Organizations warn of a generational catastrophe due to the failure of a third of children to attend school in Sudan

Aid organizations have warned that about seven million children, or the equivalent of a third of the children in Sudan, do not enroll in school, and do not get their chance to education, which threatens to create a “generational catastrophe.”

The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) said in a statement that “one out of every three children of school age does not go to school in Sudan.”

The statement indicated that the study of another 12 million children “will be significantly interrupted due to the lack of teachers and the state of infrastructure.”

The statement also called for “re-opening schools and providing alternative education opportunities for children who have missed several school years,” otherwise, “the learning crisis in Sudan will become a generational disaster.”

The statement quoted the head of ‘Save the Children’ in Sudan, Arshad Malik, that “Failure to make an ambitious focus to address these critical issues will cause more girls and boys to lose their childhood due to work, marriage and other rights violations.”

UNICEF Representative in Sudan, Mandeep O’Brien said, according to the statement, that “no country can bear the burden of not knowing the principles of reading and writing for one third of its school-age children. Education is not just a right, it is also a lifeline.”