SUDAN'S EDUCATION SYSTEM SEES BRIGHTER FUTURE

Global Partnership for Education (GPE) funding addresses most pressing education challenges in Sudan, home to the largest number of out-of-school children in the Middle East and North Africa.

At the G7 Summit in Cornwall, the UK pledges GBP 430 million to GPE to help build back pandemic-hit education systems around the world.

 

May 2021 – Sudan is no stranger to challenging times, having dealt with numerous conflicts, deep political crises and environmental extremes.

And now the coronavirus pandemic has created additional pressures on the education system in Sudan.  Home to the highest number of out-of-school children in the Middle East and North Africa, with poverty-stricken families and ongoing conflict continuing in parts of the country. The provision of sustainable, safe and inclusive education opportunities is difficult. Without a robust infrastructure that creates accountability for student attendance, and information on the quality of teaching taking place, the true extent to which students are missing out cannot fully be known.

However, since 2012, GPE has provided Sudan with US$163 million in grants. The funding has been supporting such key education issues, in partnership with the country’s Ministry of Education and the World Bank. Collaborative working initiatives has meant that new, structured databases have been put in place to identify teacher training requirements and assess teacher training and levels of experience within the profession, so that students can be assured that they are receiving a quality education.

The funding has also enabled a new census to take place across the country. Fully auditing information such as attendance, levels of enrollment, school types and provisions available by locality.  This is not only integral to understanding what level of support is required to schools in Sudan, but also to learn how many children are still not able to realise their right to an education in the country. These new systems are helping to extend education to the country’s marginalised and excluded children.

00:00:00 - 00:00:12 - Port Sudan, Sudan - Aerial view of school in Port Sudan.

00:00:12 - 00:01:39 - Various clips of school life in Port Sudan, hand washing, lesson coverage.

00:01:39 - 00:02:00 - Khartoum, Sudan - GV Sudanese Ministry of Education.

00:02:00 - 00:02:32 - Employees at work in the Ministry, Khartoum.

00:02:00 - 00:02:32 - Census taking team at work, Port Sudan.

00:03:03 - 00:07:03 - INTV - Acting Minister - Under Secretary of Education

Acting Minister - Under Secretary of Education - Tamador Eltrify Awad Elkreem

[03:22-03:43] The success of educational institutions in the era of globalization, of course, is supposed to collect data, and this impact we found in 2018 from the educational statistics from the Global Partnership for Education

[03:44-04:01] And it had a great impact on the educational process, and it affected many axes such as increasing school entry, stability and pre-school education

[04:02-04:14] And primary education itself and increasing access, opportunities and equity in primary education, as well as in secondary education by acquiring and increasing skills

[04:15-04:29] And in the curricula with its stability and revision. All of this had a great impact on information, especially since we are in an era where there is no planning without data.

[04:30-04:52] So, the support of the global partnership has done a lot in building data units, and now after the great revolution made by the Sudanese people, it had to be matched by a revolution in education. This means that we need to build a lot in education

[04:53-05:05] We know how the situation of education has deteriorated in Sudan, and in order to build education and develop it, there must be a database, and there is no planning without data

[05:06-05:19] Many thanks to the Global Partnership for Education for having created a database unit that has a great impact on the entire educational planning

[05:20-05:38] So that we can face the educational revolution. We thank and appreciate the global partnership, and we reiterate our need for its support

[05:39-05:50] Especially since we need in the educational revolution to train teachers, and the infrastructure for education

[05:51-06:01] Especially when we are facing the Corona pandemic, and this pandemic has undoubtedly shown us the fragility of our education system, especially e-learning

[06:02-06:15] We need a lot of support in order to face the Corona pandemic and develop our e-learning

[06:16-06:30] Especially since we are facing the third wave of the pandemic and we have to close schools every time, which deprives our children of education due to the absence of electronic education

[06:31-06:46] We are in the process of forming a digital education unit so that education can keep pace with the conditions we are in now

[06:47-07:03] We still hope to continue receiving support from the global partnership so that we can develop education as part of the great revolution that Sudan carried out.

11 June 2021