The Case for Adult Education Campaign in Sudan.

By John Gachie.

With a national illiteracy level of 90 per cent in South Sudan and at between 70 per cent for North Sudan, the need for an Adult Education Campaign in the Country is one of the most pressing national problem that the country faces.

The upshot of this and impact in human development cannot be over emphasized enough. The problem is more acute in the South Sudan and other marginalized areas of the country, like the Nuba Mountains, North and South Darfur provinces bordering Chad to the west and the Bejja and Angasana peoples in Blue Nile Province to the east.

With a total population of over 30 million people and over 21 million functional illiterates, the need for an Adult Literacy Campaign becomes even more acute when viewed in the light of a four-decades long war since independence in 1956.

For most part throughout Sudan’s recent modern history, closer to two centuries since the advent of the Ottoman Empire in 1836, and the subsequent Anglo-British condominium rule at the start of the 20th century; those along the banks of the Nile have been the beneficiaries of this contact with the outside world.

This people are largely of Arab extraction and followers of the Islamic faith and culturally linked to the Arabic Gulf and North Africa. All others in the Sudan were until they assimilated the Islamic faith relegated to the bottom of the social order.

Starting with the Ottoman overlords and continued by the Anglo-Egyptian rule, the first beneficiaries of these fruits of modernity were the riverine class. They were mostly around the twin cities of Khartoum and Omdurman at the confluence of White and Blue Nile and within 200 kilometers along the Nile River and about 150 kilometers east and west of the River.

For this group, the induction and introduction of modern administrative and social service delivery systems was a natural consequence in an attempt to co-opt them in the ruling of the country and were the major beneficiaries. This state of affairs set the stage for social conflict and subsequent war.

Therefore, the high illiteracy figures nationally and in particular in the South is a natural progression of the initial skewed socio-political-economic structure bequeathed to the ruling class.

But perhaps the biggest and the most devastating aspect of this skewed social-economic development was the denial of education and other life skills. The level of ignorance and illiteracy is as hobbling as it is devastating.

This is captured by a statement by the Sudanese Peoples Liberation Movement (SPLM) Commissioner of Education, Mr Kosti Manibe quoted in a 2001 report saying in part “ … in New Sudan eight to nine people out of ten in 2001 are without basic education, they do not know how to read, write or count…”

As the Author of the report exclaimed “ it is not only an inhuman situation but also a totally unacceptable moral and political situation, and a gross violation of basic human rights.’’

The Bishop of the El-Obied Diocese in the Nuba Mountains says of education “…. There is nothing, which is more paramount than education. It is more important than relief, even more important than our pastoral work as in the absence of education, there is no hope.”

To some experts and analysts what is happening in South Sudan is akin to educational and academic genocide and in a such a situation, as a young teacher said in Yei to the south “is killing hope and the future of a people’.

Among the adult population, eight men out of ten are illiterate and nine out of ten women are illiterate and the international community’s response to educational needs in the South Sudan is according to the Stromme Foundation report less than six million US dollars. If one builds on the fact that it was not until the mid 1930s that efforts were made to provide any form of modern education in South Sudan, coupled with over four-decades of war, then the picture becomes very grim.

The need for an ambitious Adult literacy Campaign in South Sudan is further accentuated by widely held figures that show that those between six to 33 years are the worst hit with an illiteracy level of over 80 per cent for the men and over 90 per cent for the women. For this group, they were the victims of the second outbreak fighting in the South in 1983. For the between 33 years and 45 years old the figures drops marginally while those above 45 years old the figure drops appreciably.

However, the entire national figure does not markedly change, as those who were barely and functionally literate had relapsed due to lack of follow-up instructions.
The other reason and even more compelling is the fact that in South Sudan, over half the population of eight to ten million is between six and 33 years old with illiteracy level of over 80 per cent. This is the core group that makes the most productive human capital for development in the South for years ahead.

As the some educators have observed “ there is a great need to break the backbone of illiteracy in South Sudan or the peace dividend if it comes will come too late for the most active human resource base of the country. According to these educationists, such a campaign would greatly draw from the great Brazilian Educator, Paulo Freire.

There have been similar mass adult literacy campaigns conducted elsewhere in the world in such or similar situation of massive adult illiteracy. The most successful were the Cuban campaign after the 1959 overthrow of the Baptista regime by Fidel Castro, the Tanzanian campaign of the early sixties to late seventies which recorded remarkable successes.

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The Stromme Foundation reports recommends an extensive 10-year Adult Literacy Campaign that would be targeted at achieving an enviable 70-80 per cent success in making the adult population able to read, write and count.