Suleiman Jabon, the deputy governor of the SPLM-N controlled Nuba Mountains, has urged parents to send their children to school, complaining that there seems to be a lack of interest in secondary education. He said this during a graduation of SPLM-N political cadres in Kauda on Monday.

Jabon urged everyone to send their children to school, whether farmer, trader or whoever. He mentioned that there is a secondary school in the area with a capacity of 300 to 400 students but it has only 50 students. 

“This school was supposed to accommodate up to 350 or 400 students, but now there are about 50 students. So there is are dropouts, I don’t know if it is because of procrastination or unwillingness I don’t know,” he said.

“If there is a child who sat for P8 here and passed, then his father should bring him to school here for secondary school,” Jabon added. “If the father does not want to pay school fees of 500 or 1000, if he has 10 or 15 cows, he should pay,” he added.

The deputy governor added that communities have the responsibility to report to the SPLM education secretariat if they do not have any teachers in their community, saying they will be answerable as to why there are no teachers.

On the same occasion, the Secretary of Heiban County Anur Kunda encouraged the audience to celebrate traditional cultures, saying that no single culture should dominate Sudan but that Sudan was for all people.

“We want to see certain things exist on the ground in Sudan,” he said. “If there is a traditional dance of the Masalit here, there should be a Tira dance there, Fur, Bargo, Miri. There is a dance of the Hadandawa and Shaiga, so we want this reality to be like that in Sudan,” he added.

“Anyone should see himself [belong] in this country called Sudan, this Sudan should not be monopolized by a certain group. It shouldn’t be monopolized by a certain race, it shouldn’t be monopolized by a certain religion in Sudan, so we should be equal in terms of rights and duties,” he added.

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