‘Bad education, children out of school’: West Darfur Governor

The Governor of West Darfur, Khalil Abdallah Mohamed, has confirmed that his state suffers from a severe deterioration of the education system.

He added that the parents of the pupils and students do not want to enroll their children in schools, but send them to work, for example grazing cattle. A national inquiry into the Sudanese education a couple of months ago found that the majority of out-of-school children are from nomadic communities or rural and conflict-affected areas.

The Governor was speaking at an education conference in West Darfur on Wednesday. He said he has instructed the Ministry of Education to conduct an inventory of teachers by scientific specialisation and evaluate the problems in the education system.

In July, parents of higher secondary school students in West Darfur's Sirba locality complained about the education problems in the locality, resulting in their children's low score in the national cetrificate exams. One of the parents told Radio Dabanga that there is a shortage of teachers and the schools are in need of materials. Private schools, such as in El Geneina, charge high tuition fees.

A study carried out by the Sudanese Ministry of Education with the support of the UN Children’s Fund in September found that over three million school-aged children (5-13 years) are missing out on education. West Darfur is among the states with the highest percentages of out-of-school children. The majority of the out-of-school children are from nomadic communities or rural and conflict-affected areas.

The state's Minister of Education confirmed days after the report that most children in camps for displaced people do not go to school. Rains destroyed dozens of schools in West Darfur, while there is no money for their maintenance, Minister Firdaus Hussein Saleh explained.

Related:

Sudan's Education Minister commits to getting kids back to school after report (10 September 2015)