Report: SalaaMedia
Education is a recognized right in accordance with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, in which Article 26 states: “Everyone has the right to education.” Despite this, there are only a few days left until the date of the Sudanese certificate exams (postponed) from the year 2023 AD; The Federal Ministry of Education announced its establishment on December 28, 2024, AD. The announcement of exams came despite the lack of clarity surrounding the future of students in several states in Sudan, especially Darfur. Which may lead to depriving them of their right to compete with their colleagues in the (relatively) stable states, and thus this will affect their right to education. Depriving Darfur students from participating in Sudanese certificate exams is a clear violation of the right guaranteed under the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
In this report, the SalaaMedia team reviews the obstacles that students in the Darfur states face in applying and then sitting for the Sudanese certificate exams. This is due to a breakdown in communication between federal institutions and lower levels in areas outside the control of the armed forces. Controlled by support forces.
Numbers of examinees
The war deprived a significant number of students in the states of South, East and Central Darfur from sitting for the Sudanese certificate exams in the year 2023. According to the statements of officials in the civil administrations of the Rapid Support Forces in those states, the total number of deprived students in the state of South Darfur alone exceeds 35 thousand, in East Darfur six thousand and in Central Darfur 12 thousand students coming from six localities controlled by the Rapid Support Forces and three others under the control of the Sudan Liberation Movement – Abdul Wahid Nour. The media official at the Ministry of Education said by phone from Port Sudan that the ministry does not have accurate statistics about the students expected to sit for the Sudanese certificate exams this year from the Darfur region. He attributed this to the continued movement of displacement and movement between states, which necessitated extending the period of registration and counting of students several times to ensure the registration of the largest number of students for the Class of 2023. The Ministry closed the registration and inventory of students on November 17, 2024, and accordingly the education departments in the states were notified to remove the existing lists and stop the process of registering and counting students after the specified date.
It should be noted that the number of students registered before the war to sit for the 2023 certificate exams in all of Sudan reached 535,848 students – according to the Federal Minister of Education, Ahmed Al-Khalifa. The minister explained that the final number of students and centers will be determined after registration ends.
Controversy of centers
Students in areas controlled by the Rapid Support Forces in Darfur states face an unknown fate as to whether they will sit for the certificate exams or not! This is when the information official at the Federal Ministry of Education stated that the ministry will not establish examination centers in states outside the control of the armed forces. Pointing out that the Ministry made its arrangements on the basis of students sitting in states under the control of the armed forces only. While Ahmed Khalifa, the Acting Federal Minister of Education, said that the ministry has formed a committee for examinations in unsafe states, to determine the possibility of hosting them in safe states, and to facilitate housing and subsistence problems so that any student can sit for exams, whether inside or outside Sudan. Meanwhile, the governors of North, Central, South, West and East Darfur states in Port Sudan announced that students must travel to states controlled by the armed forces in order to sit for the Sudanese certificate exams.
According to the decision issued by the coordination office of the Ministry of Education and Guidance for the state of South Darfur in the capital, Port Sudan, December 1, 2024, was set as the last date for students to determine the centers from which they can take the exams. The decision stated that students who were unable to determine the centers where they could sit for the exam on December 28, 2024, AD, will have the opportunity to sit in March 2025 AD.
Except for the civilian administrations of the Rapid Support Forces in Darfur states, they believe that deporting students to states under the control of the armed forces is not possible. Accordingly, Mohamed El-Zein, head of the Civil Administration in South Darfur, told SalaaMedia that they are still looking for ways to enable the state’s students to take exams, ruling out the option of transferring them to states under the control of the armed forces. While the Director of Education in the Civil Administration of East Darfur called for the establishment of centers for state students’ examinations in South Sudan. For his part, Al-Tijani Karshoum, head of the Civil Administration in Western Darfur, described the process of organizing exams in light of this war as an “unprofessional political process” that entails great injustice to the Sudanese people.
Print exams
In October 2024, the Federal Ministry of Education began the procedures for printing exams. The Director of Federal Examinations, Imad Abdel Qader, said in previous statements that the Ministry has invited bids to print the exams according to procedures through which the printing press that carries out the printing process is selected. Since then, there has been no news clarifying the completion of the printing process and who carried it out (the printing press).
Risks and fears
Deteriorating security conditions in general remain the main factor limiting the ability of Sudanese certificate students in Darfur to sit for exams. The continuation of military confrontations between the warring parties, in addition to aerial bombardment, are all circumstances that make access to and protection of examination centers extremely difficult. This is in addition to the psychological conditions. The process of taking exams must take place under appropriate conditions, the most important of which is a sense of safety. Against the background of these risks, many families in Darfur states have become wary of the option of transferring their children to areas controlled by the armed forces to take exams, for fear of meeting the fate of student Omar Ahmed Abdel Hadi, who moved from the city of (Al-Khoei) in Western Kordofan to the northern state in order to sit for exams. He found himself in the grip of the armed forces and then sentenced to five years in prison on charges of cooperating with the Rapid Support Forces. The head of the Civil Administration in West Darfur, Al-Tijani Karshoum, ruled out that any family would allow their son to travel to areas controlled by the armed forces to take exams, saying, “We do not see a safe place for students to travel to take exams outside the state after we witnessed what happened to the West Kordofan student.” Against the backdrop of insecurity, Nihal Adam Sheen was forced to prevent her daughter (Ola) from going to school due to the intensity of air strikes on the city of Nyala, despite her preparation to take the exam. Nihal stated that if she had money, she would have left Sudan in order for her daughter to find an opportunity to complete her education. Meanwhile, student Hussein Adam, who is located in the Jebel Marra areas, decided to leave his studies permanently and go to the labor market after losing hope of sitting for the exams.
There is no doubt that this war has a direct impact on Darfur students sitting for this year’s Sudanese certificate exams. Statistics indicate that more than 104 thousand students are the last to sit for the Sudanese certificate exams in the region in the academic year (2021 AD – 2022 AD); Comparing this with the number of students registered for the 2023-2024 exams, which is approximately 60 thousand students, we find that the difference is about 44 thousand students, and in practice they are the ones who lost their right to sit for the exams.
In addition, among those confined, there are those who are at risk of losing the opportunity to sit for exams due to the factors mentioned in this report. Therefore, everyone who lost the right to sit for exams is ultimately considered an extension of the train of educational loss, whose journey will end at the conscription station in the ranks of the parties to the war. Therefore, calls must continue to find alternatives that enable these students to sit for exams. They are not just callings to complete the course of the educational process; As much as it is in order to preserve the right of these students to education, and at the same time as an early warning to avoid them becoming fuel for war.