A BRIEF HISTORICAL OVERVIEW OF THE SUDANESE EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM DEVELOPMENT AND GROWTH.

By John Gachie

Sudan, Africa’s largest country also leads the continent in many other ways. It has the rare distinction of being at the bottom of nearly all-social indices in human development, ranging from poverty to education, life expectancy to child mortality to name just a few.

To many observers and indeed, the Sudanese people the country is one huge mess beset by human misery, death and terror on unprecedented scale. It is a country haunted by its tragic past and beholden to deep ethno-religious cleaverages stoked by racial bigotry. In all these, the Sudan situation has been overly oversimplified by some and misunderstood by others depending on one’s perspective, ideology and political persuasion.

However, the extent of the suffering, pain and sheer terror of the victims of the Sudan has escaped the world’s attention for decades with the attendant fall out and sheer waste of the country’s prime resource – manpower.

In this regard, a cursory look at the country’s educational system reveals the yarning gap that exists in the development of a human resource base. According to United Nations statistics, between 60-70 per cent of the population in Northern Sudan are illiterate, while 80 to 90 per cent of the population in South Sudan are illiterate. The national average is between 70 per cent in a population of about 30 million people.

There are many reasons that explain these statistics, but the most primary is due to war and the attendant fall out. Sudan has been at war with itself for over four decades since independence in 1956 with a little more than a decade of relative peace between 1972 and 1983.

Another reason, more of a historical nature is the colonial legacy, especially during the British-Egyptian condominium rule from late nineteenth century to 1956. During this period, the country was administered as two distinct entities though governed from the capital, Khartoum. The northern half of the country was historically and culturally closer to Gulf Arab culture and the education system as indeed all other aspects social administration and service delivery were so attuned.

The education system was aligned to the Islamic-Arab culture and so too was the language of instruction especially in the lower strata of education. Instruction in the English language was introduced at the post secondary level education and the curriculum was so set to inculcate an education rich in Islamic-Arab ethos.

In the South, the education system was a replica of the Northern system, but with a marked difference. While in the North, the British-Egyptian administration did encourage pursuit of education to post primary-school level, in the South post primary-school level education was scorned and actively discouraged. This was predicated on the assumption that such a policy would alter and threaten the fragile social-cultural setting in the South, which was more African. In a sense, education in the South was treated as security issue in that it was feared that to introduce a modern education would seriously alter and affect the social structure and alter the traditional power structures.

What was never publicly acknowledged was that there was a joint understanding that the South would be left alone in the scheme of things as a large reservoir of untrained labour for the benefit of the North. Indeed, the British-Egyptian administration provided the barest of minimum in educational development of the South, leaving the bulk of the work to Christian missionaries.

For those in the South and other marginalized areas of Sudan that were outside the ambit of the ruling riverine Arab-merchant-cum-military class, they were destined to be the cheap source of labour. In this way, therefore, it was in the interest of the British-Egyptian administration to do as little as possible in social service delivery and especially so in education and infrastructural development.

The justification was two-fold, namely that the riverine Arab ruling class was more aligned and attached to the Egyptian –Arab culture and shared their values and aspirations. The British on the other hand were more interested in the strategic imperial concerns of the British Empire especially in the contested Gulf region and in the strategic approaches of the Mediterranean Sea and the Suez Canal.

This congruence of interests between the Egyptians and the British led to an alliance in the discriminatory practices in social development of the rest of Sudan. The effect of these policies led to a skewed socio-economic development of the country. This was more manifested in the provision of education and other social services in the country. The riverine Arab-ruling class enjoyed disproportionate facilities in education, health and other social services whose impact and effect are still being felt today.

As a senior clergyman and a Southern Sudanese National, Rev Clement Janda sums it up ‘The fate of the marginalized people of the Sudan, especially in the South and in the Nuba Mountains has been one of utter helplessness…. We were destined to be slaves or indenture vassals providing only raw physical energy and never the intellectual means’’.

A 2001 report on education commissioned by the Stromme Foundation of Norway, puts it more aptly when it says ‘’ The legacy of the peoples of the South Sudan in all spheres of life but in particular with regards to education is a very sad and painful one….’’ it continues ‘‘ in pre-colonial times, with the Egyptian-Ottoman Empire, the rejection of African values and cultures was the rule. Things changed somewhat, but more in style than in content, with the arrival of the British colonial power. The essential disregard of the African values and cultures was upheld. To the extent education was possible, it was very elementary or basic and set to serve the needs of the British masters.’’.

The report notes that this disregard and utter contempt of the non-Arab cultures and in particular, the African cultures were pervasive, extensive and unrelenting. Towards this end, in the run up to independence in 1956, there were concerted efforts to impose the Arab-Muslim culture on the rest of non-Arab-Muslim people of the Sudan.

Indeed, in their pursuit of hegemony over non-Arab-Muslim peoples of the country, the most important avenue was education.

As the Stromme Foundation report notes ‘’ the most important tool in this context was education. A more distinct racial hierarchy of schooling emerged with all training and in particular higher education favouring those of the Arab-Muslim extraction and those few Africans who accepted or were forced into assimilation of the Arab culture and religion.’’

As it is, the Sudan as a country faces myriad of problems, ranging from war to poverty and a dysfunctional social-political and economic system. This unholy alliance of woes finds its manifestation in varied ways and the most striking is the dismal state of education in the country with the all-attendant fall out in human resource capacity and development.

Tragically, this is more felt in South Sudan, Nuba Mountains and in other marginalized areas of the country and in particular amongst the non-Arab-Muslim riverine ruling
class.

Currently, there a little more than 1000 primary schools in the liberated part of South Sudan with a total pupil population of a little more than 250,000 in a total population of between 8-10 million people in an area bigger than East Africa and the Great Lakes region combined. There are less than 200 secondary schools with student population slightly more than 2000 and a total teaching force of 6340 in primary schools. Of this total 364 are female with a pupil teacher ration of 34 to one.

The Stromme Foundation report, the most recent on the state of education in the South Sudan and Nuba Mountains captures the dire situation with regard to education thus “ to the extent it exists, it can be characterized as being community based and financed, of poor quality and accessible to a very small percentage of the population. Management and co-ordination of education are either too weak or non-existent”.