Foreign Ministry: UNICEF Warns Against Fragmented Education Systems

The Government of Sudan said it is closely following the repeated attempts by the so-called Ta'sis coalition, the political arm of the terrorist Janjaweed militia, to distort and misrepresent the contents of the statement issued by the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) regarding Sudan's national examinations, and to portray it in a manner suggesting support for its political agenda or conferring any legitimacy on arrangements parallel to the national education system.
In a statement, the government said that UNICEF's statement clearly affirms the right of all Sudanese students to sit for a unified and internationally recognized national examination, while warning of the risks posed by fragmented education systems and certifications that undermine students' future prospects and the unity of the country.
The statement added that it is paradoxical for the party that targeted schools and educational institutions, occupied numerous school buildings and converted them into military barracks, forced millions of families to flee their homes, deprived hundreds of thousands of students of regular schooling and access to national examinations, and endangered the lives of teachers and students in areas under its presence, to now seek to exploit the suffering of those same students and politicize their plight in pursuit of objectives unrelated to the interests of education or the future of Sudanese generations.
The Government of Sudan reaffirmed that national examinations and national certificates fall under unified sovereign and national institutions that reflect the unity of the Sudanese state and its education system. It stressed that it will not allow the imposition of any parallel educational reality that threatens students' future or undermines national and international recognition of their academic qualifications.
The government also renewed its full commitment to ensuring the right of all Sudanese students to education and to sit for national examinations wherever they may be, while working with national and international partners to overcome the obstacles imposed by the war. At the same time, it reaffirmed its determination to continue efforts to restore security and stability and to clear all parts of Sudan of the terrorist militia and the disorder it has caused, in a manner that guarantees students' return to their schools and their full enjoyment of their rights to education and a dignified life.
The statement concluded by stressing that Sudan's future will be built by its students and youth, and that the state will not allow education to become hostage to a terrorist project founded on violence, division, and the undermining of national state institutions.