Category: Literacy

Teachers at state schools and students at higher education institutions in Sudan have begun to strike to put further pressure on the government to increase their wages and improve tuition fees.

Duriya Babiker, a member of the Teachers’ Strike Committee, told Radio Dabanga that teachers all over the country responded to their calls to close schools from Tuesday to Thursday.

She condemned the statement of the Governor of Khartoum, who called the strike unacceptable. “The governor should stand with the teachers, who are demanding improved salaries and school environments, a decrease in the huge number of students in classrooms, and better maintenance of school buildings, instead of blaming them.”

Staff members of Sudanese research centres organised a protest vigil in front of the Ministry of Higher Education on Tuesday to demand an increase in wages and a reform of salary structures. They demanded that the new salary structure emulates university lecturers and other employees working for the Ministry.

Yesterday, the Sudan University of Science and Technology announced the suspension of studies in the Southern Campus indefinitely. The decision was taken after students of the Faculty of Engineering started a strike that day to protest significant increases in tuition fees.

The Sudanese Teachers Committee called the appointment of an undersecretary for the Ministry of Education “a step in the right direction” in a statement yesterday. The appointment of an undersecretary will improve the situation, as “a single person doing the work of three senior positions in the ministry causes roles to overlap,” according to the committee.

The acting Minister of Education is supposed to stand with the teachers’ demands and defend them, and not threaten to transfer or dismiss them, said Babiker on December 18.

Earlier this month, the Service Affairs Bureau announced an increase in teachers’ wages by six per cent. The authorities have previously used bonus payments “as a means to placate teachers,” according to a Sudanese Teachers’ Committee statement on October 15.

The teachers, who demonstrated for better salaries outside the Council of Minister’s headquarters in Khartoum the day after the statement, said this payment barely covered the rise of the cost of living in Sudan.

Source: Radio Dabanga

As part of rolling strikes by Sudanese teachers against low wages and poor working conditions, the Sudanese Teachers Committee has announced a protest to demand the Minister of Education to step down on Tuesday.

The acting Minister of Education has become “an obstacle to reaching desired changes” for teachers in Sudan, said Duriya Babiker, a member of the committee. Earlier this month, the Service Affairs Bureau announced an increase in teachers’ wages by six per cent, only a “partial response” by the authorities to stop the strike, according to Babikir.

She explained that the minister is supposed to stand with the teachers’ demands and defend them, and not threaten to transfer or dismiss them.

Strikes on Tuesday and Thursday last week were 100 per cent successful, the committee announced on Thursday. 12,000 schools were closed across the country. In White Nile state, 100 per cent of basic schools, 97 per cent of middle schools, and 98 per cent of secondary schools participated in the strike on Thursday.

The effect of the closure of the schools “was clear and tangible” in Khartoum, as the streets were free of the usual congestion, the report said. The committee said that the Red Sea state authorities suspended classes “on the pretext of bad weather.” In South Darfur, classes were suspended for an indefinite period.

Arbitrary transfer

Huweida El Amin, spokesperson for the White Nile state Teachers’ Committee, told Radio Dabanga that the education department in the state threatened the striking teachers with arbitrary transfer.

Angry teachers staged a protest vigil in front of the Ministry of Education in Ed Damer on Thursday, because two striking members of the River Nile Teachers Committee were transferred to remote areas in the state.

Mosab Abdeljalil, member of the teachers’ committee, told Radio Dabanga that the state Education Ministry transferred teachers Abdallah Eisa and Ghada Abdelrahim to remote areas. He said that the total number of teachers transferred amounts to 19 since the strikes began.

The protesting teachers in Ed Damer submitted a memorandum rejecting the arbitrary transfers and demanding to know the reason why they were necessary. They also threatened to expand the strike days if all those who were arbitrarily transferred are not returned to their previous positions.

Schools reopened

The Ministry of Education in South Darfur partially opened schools again on Sunday, after schools were closed last week due to “insecurity in the state.”

The closures followed several student demonstrations against increased school fees and the inflated costs of living in general. Students of a number of schools in Ed Damazin, capital of Blue Nile region, also demonstrated against increases in tuition fees last week. According to the students, school fees have doubled since last year, now at SDG10,000.

Teachers in South Darfur expressed their surprise at the Ministry of Education’s decision to freeze studies indefinitely for security reasons last week.

Bahreldin Abdallah, secretary of the South Darfur Teachers Committee told Radio Dabanga that the ministry’s decision to close the schools was “unwise. This suspension will harm students’ abilities to achieve,” because the school year started later in South Darfur than the rest of Sudan.

Omar Adam, Director of the South Darfur Ministry of Education, said in a press statement on Saturday that the decision to open the schools for the exam classes was taken because the students urgently need to prepare for their final school exams.

Tajeldin Bahreldin, member of the South Darfur branch of the National Umma Party, told Radio Dabanga that “the closure of schools is inseparable from the teachers’ strike.” He called on the authorities to address teaching conditions so that classes can resume.

Lawyer Adam Sherif also told Radio Dabanga that the South Darfur state authorities’ decision to suspend studies was and “illegal and unrealistic” attempt to circumvent the teachers’ strike.

He explained that the decision is not the prerogative of the Director of the Ministry of Education but of the state security committee. The lawyer said that there is no threat to security, pointing out that a number of secondary school students staged limited demonstrations without any damage to property.

In September, UNICEF and Save the Children called on the Sudanese government to keep “schools open for the entire academic year, ensure no schools are occupied by armed actors, and facilitate additional alternative education opportunities to make sure no child is left behind.”

Source: Radio Dabanga

A nationwide strike was carried out yesterday by school teachers in Sudan to demand an increase in spending on education and the minimum wage, improvement of teaching conditions and the school environment, and prompt overdue salary payments.

The one-day strike is part of the escalation campaign announced by the Sudanese Teachers’ Committee, in response to a “partial response” by the authorities to stop the strike, according to Duriya Babikir, a leader of the Teachers Committee. Earlier this month, the Service Affairs Bureau announced an increase in teachers’ wages by six per cent.

Babikir told Radio Dabanga that the strike on Tuesday will be followed by the complete closure of government schools on Thursday, and next week on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday.

The Sudanese Teachers Committee condemned the statements of the acting Minister of Education, Mahmoud Sirelkhitim, who has threatened to dismiss striking teachers.

Kamaria Omar, member of the Sudanese Teachers’ Committee, told Radio Dabanga that the federal Ministry of Education has nothing to do with financial remunerations.

“The responsibility for wages is a major state matter,” she said. “Teachers will abide by the announced strike schedule during the month of December until all their demands are met.”

Students of a number of schools in Ed Damazin, capital of Blue Nile region, demonstrated against increases in tuition fees. According to the students, school fees have doubled since last year, now at SDG10,000.

The Blue Nile region Minister of Education, Ishraga Jibril, said that the ministry has no hand in determining the tuition fees. Fees are proposed by individual schools to manage their expenses. On Tuesday, she said that the ministry instructed all school administrations to avoid expelling any student if they have not managed to pay tuition fees or buy school uniforms.

In Nyla, South Darfur, the Ministry of Education suspended studies at all educational levels for an indefinite period in the interest of the safety of teachers, students, pupils, children, and citizens’ property. The announcement noted that this is especially in response to the “emergence of lawlessness and attacks on schools and other educational institutions” in the state.

Recently, the Sudan office of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has expressed serious concerns about prolonged learning disruption in Sudan. The UN agency stressed that finding mutual solutions to keep schools open is vital to ending the education crisis and preventing the loss of education for an entire generation of Sudanese children.

About 6.9 million girls and boys, one in three school-aged children, do not go to school in Sudan, UNICEF and Save the Children in Sudan reported in a joint press statement on September 12.

* USD 1 = SDG 448.74 at the time of publishing this article. As effective foreign exchange rates can vary in Sudan, Radio Dabanga bases all SDG currency conversions on the daily US Dollar rate quoted by the Central Bank of Sudan (CBoS).

Source: Radio Dabanga

The teaching staff at the University of Bahr el Ghazal, the University of Upper Nile, and Rumbek University have called off their strike to administer examinations.

Earlier this month, the lecturers from the three universities went on strike, demanding to be paid enhanced salaries and allowances in line with adjustments for inflation.

The three universities are funded by the government.

The other public higher learning institutions in the country are the University of Juba and Dr. John Garang Memorial University of Science and Technology.

Joseph Lual Dario, the chairperson of the University of Bahr el Ghazal academic staff association, told Radio Tamazuj Monday that last week they agreed with the university administration to suspend the strike to administer examinations starting on 12 December.

“This (Monday) morning, all the teaching staff at the University of Bahr el Ghazal administered examinations as agreed with the administration on 3 December. We resolved that we have to conduct the examinations of the first semester on 12 December,” he said.

Lual, however, insisted that they expect to be paid all their arrears on 3 January 2023.

“3 January 2023 will be the deadline by which we should be paid. We, however, got some positive information from the higher education minister that he tabled our budget to the service cluster, and we were pleased to see this step taken by the minister,” he said. “If the process is put down again, we will not keep quiet; we will also go on with our strike. We just suspended the indefinite industrial action because we want to see the examinations continue and to allow the national government to address our demands.”

In Upper Nile, Dr. Pio Kur, the head of the university’s teaching staff union, said they met with the administration on 5 December and agreed to suspend their strike.

“On 5 December, we had a meeting with the university administration, and they told us that our issue is going to be discussed by the service cluster in Juba on Tuesday,” he said. “Our demand was the issue of arrears from 2019 to 2022, which was approved and not paid to us for three years and the issue of salary structure. We gave the administration two weeks from 6 to 20 December 2022, and we will go back with the open strike if there is no response from the ministry of higher education.”

Relatedly, the teaching staff representative at Rumbek University, Mathew Malou, on Sunday said a planned meeting with the university administration was postponed due to lack of quorum but that the teaching staff has called off their strike until the 27 December.

“We were supposed to have a meeting on Sunday, but it was postponed because the quorum was not met. The agenda was to confirm whether we go on with the strike or return to work,” he said. “We are meeting on 27 December, but for now, we have called off the strike to administer examinations.”

Source: Radio Tamazuj

Historically, pandemics have forced humans to break with the past and imagine their world anew. This [coronavirus] one is no different. It is a portal, a gateway between one world and the next. (Roy 2020)

This special issue of the Journal on Education in Emergencies (JEiE) is focused on education during pandemics. While the choice of topic for this issue was prompted by the devastating impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, history has been plagued by a long list of pandemics (see Table 1). Studies from around the world have shown the effects a health crisis can have on education. A recent example is the Ebola crisis in West Africa, which resulted in schools being closed for seven to nine months; the impact on school enrollment and dropout rates as the schools reopened was devasting. Recent evidence, including that provided in this special issue, suggests that COVID-19-related school closures have already left their mark.

Not only have they exacerbated preexisting inequalities—for example, students from the poorest and most marginalized communities have had the least access to remote learning technology—but the isolation caused by the closures has resulted in psychological trauma that will likely take years if not decades to overcome. The importance of these effects is reflected in the fact that at least four other journals have published special issues on education during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Source: Inter-agency Network for Education in Emergencies