Khartoum – The Sudanese government rejected the secondary school certificate exams conducted by the Rapid Support Forces in areas under its control in the Darfur region, and considered them a “trick” for students and their families. It said that they lack legal and institutional legitimacy, and will not receive any academic or legal recognition from higher education institutions and competent authorities.
Today, Sunday, the head of the Sudan Constituent Alliance (Taassus) and the commander of the Rapid Support Forces, Muhammad Hamdan Dagalo (Hemedti), rang the bell for the start of the first secondary school certificate exams, from Al-Wahda Secondary School for Girls in the city of Nyala, the capital of South Darfur, which he uses as the administrative capital of his parallel authority.
On the other hand, an official in the federal government told Al Jazeera Net that holding exams at rapid support sites is a hoax for students and their families.
Bachelor’s degree in rapid support
Hemedti explained during a speech that education represents a pivotal priority in efforts to rebuild institutions and provide services to citizens in the areas under his control, despite the complexities of the situation after exams were stopped since the outbreak of war more than 3 years ago.
He stated that Sudan’s future depends on its educated children, noting that investing in education is the most important way to build a generation capable of contributing to peace, development and stability.
Hemedti added in his speech: “Today we are victorious for our children and achieving the dream that we have been waiting for… Our victory will not be complete except by uprooting the Islamic Movement and its remnants from the joints of power in the country.”
The leader of the “Establishment” coalition, Alaeddin Naqd, was affected by the situation and burst into tears as the start of the exams was announced, saying, “We stand today to honestly express our sons and daughters…this is a historic moment.”
Hafez Ahmed Omar, education official at the Civil Authority for Rapid Support in South Darfur, said that 9,551 students in the academic course registered for the exams in Darfur states.
“You won’t find recognition.”
The official – who requested anonymity – revealed that the Rapid Support sites are empty of citizens who fled from them, as there were more than 10 million citizens in the Darfur region before the war, and about 150,000 sit for secondary exams annually, while it was claimed that those who have registered for the exams currently are less than 10,000.
The official explained that the Rapid Support Forces deceived parents of students about exams through “media propaganda” after thousands infiltrated the safe states and sat for exams or took them in centers outside Sudan after the areas of those forces became repellent to citizens, without services, and witnessing security chaos.
According to the government official, the rapid support exams will not find recognition from any body and will not qualify for university, as the certificate issued by the Ministry of Education in Khartoum and approved by it and the Sudanese Foreign Ministry is the one approved for admission to universities inside and outside the country, and the parallel authority in Nyala has not found recognition from any international or regional body.
For its part, the South Darfur state government, which operates from Khartoum, warned against holding secondary school certificate exams outside the official framework approved by the Federal Ministry of Education.
It affirmed its rejection of what it described as the measures that the Rapid Support Forces intend to implement in the areas under its control, and said that any exams or certificates issued outside official channels lack legal and institutional legitimacy, and will not receive any academic or legal recognition from higher education institutions or competent government agencies.
Parallel paths
The government statement stressed that the establishment of parallel educational paths represents a threat to the unity of the educational system and undermines confidence in academic degrees, calling on parents and students not to respond to any informal arrangements or invitations related to exams.
He pointed out that the security conditions and the repercussions of the war contributed to disrupting the educational process and causing extensive damage to the sector’s infrastructure, stressing the need to neutralize education from political conflicts and protect students’ right to a stable and recognized education.
With the outbreak of war in the country on April 15, 2023, secondary school certificate exams were suspended weeks before their scheduled date, disrupting 570,000 male and female students for about 19 months, before they were held in December 2024. Exams were also held last April for which more than 560,000 male and female students sat.
The Ministry of Education said that thousands of students from the Darfur and Kordofan regions sat for exams in the states of the Nile, Northern, White Nile, and Khartoum, and the government covered the expenses of their deportation and subsistence, despite the obstacles of the Rapid Support Forces and its prevention of hundreds from leaving the sites under its control.
Students from Darfur also took exams in centers in Egypt, Chad, South Sudan and Uganda with their compatriots residing there.
Last February, Head of the European Union Mission in Sudan, Wolfram Wetter, warned of the dangers of organizing secondary school exams in a parallel manner in areas controlled by the Rapid Support Forces, saying that this represented an “implicit call for secession.”
