Sudan’s Ministers asked to allow Christian schools to teach on Saturday

The committee of parents and mothers of Christian school students carried out a sit-in in front of the Council of Ministers in Khartoum in protest against the government's order to church schools in Sudan to observe the weekend on Friday and Saturday, and operate schools on Sunday, conforming to the Muslim work week.

Sudan's Ministry of Education issued the order in July. The church complains that Sunday has been the free day for church schools since their founding in the country.

Yesterday a memorandum by the students' parents told the Council that stopping work and not teaching students and pupils on Saturday has lasted for more than two and a half months. The memorandum says that the school week reduced to only four days is unsustainable, and that the measure represents a real threat to the pupils’ future as the examinations are approaching.

The memorandum demanded the Council of Ministers to restore the situation to what it used to be and instruct the institutions concerned to allow schools to work and teach on Saturday every week.

One of the parents stressed that these old schools have been open to Muslim students for more than 100 years without discrimination and their graduates have become leaders in several fields.

Freedom of religion is technically enshrined in the Sudanese Constitution, however there are frequent reports from the country concerning discrimination and persecution of Christians, demolition of schools, churches etc.