The UN Secretary-Generals Global Initiative on Education has three priorities; every child

should be in school, quality of learning, and global citizenship. Sudan falls far below meeting
these priorities.
The first priority focuses on expanding access to education (Priorities). Education and learning
cannot occur until a child gets into the school. Countries with the majority of their population in
poverty have a very difficult time getting children to school for one reason or another. There are
numerous reasons for this, lack of funding for classrooms and teachers, children are needed for
labor to provide much needed finances to the family, and conflict in the area prevent safe travel
to and from the school. These factors all contribute to the poor access of education to the
Sudanese people. After the Sudanese people were granted their independence, the schools were
all built around the needs of the government officials and provided more governmental training
than a formal education (Education). Due to the fact that schools are not present in rural areas
there is only a 46% enrollment rate among eligible pupils (Education). In order to improve these
numbers the Sudanese government needs to do two things. First, more funding and general
curriculum needs to be provided to the institutions as well as adequate training and treatment for
teachers. Second, schools need to be built around populations all over the country instead of
military locations.
School Placement
The image to the right shows
The current placement of
Schools and the projected
future locations of schools.

(Sudan)

The second priority addresses the quality of learning available to the children who are afforded
the luxury of school. In order to provide the maximum success of children the class sizes need to
be smaller and more manageable for the teacher, quality of life needs to be improved so that
children are able to focus on more than their basic needs, and barriers need to be removed,
barriers such as language, gender, hunger, etc. (INEE). In Sudan, the quality of education is
severely lacking. Sudan has a 38.4:1 pupil to teacher ratio (Sudan). As any good teacher will tell
you, a teacher cannot provide the individualized assistance to instruction with 39 students in a
classroom. The larger the class size the less learning can occur, especially in early elementary
grades. When a school is overcrowded everyone suffers. The financial investment reflects a poor
quality as well. Sudan is ranked 112th of 118 in education spending- only spending 2.2% of their
GDP on education (Sudan). The total population only has a 61.1% literacy rate, by literacy it
means citizens over the age of 15 can read and write a simple statement with understanding,
ranking Sudan 132nd out of 161 (Sudan). Contributing to the poor quality of education in Sudan
is the lack of qualified and trained professional teachers. Due to many factors, poverty, remote
populations, and area violence, Sudan does not have high caliber teachers available to teach their
youth. To improve the quality of education Sudan will need to refocus their financial plan to
include the building of more schools to eliminate over crowding and teacher training as well
providing the correct supplies to boost literacy levels.
Teacher Training
The chart to the right
displays the training level of
teachers in Sudan. It
demonstrates the large
percentage of untrained
teachers that are in charge of
educating children. (INEE)

The third and final priority focuses on global citizenship and how the issues with education can
be addressed on a global scale. In Sudan these issues include water supply, technology, and
political changes and stability (Project Education). Due to the numerous civil and religious wars
and persecutions in the country of Sudan, education is severely hindered. A country cannot put a
high priority on education if the population cannot gain access to clean drinking water on a
regular basis or ensure the safety of children at school in the midst of a civil war. To address
these issues in recent years non-profit global organizations have been formed to address and
improve the global problems. Project Education South Sudan is one such organization. They are
working to rebuild schools that were destroyed, provide water wells, sewing machines, cinder
block making materials and other things to rebuild and reinforce the communities to improve
stability in the area so that education can begin again (Project Education).
Project Education South
Sudan (PESS)
The images to the right are
from a PESS school, Marc
Nikkel Primary School.
Classes are held outside as
reconstruction takes place.
PESS has also supplied a
water well to the school in
2006, installed solar panels
for energy production in
2007, and completed women
literacy and financial skill
training curriculums in 2007
and 2010. (Project Education)

Citations:
EDUCATION IN SUDAN. (n.d.). Retrieved July 31, 2015, from http://sudan.net/education.php
INEE - Inter-Agency Network for Education in Emergencies. (n.d.). Retrieved July 31, 2015,
from http://www.ineesite.org/en/
Priorities. (n.d.). Retrieved July 31, 2015, from
http://www.globaleducationfirst.org/priorities.html
Project Education South Sudan - Building Schools and Hope in South Sudan. (n.d.). Retrieved
July 31, 2015, from http://www.projecteducationsudan.org/
Sudan Education Stats: NationMaster.com. (n.d.). Retrieved July 31, 2015, from
http://www.nationmaster.com/country-info/profiles/Sudan/Education