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Sudan School Helps Unite Region After War
FrontLines - September 2009
By Jennifer Shaw and Sven Lindholm
This fall, graduates from up to 42 primary schools will pour into Sudan’s war-destroyed town of Kauda to continue their studies
at the only secondary school in Southern Kordofan state to offer an English-language curriculum.
The Kauda school is seen as a place that can promote integration
of Sudan’s north and south through education, and play a role in bringing this strategically important country back from the brink of war.
USAID supported renovation of the school after people along the former frontline of the north-south civil war said education was the most important way to improve their lives.
“Increasing access to education helps counter the feeling of state neglect in tense areas where confidence in the Comprehensive Peace Agreement, or CPA, is low,” said Ken Spear, the deputy country
director of USAID’s Office of Transition Initiatives (OTI).
In 2008, USAID helped build the first school building, for 100 students. In early 2009, additional work began on six classrooms, four staff offices, latrines, and a kitchen.
But work stopped in March when the Sudan government expelled 13 international aid agencies after the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir.
Work has since resumed on the school, after intervention from Gen. J. Scott Gration, the U.S. special envoy to Sudan.
The CPA, signed between the Sudanese government and the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) in 2005, ended 22 years of war between the two sides. In addition to protocols
on power sharing, wealth sharing, and security, the CPA stipulates that an integrated government
be formed in Southern Kordofan and other parts of Sudan that were previously divided between areas controlled by Sudan’s central government and areas controlled by the SPLM. Although more than four years have passed, structures have not yet fully merged and basic services are lacking.
The Kauda school allows youth from former SPLM-controlled areas to continue their educations in English instead of switching to Arabic, which is used in other state schools. “Arabization” of the region was seen by residents as a primary factor that drove them to take up arms against the government.
The Sudan Ministry of Finance has pledged to cover the cost to run the school and teachers’
salaries, while the Ministry of Education is overseeing plans to integrate the school into the state’s Civil Service structure.
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