Hamdouk: Sudan schools to resume by Sept 15

Prime Minister Abdallah Hamdouk has instructed the resumption of the school year for the basic and secondary stages in all states of Sudan by September 15. Hamdouk also directed the Ministry of Finance to provide for the requirements for the resumption of the school year.

Yesterday, the Undersecretary of the Ministry of Education, El Tahir Hasan, said in a press statement that the meeting with Hamdouk reassured the arrangements made by the Ministry of Education in coordination with the relevant authorities to resume the school year.

He explained that the meeting with the Prime Minister also focused on the technical arrangements for dealing with the days lost from the school year during the last period.

He pointed out that the meeting was directed in this regard to take advantage of the holiday of Saturday and the holiday of the inter-school competitions to make up the school year.

The governor of Khartoum announced that the resumption of the school year in the state will start on Saturday, September 14.

Sudanese authorities decided to suspend classes across the country on July 31, barely a month into a new school term, following the shooting on demonstrating school students by militiamen in the North Kordofan capital of El Obeid, two days earlier. In response, thousands of people, in particular school students, took to the streets in various towns in the country to protest against the violence.

Amnesty International

In a statement in August, Amnesty International urged the Sudanese authorities to remove the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) government militia, from all law enforcement activities across the country instead of closing schools.

“The decision to close schools underlines the failure of the Sudanese authorities to contain or direct the Rapid Support Forces, who have time and again used firearms on peaceful protestors across Sudan,” Joan Nyanyuki, Amnesty International’s Director for East Africa, the Horn and the Great Lakes, said in a statement in early August.

“Closing schools and preventing children from receiving an education is misguided and unfair – pupils should not be punished because of the actions of an out-of-control paramilitary unit.”

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