Sudan: Education under Threat in South Kordofan
By Eric Sande
Since June 2011 Sudan’s war-ravaged state of South Kordofan has been the scene of flaming conflicts between the Khartoum government forces and rebels of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement North (SPLM-N). The hostility has since been exacerbated by Sudan's president, Omar al-Bashir, who asserted that the time for talking is over, leaving only "the language of the gun and ammunition".
The security and humanitarian situation in the border state has worsened, dealing a blow to the education system, and worse still, schools are shutting down as students seek refuge in neighbouring South Sudan.
About 3500 secondary school students and over 70,000 attending primary schools have been affected by the raging war. Some have made it to South Sudan to seek education in the camps while others remain home stranded, not knowing how they will cover the long distance to the land of sanctuary.
“Three thousand five hundred secondary school students are affected and they have to cross to South Sudan. At least 2000 of them have reached Pariang camp, there are more than 1500 still in the region, who have no choice but to follow”, said Abdel Aziz al-Hilu, the SPLM-N leader in the state. “For the primary school pupils, they are over 70,000 and about 5000 are only lucky to continue since their areas are not targeted but the majorities are still at home. There is no way to continue.”
“Most students in the east of the Nuba Mountains started their journey to the camp in the south since the beginning of August 2011, but very few from the west could manage due to the long distance”, he added.
Al-Hilu recalls that initially, the Khartoum government was fighting against 12 states, 10 states in the south and 2 states in the North which included Nuba Mountains and the Blue Nile. The Khartoum forces’ intention was to bombard all the states, he says.
“Soon after the South got its independence, there was intensive air bombardment in the Nuba Mountains which proved difficult to put together children to do their studies because of the high risk and tension. This is why parents sent their children across to South Sudan in Yida camp to have safety to get education.”
Al-Hilu affirmed the importance of education and said that they would want to provide education to their children and whenever possible they want them to cross to the south especially the secondary school students to get better education and for primary school goers they will find safe places where they will put them and teach them.
“We are planning to put up teacher training colleges and bring school materials for them to continue here….. I know there is risk but education is again very essential for the future of our people and the parents are very cooperative.”
According to the residents of Kauda, air bombardments have been targeting schools and crowded residential areas. Sounds of gunfire and shelling could be heard from all corners detonated from the moving planes including bombing by Antonovs and Chinese-made MIG-29s. They say this situation has since paralyzed the operations of the schools in the whole region and the students have vacated the schools, running away for their safety. Some schools that were moved from their locations to purported safer grounds have been closed up due to escalating insecurity.
“The current situation here in Nuba Mountains is not going on well because after the war broke out we have been faced by so many problems, says Brig. General Simon Kallo, secretary of Education Nuba Mountains. “The main problem has been lack of teachers… expatriate teachers because here in the Nuba Mountains, we are following the East African form of education system and most of the teachers have been coming in from Kenya, Uganda and South Sudan to teach here. After the war broke out, these teachers could not come back. Now we are depending on our few national teachers.”
Absence of NGO’s that were supporting some schools in the Nuba Mountains who immediately packed their way out soon after the war started have left serious challenges. There is huge deficiency in school logistics and materials like text books to facilitate the learning, says Kallo.
“We have six secondary schools and they are now all closed because of the situation of war and the scarcity of teachers,” states Kallo. “We are now trying our best and we have submitted many proposals to NGOs to help us rescue our education.”
Twenty-four- year old Kaloka Hammed Kaloka, a Form 2 student in Pariang camp who serves as the head boy, ran away from Nuba Mountains in the middle of the war for safety in the neighbouring country. Hoping for the best and safe custody, Kaloka finds a twist in his dream to continue with his education. He testifies that there is no learning going on in Pariang camp in South Sudan, where he stays waiting for a well wisher to salvage the situation.
Kaloka says there is a deficiency of teachers to handle the huge number of students coming in the camp and the school feeding programme is dwindling. He states that some have been forced to go back to Nuba Mountains since they cannot get any education in the camp.
John Amba, 40, who has been a teacher in Pariang camp since its inception in February 2012 says that he, together with few fellow teachers were asked to leave Yida to Pariang with all the secondary school students by UNHCR. The UNHCR office said they were ready to provide then with a good learning environment and give them all necessary accessories required to facilitate learning for the children.
Unfortunately, the safe haven is turning out to be a ground where thousands of boys and girls from the Nuba Mountains ponder profoundly ‘what next is in store for their lives’. They have missed out on their long road search for education with some losing hope and taking about turn to the war zone.
“We were forced by the UNHCR to leave Yida to Pariang, saying that they will not provide for us anything if we remain there. We are now facing a lot of challenges here. Currently there are no text books, no exercise books, no straight forward curriculum which we are following,” said Amba.
”Each teacher looks for his or her own text book either from South Sudan or from Kenya or Uganda and goes to class to teach not knowing the direction of education and syllabus which they are supposed to be follow”, he added.
The dispute in South Kordofan broke out after the current governor of the state Ahmad Haroun, who is wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for crimes allegedly committed in the western region of Darfur, was announced to be the winner of the state’s gubernatorial elections against his former deputy and SPLM-N leader in the state Abdel Aziz al-Hilu.
More than 417,000 people have been displaced since the conflict in South Kordofan erupted says reports from by the United Nations.