digital learning, allowing students to access online audiovisual lessons even as their physical school sessions have been disrupted. USAID, as well, has been working with donors to financially support education for over a million Sudanese girls as well as change the stigma against females and education within the country. They also supply the youth in general with essential life skills. Global Partnership for Education (GPE), in partnership with UNICEF, focuses on bringing textbooks and better infrastructure to the country’s education system; Abdirahman Azain, a headmaster at a Basic School for Boys in Sudan, has remarked that four students used to share one textbook, but now each student has his own.

​

Even with the disruption of Sudan’s education system in recent years, global organizations that have worked hard and continue to work hard in the country to make education accessible once more for its youth, slowly taking the steps towards quality education. 
 

Resources

1. Global Partnership for Education. (Oct 2020). Sudan: Building the Foundation for a Strong Education System. GPE.https://www.globalpartnership.org/results/stories-of-change/sudan-building-foundation-strong-education-system.

2. UNICEF. (n.d.). Sudan: Education. UNICEF. https://www.unicef.org/sudan/education.

3. USAID. (n.d.). South Sudan: Education and Youth. USAID.

4. https://www.usaid.gov/south-sudan/education.