After over two years of conflict and multiple postponements, thousands of Sudanese teenagers finally took their high school exams this week, though many others remain unable to attend school.
According to Sudan’s army-backed government education ministry, around 210,000 students registered to sit exams at nearly 2,000 centres, including 50 centres in neighbouring countries such as Chad and Egypt, which host many of Sudan’s four million refugees.
Outside a school in Cairo, Sudanese students were seen revising under the intense sun, while their anxious parents looked on.
“God help them, the children were desperate; they feared their future was ruined,” said Aisha Osman, mother of four, after sending off her daughter. “This has been all we parents could think about for two years.”
The ongoing conflict between Sudan’s regular army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) has severely damaged the country’s education system.
The United Nations has repeatedly warned that the war risks turning Sudan’s 19 million school-age children into a lost generation, deprived of formal education.
More than seven million children have been displaced, often multiple times, as their families flee shifting front lines.
Many schools have suspended lessons, with buildings converted into temporary shelters.
“Despite their efforts to study under extremely difficult conditions, many children will not be able to take the exams at all,” warned children’s rights group Plan International last month.
This week’s exams took place in army-controlled areas of western, northern and central Sudan, including Khartoum, Al-Jazira, Sennar, and Port Sudan.
