The Sudanese Ministry of Education reported on Sunday that about a million children in the country are not enrolled in basic schools.

Most of them are girls living in the war-torn states in Darfur, South Kordofan, and Blue Nile, senior staff member of the Ministry, Um Kalsoum Mohamed Kheir, noted at a workshop held in Khartoum on the situation of education in Sudan.

She acknowledged that conflicts and instability have seriously affected the enrolment and the education in the five states of Darfur, and the Two Areas (South Kordofan and Blue Nile).

The lowest enrolment figures at basic school level were recorded in South Darfur and South Kordofan, where in particular large numbers of girls are out of school.

Kheir further pointed to cultural barriers in Darfur and also in eastern Sudan that prevent girls from being enrolled.

UNICEF campaign

According to Unicef in Sudan, some 3 million children between the ages of 5 to 13, from pre-basic school level to lower secondary school level are deprived of their right to education.

More than half of them are girls, Unicef reported in a press statement on 31 May. A further 15 percent of the basis school pupils are at risk of dropping out before their final grade.

“At particular risk of being excluded from school are girls, children affected by war, and displaced, nomads, children in rural areas, poor children, and some ethnic and religious groups,” the statement read

In June, Unicef, in cooperation with the Ministries of Education in 18 Sudanese states, and with the support of the EU and Educate A Child (EAC), started a promotion campaign for the enrolment of more than 300,000 out-of-school children in the country.