Teachers: ‘Separate exams will entrench division in Sudan’
Sudanese refugee students from Darfur, attending secondary school in the Farshana camp in eastern Chad, sit on the ground taking their first-term exams for the 2025/26 academic year at the beginning of last week (Photo: Radio Dabanga)
The Sudanese Teachers Committee warned on Wednesday that “the multiplicity of decision-making centres regarding secondary school certificate examinations, and links to areas of military control, practically opens the door to a divided educational reality, and indicates a de facto separation of the Sudanese state, even if it is not officially declared”.
The teachers’ committee’s comment came after the formation of a technical committee by the parallel Sudan Founding Alliance ‘Tasees’ government linked to the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) in the South Darfur capital of Nyala on Tuesday, to oversee this year’s secondary school certificate exams, a week after it announced the completion of technical, administrative and security arrangements for conducting the exams.
The Teachers’ Committee said in a statement that it condemned “the decision of the de facto government in Nyala to form a supervisory committee for secondary school certificate exams, which reinforces what we have warned about regarding the danger of turning education into a tool for entrenching geographical and political division.”
The statement said that the conflict between the Sudanese government and the parallel government, and each side’s attempt to establish its position as a fully empowered government within its sphere of control through the secondary school certificate exams, reflects the concerns that the committee has been warning about since early on.
‘The Sudanese secondary school certificate is not a local administrative procedure, but a sovereign national entitlement, representing a symbol of the unity of the state and its educational institutions…’
The statement added: “The Sudanese secondary school certificate is not a local administrative procedure, but a sovereign national entitlement, representing a symbol of the unity of the state and its educational institutions.”
The Teachers Committee renewed its call for the formation of an independent and neutral national committee comprising highly qualified educational experts, to coordinate the conduct of examinations away from political and military polarization.
The Minister of Education in the Nyala Constituent Government, Koko Mohamed Jagdol, issued a decision last Tuesday to form a technical committee to oversee the Sudanese Certificate examinations for the 2025-2026 academic year. This is in order to develop a comprehensive plan for the Sudanese Certificate examinations that accommodates students who have been unable to sit for the exams since the outbreak of the war.
The decision outlined seven tasks for the committee: to develop a comprehensive plan for the Sudanese Certificate examinations that accommodates students who have been unable to sit for the exams since the outbreak of the war; to prepare arrangements to address the academic learning loss resulting from the suspension of studies; and to oversee the preparation of the Sudanese Certificate examinations for the 2025-2026 academic year, evaluate their results, and submit recommendations to the relevant authorities.
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