Learning Amid Sudan’s Ongoing Crisis

In Sudan, the school year has no reliable start date. Calendars are printed, revised, then abandoned as political instability and armed conflict reshape daily life. Since fighting erupted between rival military forces in 2023, education has become one of the most fragile public systems in Sudan because the conditions required for schooling have steadily disappeared.

One of the most immediate challenges is the collapse of governance around education. Many schools are left without functioning administrative oversight. Teacher payrolls are interrupted for months, leaving educators unpaid or forced to seek alternative work. In some regions, teachers have not received consistent salaries for years, long predating the current conflict. As a result, even when classrooms are technically open, instruction is sporadic or absent altogether.

National examinations, a critical gateway to higher education and employment, have been repeatedly postponed or canceled. For Sudanese students, exam delays are not a minor inconvenience but a structural rupture. A missed exam year can mean permanent exit from formal education, especially for students who must begin working to support their families. Millions of school-aged children in Sudan are currently out of school, many with little prospect of reentry.

Economic pressure has become one of the strongest forces pulling students away from classrooms. With inflation soaring and household incomes collapsing, education increasingly competes with survival. For adolescents, especially boys, school dropout rates rise sharply during periods of instability. For girls, the risks are different but equally severe. For example, early marriage increases when families face prolonged insecurity and financial stress, closing off educational pathways altogether.

Sudan’s education system is also shaped by its history of political upheaval. Years of teacher strikes and policy reversals have eroded trust in state institutions. Many families now rely on informal learning such as community-run classes or religious instruction to fill the vacuum. While these efforts demonstrate resilience, they vary widely in quality and are rarely recognized by official certification systems, limiting students’ long-term mobility.

Universities, once centers of political debate and social advancement, have been particularly hard hit. Campuses have closed indefinitely while students have been displaced across borders. The uncertainty surrounding credential recognition and degree completion has pushed many young people into prolonged educational suspension, neither enrolled nor employed.

What makes Sudan’s situation distinct is the cumulative nature of disruption. Education has not been interrupted once, but repeatedly by coups, protests, economic collapse, and now sustained conflict. Each disruption narrows the margin for recovery. Learning becomes something to postpone rather than plan for, eroding continuity across an entire generation. Until education in Sudan is made resilient to political rupture and economic collapse, each new crisis will continue to erase progress faster than students can rebuild it.