Education Challenges in Rural Darfur

Despite many improvements to the education infrastructure in Darfur during the past 20 years, communities across the region, especially in rural areas, face major challenges.

By Emadeldin Rijal

Many of Darfur’s rural localities lack primary and secondary schools, forcing villagers to send their sons and daughters to other localities to attend classes. Students living in the village of Kuma Garadayat, for example, must walk two hours, each way, to attend secondary school. Like many villages in Darfur, Kuma Garadayat had, until recently, only one basic school, which was itself lacking services such as toilets and water.

The situation in Kuma Garadayat is not unique. Localities across Darfur are addressing similar challenges. The primary and secondary schools that serve Darfur’s students are facing not only increased enrolments and shortage of teachers and workers, but also problems with basic infrastructure, including durable buildings, chairs and supplies. Underequipped schools and overcrowded classrooms, especially in rural areas in Darfur, are but one problem among a range of problems that educators face in the region.

Following Sudan’s regime change in 1989, Darfur’s education system expanded significantly as resources were pumped into general education, paving the way to establish a formal higher education system in the region. In 1990, a presidential decree established El Fasher University in North Darfur. And in 1994, another presidential decree established the University of Nyala in South Darfur and the University of Zalingei in West Darfur, now Central Darfur.

Subsequently, there has been a gradual increase in the number of primary and secondary schools. For example, the number of preschools in North Darfur in 2008 was 459. In 2012, the number has risen to 643. The primary schools in Darfur numbered 949 in 2008. Now there are 1,138. Similarly, the number of secondary schools has increased from 105 to 145 in the same period.

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Read the full story in the September issue of Voices of Darfur. Download the magazine (PDF) here.

Teacher Roda Abbaker Izzeldin guides her students to the school in Kuma Garadayat, North Darfur. Photo by Albert González Farran