Eight million children are now outside Sudan’s education system, the Sudanese Teachers’ Committee warned this week, saying the public education system is at risk of collapse as teachers struggle to survive on poverty-level wages and pupil numbers fall sharply, particularly in poor and peripheral areas.
Speaking at an online press conference on Monday evening, committee member Ammar Youssef said the crisis was worsening as families struggled to afford schooling and public schools faced growing difficulties in continuing to operate. He warned that the situation could deprive entire generations of educational opportunities.
Committee spokesperson Sami al-Baqir said the minimum wage stood at just SDG 12,000, according to the committee’s estimates. He criticised the failure to implement decisions concerning workers’ rights and called for higher wages, payment of outstanding dues, and improvements to school conditions.
The committee has called for education spending to be increased to 20 per cent of the national budget and confirmed that a teachers’ strike in Khartoum state is continuing. In a field statement issued on Tuesday, the committee said the strike had entered its second consecutive day, with strong participation in the localities of Karari, Bahri, and East Nile.
The committee urged teachers across Sudan to join the strike and called on parents to understand their position and demands, saying the union action aimed to protect public education and ensure its continuation while improving the living conditions of education workers.
The committee said its field monitoring had revealed a substantial and worrying decline in pupil numbers, particularly in schools serving poor and peripheral communities. It warned that classrooms were emptying of children from low-income families who rely primarily on public schools.
Some teachers, it added, were unable to reach their schools because they could not afford transport. Their absence was not solely linked to participation in the strike, the committee stressed, but also reflected the sharp deterioration in their living conditions amid low salaries and rising living costs. It described teachers being unable to afford the journey to work as a serious indication of the economic crisis facing education workers, amid what it called the government’s continued disregard for their demands.
The committee criticised what it described as class-based discrimination between ordinary public schools and high-fee model schools. It said teaching had continued regularly in some model schools because they provided teachers with paid lessons, while public schools in poorer areas suffered from inadequate resources and deteriorating conditions.
It warned that this growing disparity risked turning education from a universal right into a service dependent on families’ financial means, undermining equal educational opportunities and widening the gap between different social groups.
The committee accused the authorities of attempting to circumvent teachers’ demands by relying on bodies it said had lost their effectiveness, while making promises to pay outstanding dues without fulfilling them. It warned of what it described as a plan to systematically undermine public education, saying continued deterioration could lead to the suspension of public education in several areas, particularly poorer and peripheral communities.
Al-Baqir confirmed that the protest movement would continue. He said the committee was considering further peaceful measures, including closing schools and organising sit-ins, if the authorities failed to respond to its demands, and announced that the strike’s higher committee would hold a decisive meeting at the end of the week to assess the situation and determine next steps.
He said the committee would continue what he called a “long-haul battle”, stressing that protecting public education and securing teachers’ rights were the two main objectives of the campaign, and renewed his call for unity among teachers.
The committee stressed that the threat extended beyond teachers’ rights and outstanding payments to the future of millions of children who depend on public education, warning that the number of children deprived of schooling could continue to rise.
As previously reported by Radio Dabanga, inflation is making education increasingly unaffordable in Sudan. On World Teachers’ Day on October 5, Sudanese educators called for housing and better support, warning that low salaries and deteriorating working conditions were undermining teaching and forcing many to seek additional employment.
