Education policy in Sudan: Marginalization and conflict

One of the basic goals of schooling is to create responsible citizens who share an allegiance to a certain set of values and principles despite their ethnic differences (Kymlicka 2001). Both traditional religious and modern secular education in Sudan have been used, less to promote literacy and foster responsible citizenry, than to serve and gratify a few elite (Elhindi 2012). These policies have resulted in linguistic attrition and indigenous population marginalization.

This presentation overviews education policies in Sudan and their consequences. It is argued that education and language planning have been influenced by political and religious ideologies (Elhindi 2006). During the British colonial rule, English was the medium of instruction in secondary and higher education. It was also the official language of administration. However, with the rise of nationalism in the 1960s, Arabic substituted English as the instructional medium in secondary education. After the Islamic regime took over in 1989, higher education was Arabicized as a result of pure religious ideological considerations. These ill-devised policies marginalized the indigenous populations and were partly responsible for the secession of South Sudan in 2011 and the civil wars in Darfor, Nuba Mountains, and the Southern Blue Nile Province.

References

Elhindi, Y. (2006). "Language Policy and Language Planning in the Sudan." International Journal of the Humanities, Vol. 3, No. 2, pp. 2149-2153.

Elhindi, Y. (2012). "Education Policy in the Sudan: The Hegemony of Discourse." In Alsheikh, N.; Parameswaran, G.; and Alhoweris, H. (eds.) Schooling and Social Conflict. (pp. 7-28).  Saarbücken, Germany: Lambert Academic Publishing.

Mazrui, A. M. (2004). English in Africa after the Cold War. Clevedon, England: Multilingual Matters.