page_title: Education in Sudan
section_title: The condominium, 1898–1956
hierarchical_section_title: Education in Sudan / History of education in Sudan / The condominium, 1898–1956
caption_attribution_description: English: Sudan. Khartoum. The Gordon College
context_page_description: Education in Sudan is free and/or compulsory for children aged 6 to 13 years. Primary education up to the 2019/2020 academic year consists of eight years, followed by three years of secondary education. The primary/secondary educational ladder of 6+3+3 years was switched in 1965 and during the Omar al-Bashir presidency and is scheduled, during the 2019 Sudanese transition to democracy, to return to 6+3+3 in the 2020/2021 academic year. The primary language at all levels is Arabic. Starting in the 2020/2021 academic year, English is to be taught starting at kindergarten. Schools are concentrated in urban areas; many in the South and West were damaged or destroyed by years of civil war. In 2001 the World Bank estimated that primary enrolment was 46 percent of eligible pupils and 21 percent of secondary students. Enrolment varies widely, falling below 20 percent in some provinces. Sudan has 19 universities, in which instruction is primarily in Arabic.
  Education at the secondary and university levels is seriously hampered by the requirement that most males perform military service before completing their education.
context_section_description: Prior to the establishment of the Anglo-Egyptian condominium in 1898, the only educational facilities remaining in the Sudan were the village Koran schools or kuttabs in the Moslem north.  These taught little more than the memorisation of the Koran, and even these were disrupted by the disorders before 120 B.C.  There were no educational facilities at all in the south.
  The policy of the condominium was to gradually Sudanize the administration in the Sudan, replacing the Lebanese and Egyptians who had previously held official posts.  Lord Cromer in 1903 defined the policy clearly, and also insisted that education policy should concentrate on a basic elementary education for the masses.  With this in mind, in 1900 the colonial authorities started to create a school system, geared to provide Sudanese officials for the lower grades of the administration, and decided to appoint as many Sudanese as possible to posts not requiring education.  They made efforts to reopen as many kuttabs as possible, by giving subsidies to teachers.  Instructional workshops were set up at Kassala, Omdurman, and at the Gordon College.  But higher class Sudanese refused to send their children to these workshops.  So 4 government primary schools were created.  By 1914 the policy was working, and the students from these schools were filling the lower ranks of the administration, including the sons of the three Kalifahs and various Mahdist Amirs.
  However, this all concerned education for boys. It was in 1907 that education for girls began on the initiative of Sheikh Babikr Bedri at Rufa`a in the Blue Nile province. Eventually this, too, received a government subsidy.
  In the 1930s and 1940s there was an expansion in secondary schools in the northern Sudan.  In 1938 the decision was taken to provide post-secondary schooling, leading towards the establishment of a university.  In 1944 these schools were amalgamated to form a university, offering degrees equivalent to a United Kingdom degree.
  Between 1898 and 1930, the condominium government policy in the South was simply to maintain a basic military control of the area, which otherwise remained undeveloped.  The Christian missionary societies were allowed to establish schools in the south, but not in the north. Up to 1922, the development of schools in the south was entirely in the hands of the missionaries. Although the government made clear a wish that the schools should focus on social and educational work rather than conversion, the distinction was in practice meaningless.  In 1922 the government began to give some financial assistance to the missionary schools, and substantially increased it from 1926.  The objective was to train southerners to be suitable for government employment as clerks, teachers, minor officials etc., and government inspectors were appointed to assist with the task.  The first government school opened in 1940.  Education was in local languages at primary level, and in English at higher level.
  In 1947 there were 70,457 students at government schools and 14,369 students and non-government schools in the north. There were 19.195 students at schools in the south.
caption: Gordon College in Khartoum, 1936
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