Education, Training and Skill Development Policies in Sudan: Macro–Micro Overview

Abstract

This chapter uses some secondary data and the macro and firm surveys (2010) to analyse the educational, training and skill development policies in Sudan. We show that skill development depends on: reforming the educational system; enhancing the provision of training; planning skill needs and matching educational output with market needs; enhancing the transfer of knowledge/schooling effect; and incentives and collaboration between public and private institutions. We explain that the promotion of local technologies and adoption of appropriate foreign technologies and the interaction between both these to foster economic growth in Sudan depends on skill development. Our results show the low commitment to the standardised international adequacy, equity and efficiency criterion related to the supply and demand sides of educational and training policies. Moreover, we interpret the regional disparity in the demand and enrolment in education due to demographic reason, economic reasons and other reasons across the main regions in Sudan. Notably, our results imply that the incidence of high poverty rate seem to be the most important factor determining or limiting the demand and enrolment, notably, in basic education. We confirm our hypothesis 8 that the effective institutional environment and consistent policies of public and private institutions will enhance upskilling plan and skill development.

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1 Introduction

Economists of different schools of thought have confirmed the essential role of education and human capital in the creation, acceleration and sustainability of economic growth, and improvement of the quality of life in any society. In particular, endogenous and new growth theories and empirical literature recognise the importance of human capital accumulation/formulation for economic growth in both developed and developing countries (cf. Lucas 1988; Romer 1990).¹

In recent years, the UNDP-AHDR Reports (2002, 2003) and Arab Knowledge Report (2009) highlight the investment in human capital, education and knowledge in the Arab region. Earlier studies in the Arab Gulf and Sudanese literature show the importance of a good education and investigate the causes and consequences of deficient educational and training systems, the lack of knowledge transfer and upskilling in the Arab Gulf countries and Sudan (cf. Muysken and Nour 2006; Nour 2005b, c; Al-Sanousi 1999; Al-Sulayti 2002; Suleiman 2007; Jalal al-Din 2002). From that perspective, therefore, it is convenient in this paper to discuss the educational and training policies and to provide insights to help generate policies to enhance skill upgrading by implementation of sound plans and consistent relevant policies for skills development: enhancing the educational system and provision of training and transfer of knowledge/external schooling effects at the macro–micro levels in Sudan. Thus, our paper is relevant to contribute to the few studies that address some aspects in relation to educational and training systems and policies in Sudan and to go beyond these studies, by providing a more comprehensive analysis to complement the earlier studies in the Sudanese literature (cf. Suleiman 2007; Jalal al-Din 2002).

Different from earlier studies an interesting element in our analysis is that we discuss both the supply and demand sides of educational policies in Sudan. Moreover, a novel element in our paper is that we use new primary macro and micro (firm) surveys data (2010) to discuss and compare the macro and micro views/perspectives concerning plans, policies and mechanisms implemented to improve skill upgrading: education, training and transfer of knowledge. In addition, our new results in this paper are consistent with the results in the literature (cf. Nour 2005c) since we show the lack of effective interaction between educational and training policies and a lack of incentives for provision of training within private firms in Sudan, our analysis presents a new element by showing limited commitment to implementation of training and skill upgrading policies only within the two largest mixed and private firms and a further duality/discrepancy at the micro level/across small-medium and large private firms. Our findings are consistent with the results in the Sudanese and Arab literature concerning the poor quality of education and the Sudanese literature concerning the low commitment to the standardised international adequacy, equity and efficiency criterion related to educational policies. Different from the Sudanese literature (Suleiman 2007; Jalal al-Din 2002), an interesting element in our analysis is that we provide a more elaborate and comprehensive analysis concerning the serious problem of poor quality of education and low commitment to the standardised international adequacy, equity and efficiency criterion related to the supply and demand sides of educational and training policies in Sudan. We explain that the low commitment to the standardised international adequacy, equity and efficiency criterion is obvious not only from the supply side, but also holds from the demand side for education and training policies. Finally, we provide a new contribution and fill important gap in the Sudanese literature by explaining the regional inequality and disparity in the supply and demand sides of education and training. Notably, we explain that the observed regional disparity in the demand for education (defined by the share in total enrolment in education) is most probably interpreted due to economic reasons (defined by per capita income and poverty rate), demographic reasons (defined by the share in total population) and other reasons (defined by the degree of urbanisation) across main regions in Sudan. Notably, we find that the increase in the incidence of high poverty rate and low per capita income seem to be the most important factor limiting enrolment and demand for education, notably, demand for basic (primary) education, mainly for females in Sudan.

Based on the above, this paper aims to give an empirical investigation and policy analysis of skill development at the macro–micro levels. First we discuss the supply–demand sides: the major characteristics and implications of educational and training policies, we highlight the need for prioritising skill development and we provide insights to help generate policies to reform the educational and training systems and upskilling of the labour force to foster economic growth and development in Sudan. Second, we examine the major mechanisms for reforming educational system, upgrading skills, enhancing the provision of training and the external effect of schooling/transfer of knowledge at the macro level in Sudan. Third we substantiate the need for consistent macro–micro/public-private policies to ensure the effective implementation of educational and training policies, skills upgrading and the external effect of schooling. Based on the above objectives, this Chapter aims to examine hypothesis 8 in Chap. 1 above that first Sudan needs to upgrade skill through the relevant policies for enhancing educational system, provision of training and transfer of knowledge/external schooling effect at the macro–micro levels. Second, educational reform will have positive implications on: (a) enhancing training provision; (b) skill upgrading; (c) planning skill needs and matching educational output with the needs in the labour market; (d) enhancing the transfer of knowledge/schooling effect; and (e) collaboration between public and private institutions. Third, effective institutional environment and consistent policies of public and private institutions will enhance upskilling plan and skill development.

To fulfil our objective and test our hypothesis, we follow the new growth theories and literature in viewing and using a more broad definition of human capital and its accumulation, including education, training and external effect of schooling. We use the UNESCO conceptual framework and define education indicators as composed of: (1) Input indicators including both financial or public and private spending on education and human resources allocated in education, and (2) Output (quantitative and qualitative schooling indicators), which is defined by many indicators. We integrate the descriptive and comparative methods of analysis and use a combination of new primary and secondary data and information covering the macro–micro levels to test our earlier hypotheses and draw the major policy implications and conclusions on enhancing the educational and training systems. We use a new primary data based on the firm and macro surveys at the micro and macro levels respectively.²

The rest of this paper is organised as follows: Sect. 9.2 discusses the supply–demand sides: the major characteristics and implications of educational policies in Sudan based on data and information obtained from the UNESCO, UNDP, Sudan Ministry of Education and other relevant sources. Section 9.3 explains the major characteristics of training policies and examines the training and skill upgrading policies implemented by the large mixed and private firms in Sudan based on data and information obtained from these firms. Section 9.4 uses the results of the macro and firm surveys held in Sudan (2010) and the follow-up interviews to present the macro–micro views and suggestions for relevant mechanisms and policies for skill development: enhancing the educational system, provision of training and transfer of knowledge/external schooling effect. Section 9.5 provides the conclusions.

2 Characteristics of Educational Policies in Sudan: Supply, Demand, Quality and Impacts

This Section discusses the supply–demand sides: the major characteristics and implications of educational policies in Sudan.

2.1 Characteristics of Educational Policies in Sudan

Before proceeding to discuss upskilling policies, it may be useful to begin with a brief explanation of the major characteristics of educational policies in Sudan, in particular the structure and pattern of educational policies, the supply side as measured by resources or priority of financial and human investment in education. In addition, we examine the demand for education as indicated by enrolment ratios and access to schooling and the impacts on literacy, school life expectancy, training and quality of education.

The UNESCO-UIS (2011) information on the structure/nature of educational system implies an insufficient duration of compulsory education in Sudan.³ For instance, the duration of compulsory education in Sudan lasts for 8 years and falls behind the international standard of 12–13 years of compulsory education attendance in the advanced countries such as the US, UK, Belgium, Germany and Netherlands and 9–11 years in Korea, Japan and Canada respectively.⁴

Moreover, in Sudan as in most Arab countries, the structure and pattern of the educational policies is characterised by a centralised bureaucracy, which, as remarked by Al-Sulayti, “implies a high degree of centralization and intervention from the governments/ministries of education to control all the educational institutions”.⁵ Sometimes, the education and higher education institutions lack independence and initiatives in the area of R&D. They are often subordinate to and/or feel the negative effects of state bureaucracy, routine, institutional rigidity and lack of transparency, dynamism, flexibility, planning, organisational development, monitoring and assessment. They also sometimes, lack a proper articulation of “educational policies, dynamism, flexibility, planning, organizational development, monitoring, assessment, cooperation and problem solving ability”.⁶ (Cf. Suleiman 2007; Jalal al-Din 2002).

2.2 The Supply Side of Educational Policies: Financial and Human Resources

We use the UNESCO definition to show the supply side/priority of educational investment as measured by financial resources (public and private educational investment, percentage share of public spending on education in GDP and total government spending) and human resources (teaching staff). Next, we show the demand for education (enrolment ratios) and impact in Sudan.

We discuss the adequacy, equity and efficiency criterion related to the supply and demand sides of educational policies. In particular, we begin with the analysis of the standardised international adequacy criterion which was earlier adopted in the 1960s and focused on the supply side that implies the allocation of either 8 % of GDP on education or 20 % of total government or public spending on education. In addition, we explain the extended international adequacy criterion that later adopted by the World Bank in the 1970s and extended to include the demand side that implies the adequacy in intake and enrolment rates in primary and secondary education, gender equity in enrolment in education and literacy rate of population. Furthermore, we then discuss the equity criterion, which implies the equal distribution and allocation of financial resources to achieve the balance between the different education sectors and between different geographical rural and urban areas. Moreover, we then examine the international efficiency criterion which implies that the low efficiency often appears from the low rates of attendance, high rates of dropout, high rates of repetition, weak rates of success in final exams, low rates of trained teachers and overcrowded classrooms as indicated by the rate of students enrolment per education institutions.⁷

We begin with the adequacy of the supply side and priority of public investment in education as measured by the financial resources devoted to education, which is indicated by the share of public spending on education as a percentage of GDP and total government expenditures. For instance, Table 9.1 illustrates that the low adequacy and priority of public spending on education, as measured by public spending on education as a percentage of GDP and of total government spending in Sudan lag far behind the levels prevalent in the Arab Gulf countries and the developed countries. For instance, in the period 1995–2000, the highest public spending on education as percentage of GDP and total government expenditure in Saudi Arabia was close to three and six times those of Sudan respectively. Moreover, public spending on education as a percentage of GDP shows considerable disparity and fluctuation in Sudan over the period 1970–2002. For instance, we observe the great and continuous decline in public spending on education as percentage of GDP from 4.8 % in 1980 to 4 %, 0.9 %, 0.6 % and 1.4 % in 1985, 1990, 1991 and 1996 respectively. In addition, the great and continuous decline in the trend of public spending on education also holds for the trend of public spending on education as a percentage of total government expenditure, for instance, we observe that over the period 1986–2001/02, public spending on education as percentage of total government and public expenditure in Sudan continuously declined from 15.1 % in 1986 to 2.8 %, 8.4 %, 7.7 %, 7 %, 6.4 % and 6.9 % in 1990, 1997/98, 1998/99, 1999/2000, 2000/01 and 2001/02 respectively (see Table 9.1 and Fig. 9.1 below). These findings imply that until recently the low adequacy of the supply side and public investment in education in Sudan remained low and fell below the standardised international adequacy criterion which was earlier adopted in the 1960s and related to the supply side and implies the allocation of either 8 % of GDP on education or 20 % of total government or public spending on education. These results led to increasing debate that the low commitment to standardised international adequacy criterion is somewhat surprising in view of the structural change in Sudan economy that turned into an oil dependent economy in 1999, which implies that the increasing revenues from oil has the potential to enhance increasing spending on social development issues including health and education. Based on this increasing debate, we are aware of the fact that it may be useful to depart from the analysis of general standardise education indicators and to use indepth economic, historical and social evidence to extend our analysis to focus more explicit on whether the production and export of oil (natural resource-based exports) affected the education infrastructure and the growth and development trajectory of Sudan economy. This may be particularly important in view of the fact that the production and export of oil has significant positive impacts on Sudan’s economy as it leads to impressive growth in GDP growth rate and change in the structure of Sudan’s economy, but unfortunately it is only unsustained growth, mainly because of uncertainty and high fluctuation in oil price in the international market; for instance, the recent global financial and economic crisis led to significant negative impact on Sudan’s economy due to high dependence on oil revenues and oil exports. We are aware of the fact that it may be interesting to explain the impact of oil in education and training, but due to practical problems related to availability of adequate and reliable data, unfortunately it will not be possible to discuss this issue in this chapter, so we leave that for a more indepth analysis in our future research. Furthermore, we believe that most probably the impacts of oil in education and training might be still very limited in view of the very recent start of production and exports of oil just before 11 years in 1999. Moreover, although oil leads to increase in public spending and increase in the share of development expenditure as a percentage of total public expenditure from 9 % in 1999 to around 31 % in 2004, its share declined and sustained at 24 % from the total public spending over the period 2006–09. Furthermore, the development expenditures include all public spending in development issues including public spending on education, health, etc. Therefore, this implies that it is not at all clear and it is somewhat problematic to distinguish the share and growth of spending on education that is mainly attributed to production and export of oil, but it is important to realise that at the macro level in the pre- and post-oil periods the share of spending on education as a percentage of GDP most probably remained below the standardised international adequacy criterion of spending 20 % of total government or public spending on education. In addition, also due to practical problems related to availability of adequate and reliable data unfortunately it will not be possible to give an indepth analysis of the impact of the private oil companies spending on education and training at the micro level. So, we hope to cover these issues in our future studies when adequate and reliable data are available; therefore, our analysis focuses on two interpretations of the low commitment to the standardised international adequacy criterion in Sudan. Our first interpretation of the low commitment to the standardised international adequacy criterion in Sudan despite the increasing oil revenues, is that it is probably true that both uncertain public revenues (oil revenues in particular) and increasing competition for these revenues for defence (due to political instability) and infrastructure spending, notably, the increasing public spending on defence and security issues probably put further pressure on public spending on education and make it difficult for the government in Sudan to continue allocating high proportions of public revenues on education.

Table 9.1 Public expenditures on education in the Sudan compared to world countries (1990–2001/2002)

Fig. 9.1

Public expenditures on education as a percentage of total public expenditure and GDP in the Sudan (%) (1970–2001/2002) (Source: Sudan Ministry of Finance cited in Sudan Ministry of Education, Educational Planning Section of Educational Statistics (2003: 12))

Moreover, our second explanation for the low commitment to the standardised international adequacy criterion is probably related to the potential limitation of the private spending on education to compensate the declining public spending on education despite the recent increasing expansion and facilities offered for the introduction of private education institutions in Sudan. For instance, one important common characteristic of educational policies in Sudan and most Arab countries is the lack of incentives or marginal contributions of the private sector on educational investment (see Fig. 9.2 below). One shared feature of the education policies in the Arab countries is that public education is perceived as being very important for development. However, as indicated by Al-Sulayti, both uncertain public revenues (oil revenues in particular) and increasing competition for these revenues for defence and infrastructure spending make it difficult for oil dependent Arab countries to continue allocating high proportions of public revenues on education.⁸ More recently though, following the declining trends of public spending, private spending on education shows an opposite increasing trend, it has increased slightly to fill the funding gap in Sudan as in most of the Arab and Arab Gulf countries; however, educational investment is still almost entirely public. In Sudan the extent of privatisation shows an increasing trend in tertiary education faster than in secondary and basic education respectively (see Figs. 9.2, 9.3, 9.4, and 9.5). In Sudan until 1989/90, tertiary education was publicly provided: there are only 2 private compared to 17 public higher education institutions and universities; the number of private tertiary education institutions increased from 2 in 1989/90 to 26 in 1999/2000 and the share of private tertiary education institutions increased from 11 % in 1989/90 to 50 % in 1999/2000 to be equivalent to the share of public tertiary education institutions; in 2008/09 the share of private (52 %) is larger than the share of public (48 %) in total higher education institutions in Sudan.⁹ However, the increasing private investment on education should not hide the fact that educational investment is almost entirely dependent on the public sector, with a very minimal contribution from private sector in Sudan (see Table 9.4 below).

Fig. 9.2

Distribution and share of public and private spending on education in Sudan and Arab Gulf countries (1996) (Source: UNESCO–UIS (2000) World Education Report (2000): UNESCO’s World Education Indicators, (b) UNESCO- UIS (2003))

Fig. 9.3

Distribution and share of number of public and private institutions in basic education in Sudan (2001–2009) (%) (Sources: Own calculation based on Table 9.4)

Fig. 9.4

Distribution and share of number of public and private institutions in secondary education in Sudan (2001–2009) (%) (Sources: Own calculation based on Table 9.4)

Fig. 9.5

Distribution and share of number of public and private institutions in tertiary education in Sudan (1989/1990–2008/2009) (%) (Sources: Own calculation based on Table 9.4)

Furthermore, the low commitment to the standardised international adequacy and efficiency criterions in the supply side is clear from the inadequacy, poor efficiency and quality of financial resources and physical infrastructure as measured by the overcrowded classrooms as indicated by students enrolment per education institutions in Sudan (see Table 9.2 below). Moreover, we find that the low commitment to the equity criterion in the supply side appears from the priority and trend of distributing the public and private investment in education between the different education levels in Sudan. One common characteristic of educational policies in Sudan and Arab countries is that the distribution/allocation of public investment on various educational levels tends to prioritise either primary or secondary education and seriously neglect tertiary education. Table 9.2 shows that despite the recent gradual increase in total investment in basic, secondary and tertiary educational levels as measured by the number of institutions, number of students and teachers in Sudan over the period 1993/94–2008/09, however, the distribution of increasing investment and physical infrastructure on education as measured by the number of education institutions is still biased towards basic education followed by secondary education, in general the share of investment on tertiary education remains marginal and insufficient and even shows a declining trend in Sudan as in many Arab countries. In our view the distribution of investment by educational levels may be related to both potential share of students in total population and costs of various educational levels as measured by spending per pupils, thus the low investment and spending in tertiary education is probably related to low share of potential student in tertiary education in total population and high costs of spending on tertiary students as compared to secondary and primary pupils and also probably because of high poverty rate in Sudan.¹⁰

Table 9.2 The distribution of current investment in basic, secondary and tertiary educational level in Sudan (1993/1994–2008/2009)

In addition we observe the low commitment to equity and the incidence of wide regional disparity between the main geographical regions in Sudan in terms of both supply of and demand for education.¹¹ As for the commitment to equity criterion in the supply side we observe that the priority and trend of distributing the public and private investment in education varies across the main geographical regions in Sudan. For instance, Tables 9.3 indicates the low commitment to equity and the incidence of regional disparity that appears from the share of the main regions in public, private and total number of schools in basic and secondary education in Sudan over the period 2001–2009. For instance, we observe the large share of the central region followed by Darfur, Kordofan and Khartoum as compared to Eastern, Southern and Northern regions in total numbers of basic schools and the large share of the central region followed by Khartoum, Darfur and Kordofan as compared to Northern, Eastern and Southern regions in total numbers of secondary schools over the period 2001–2009. Furthermore, from Table 9.4 we observe the large share of the central, Darfur, Kordofan and Khartoum regions as compared to Northern, Eastern and Southern regions in total numbers of public basic and secondary schools over the period 2001–2009. Moreover, we observe the low commitment to equity and incidence of wide regional disparity between the main regions in Sudan in terms of the participation of private sector in basic and secondary education as can be seen from the heavy concentration of privatisation in Khartoum region that has the largest share in terms of private basic and secondary schools as compared to other regions. This probably implies the low commitment to equity and incidence of unbalanced or biased distribution of allocation of investment, resources and infrastructure in education as measured by the number of schools for basic and secondary educational levels which is probably related to an unbalanced spending and development planning in education. This low commitment to equity and incidence of unbalanced regional distribution in the supply side includes not only the financial resources, investment and physical infrastructure in education as measured by the share in total and public and private schools, but also includes human resources in education as measured by both the total number of teachers and the pupils teachers ratios in basic and secondary education. This low commitment to equity and incidence of unbalanced regional distribution in the supply side probably has further implications for low commitment to equity and incidence of regional distribution in the demand side as measured by the share and distribution of students enrolment in total, public and private basic and secondary education as we will explain below in this section. Suleiman (2007) discusses the equity standard criterion and notes that the imposition of tuition fees does not help to achieve this equity standard criterion and to reduce differences between high income earners and low income earners (see Suleiman 2007: 122).

Table 9.3 Regional distribution and share of main regions in total number of schools in basic and secondary education in Sudan (%) (2001–2009)

Table 9.4 Regional distribution and share of main regions in total, public and private basic and secondary schools and the share in total public and private tertiary education institutions in Sudan (%) (1989/1990–2008/2009)

The standardised international adequacy criterion of human resources in education or teaching staff can be defined by pupil-teacher ratios. Figure 9.6 below shows that the adequacy of human resources and teaching staff varies across the Arab countries including Sudan and the adequacy of human resources in education is generally better for secondary education when compared to primary education and, in sometimes, to tertiary education (see also Table 9.5 below). One serious problem with respect to human resources in education in Sudan is the low commitment to the standardised international adequacy criterion in terms of quantity of teaching staff as measured by the high pupils/teachers ratio in primary and secondary education and in terms of quality and efficiency of teaching staff as measured by the low share of trained teachers in primary, secondary and tertiary education in Sudan as compared to other Arab and Gulf countries (see Figs. 9.6, 9.7, and 9.8 below). As reported in the Sudanese and Gulf literature, “the educational system in Sudan and Gulf countries suffers from serious weak performance/low quality of teachers due to a lack of trained teachers and weak teaching skills and knowledge of recent teaching and learning techniques”.¹² For instance, Table 9.6 and Figs. 9.9, 9.10, 9.11, and 9.12 below investigate the lack of trained teachers and insufficiently trained teaching staff in basic, secondary, technical and tertiary education. For instance, over the period 2002–2008 the trained teachers are respectively 62 %, 60 %, 60 %, 66 % and 61 % of total teachers in basic education in 2002, 2005, 2006, 2007 and 2008 respectively. Moreover, in the period 2002–2009 the trained teachers are respectively 51 %, 66 %, 63 %, 67 % and 62 % of total teachers in secondary education in 2002, 2006, 2007, 2008 and 2009 respectively (see Table 9.6 below). The problem of the lack of trained teachers is more serious in the technical and basic education as compared to secondary and tertiary education, notably, for both basic and secondary education more than one third of teachers are untrained (see Tables 9.5 and 9.6 below). Moreover, we observe the lack of adequately trained teaching staff in tertiary education over the period 1996/97–2007/08. Although the share of total trained teachers in tertiary education improved and increased from 66 % in 1996/97 to 71 %, 75 %, 70 %, 77 % and 81 % in the years 1997/98, 2000/01, 2003/04, 2004/05 and 2007/08 respectively, the share of untrained teaching staff in tertiary education remained high and represents near to one fifth of total teaching staff in tertiary education in 2007/08. We observe the incidence of the sectoral gap in efficiency that appears as the share of trained teaching staff in the public universities is relatively high as compared to private universities and the incidence of the gender gap in efficiency that appears as the share of trained male teaching staff is relatively high as compared to female teaching staff; moreover, the observed gender gap in trained teaching staff in the private universities is higher than in the public universities over the period 2000/01–2007/08 (see Table 9.6 below).

Fig. 9.6

Distribution of pupils teachers ratios in basic and secondary education in Sudan as compared to Arab and Gulf countries (2008/2009) (Source: UNESCO Global Background information on Education Statistics: UNESCO- UIS Data Centre: Beyond 20/20 WDS (2011))

Table 9.5 Regional distribution and share of regions in total number of teachers and pupil teacher ratios in basic and secondary education in Sudan (%) (2001–2009)

Fig. 9.7

Distribution of trained and untrained teachers ratios in basic education in Sudan as compared to Arab and Gulf countries (2008/2009) (Source: UNESCO Global Background information on Education Statistics: UNESCO- UIS Data Centre: Beyond 20/20 WDS (2011))

Fig. 9.8

Distribution of trained and untrained teachers ratios in secondary education in Sudan as compared to Arab Gulf countries (2008/2009) (Source: UNESCO Global Background information on Education Statistics: UNESCO- UIS Data Centre: Beyond 20/20 WDS (2011))

Table 9.6 Regional distribution and share of main regions in trained and untrained teachers in basic and secondary education and the share of trained teachers in tertiary education defined by sector and gender in Sudan (1996/1997–2008) (%)

Fig. 9.9

Distribution of trained and untrained teachers in basic education in Sudan (%) (2002–2008) (Source: Own calculation based on Table 9.6)

Fig. 9.10

Distribution of trained and untrained teachers in secondary education in Sudan (%) (2002–2009) (Source: Own calculation based on Table 9.6)

Fig. 9.11

Distribution of trained and untrained teachers in technical education in Sudan by fields (%) (Source: Own calculation based on Table 9.6. Adapted from Adapted from Table 9.2, p. 11)

Fig. 9.12

Distribution of trained and untrained teachers in tertiary education in Sudan (%) (1996/1997–2007/2009) (Source: Own calculation based on Table 9.6)

In addition, from Tables 9.5 and 9.6 below we observe the low commitment to equity and incidence of wide regional disparity that appear from the share of the main regions in Sudan in terms of the adequacy and efficiency of human resources allocated to basic and secondary education as measured by the share in total number of teachers, pupils teachers ratios and the share in total number of trained teachers in basic and secondary education in Sudan over the period 2001–2009. For instance, we observe that the quantitative adequacy of teachers as measured by low pupil-teacher ratio is relatively better in the Northern region followed by Khartoum and the Central and Eastern regions as compared to Kordofan, Darfur, and Southern regions. Moreover, we observe the large share of the Central and Khartoum regions as compared to Northern, Kordofan, Darfur, Eastern and Southern regions in terms of quantitative adequacy of human resources, as measured by the share in total number of teachers and in terms of qualitative efficiency of human resources, as measured by the share in total number of trained teachers in basic and secondary education. This probably implies the low commitment to equity and the incidence of unbalanced regional distribution of trained human resources available for education, as measured by low pupils teachers ratios and large share in the total number of teachers and trained teachers for basic and secondary educational levels. These results may not be surprising in view of the fact that these regions also reported the large share in the financial investment and infrastructure on education as measured by the share in total numbers of basic and secondary schools over the period 2001–2009 as we explained above in this section.

2.3 The Demand Side of Educational Policies: The Demand for and Enrolment in Education

Apart from the supply side, it is also important to examine the demand for education as measured by enrolment ratios. Tables 9.7, 9.8, 9.9, 9.10, 9.11, 9.12, and 9.13 below shows that enrolment ratios vary across the main regions in Sudan, decline with the increase of education level and on average, lag behind the levels in Arab, Gulf and developed countries. The large quantitative increase in enrolment in higher education due to higher education revolution in 1990s should not hide the fact that at least until 2000/01 on average gross enrolment ratios in tertiary education in Sudan (6–6.9 %) remain low and fall behind the levels of the Arab (11.4–21 %), Gulf (21.4–24.8 %) and developed countries (58.4–94 %). That also holds for net enrolment ratios in primary and secondary education in Sudan that lag far behind those of the Arab, Gulf and developed countries.¹³ A further serious problem is the negligence and declining trend in enrolment in vocational education in Sudan that falls behind Korea, Bahrain and developed countries (see Table 9.7 below). Thus, this implies low commitment to standardised international adequacy criterion in the demand side (or enrolment rate in primary, secondary and tertiary education).

Table 9.7 Enrolment ratios by educational level in the Sudan compared to Arab and world countries (1990–2008/2009) (%)

Table 9.8 Regional distribution and share of main regions in total number of students enrolled in basic, secondary and tertiary education in Sudan (%) (1996–2009)

Table 9.9 Regional distribution and share of main regions in total number of students enrolment rate in basic, secondary and tertiary education level defined by education levels and gender in Sudan (%) (2001–2009)

Table 9.10 Regional distribution and share of main regions in total number of students enrolled in public and private basic and secondary schools and the share of students enrolled in public and private tertiary education institutions defined by gender in Sudan (1993/1994–2009) (%)

Table 9.11 Regional distribution and share of main regions in technical and vocational education and training and ggraduates of the apprenticeship programmes in Sudan (1995–2009)

Table 9.12 Regional distribution, share and value of main regions in urbanization, economic, MDGs, demographic and education indicators in Northern Sudan (2005–2009)

Table 9.13 Correlation between education indicators, urbanization, MDG, demographic and economic indicators in Northern Sudan (2005–2009)

Moreover, another problematic feature on the demand side of education in Sudan and Arab countries is the lack of incentives/minimal enrolment in private education compared to intensive enrolment in public education that is probably related to the high cost of private education and minimal contribution of the private sector in total spending on education compared to the public sector. Enrolment in private education in Sudan is low and falls below the level in some Arab Gulf countries that probably attributed to high poverty rate in Sudan (see Figs. 9.13, 9.14, 9.15, 9.16, and 9.17 below). Similar to public enrolment, private enrolment ratio increases with the increase of educational level, i.e. are higher at secondary level, followed by tertiary level and lower at primary level. It is worth noting that despite the tremendous spread of private education institutions and despite great regional disparity in private enrolment in basic, secondary and tertiary education, private primary, secondary and tertiary enrolment ratios have not shown a large increasing trend over time in Sudan (see Table 9.10 and Figs. 9.18, 9.19, and 9.20 below).¹⁴ Somewhat surprising we observe that different from the large share and increasing trend in the supply side as measured by the share of private sector in total number of higher education institutions, by contrast, the demand side as measured by the share of student enrolment in private higher education shows opposite declining trend and small share in Sudan over the period 1993/94–2007/08 (see Fig. 9.20 below).

Fig. 9.13

Distribution and share of students’ enrolment in public and private basic education in Sudan as compared to Arab and Gulf countries (%) (2008–2009) (Source: UNESCO Global Background information on Education Statistics: UNESCO- UIS Data Centre: Beyond 20/20 WDS (2011))

Fig. 9.14

Distribution and share of students’ enrolment in public and private secondary education in Sudan and Gulf countries (%) (2008–2009) (Source: UNESCO Global Background information on Education Statistics: UNESCO- UIS Data Centre: Beyond 20/20 WDS (2011))

Fig. 9.15

Distribution and share of students’ enrolment in public and private tertiary education in Sudan and Arab countries (%) (2007–2009) (Source: UNESCO Global Background information on Education Statistics: UNESCO- UIS Data Centre: Beyond 20/20 WDS (2011))

Fig. 9.16

Distribution and share of students’ enrolment in public and private technical education in Sudan and Arab countries (%) (2008–2009) (Source: UNESCO Global Background information on Education Statistics: UNESCO- UIS Data Centre: Beyond 20/20 WDS (2011))

Fig. 9.17

Distribution and share of students’ enrolment in public and private basic and secondary education in Sudan and Gulf countries (%) (1996) (Source: UNESCO Global Background information on Education Statistics: UNESCO- UIS Data Centre: Beyond 20/20 WDS (2011))

Fig. 9.18

Distribution and share of students’ enrolment in public and private basic education in Sudan (2001–2009) (Source: Own calculation based on Table 9.10)

Fig. 9.19

Distribution and share of students’ enrolment in public and private secondary education in Sudan (2001–2009) (Source: Own calculation based on Table 9.10)

Fig. 9.20

Distribution and share of students’ enrolment in public and private tertiary education in Sudan (1989/1990-2007/2008) (Source: Own calculation based on Table 9.10)

Furthermore, we find evidence of the low commitment to the standardised international equity criterion in the demand side that appear in terms of the gender differences in educational attainment as measured by the gross enrolment ratio of female for primary, secondary and tertiary education. For instance, Fig. 9.21 and Tables 9.9 and 9.12 below illustrate that the percentages of female students for all levels of education in Sudan are lower than male students and both are low compared to the average for the Arab countries. For Sudan, female enrolment in secondary education is better than primary education, which implies that the gender gap in primary education is higher than in secondary education. We observe the differences in the regional distribution in the incidence of the gender gap across the main regions in Sudan, which probably implies that the presence of gender disparity in primary education, as the gross intake and enrolment rate for females falls below the gross intake and enrolment rate of males in all regions. For secondary and tertiary education, gender disparity exists for the most poor and rural regions as the gross intake and enrolment rate for females falls behind the enrolment rate of males, by contrast for all Sudan and for relatively more urbanised and less poor regions, the gross intake and the percentage of enrolment rate for females is greater than the enrolment rate of males (see Tables 9.12 and 9.13 below). This implies that gender disparity and gap is more critical for more poor and rural regions and population groups, i.e. poor females and females living in rural areas are facing a serious situation of inequality and are suffering more in terms of net attendance or access to primary and secondary education in Sudan. Somewhat surprisingly, the gender disparity is more serious in primary education compared to secondary education, especially for poor females; this is consistent with the findings based on the data from UNESCO (2006), which we presented in Nour (2011). This implies that, especially amongst the poor, economic reasons were considered to be the most important factor limiting girls’ potential to complete their primary (basic) and secondary school education and that the factors preventing males from completing their education differ from those hampering females. It is clear from Tables 9.9, 9.12, and 9.13 below that family economic problems impact more negatively on female than on male education. Likewise, families perceive educating girls to be less important than schooling boys. It is the need to work that has the largest effect on the withdrawal of boys from school. It is worth noting that despite the tremendous spread of female education in the last five decades, Sudanese women remain poorly prepared to participate effectively and fruitfully in public life by acquiring knowledge through education. This is most clearly manifested in the extent to which girls and women are still deprived of education and knowledge, especially those forms of knowledge that bring high social returns. Sudan has one of the world’s lowest rates of female enrolment opportunities at all levels of education, especially higher education. Female access to all levels of education remaining below that of males implies further evidence on the incidence of relatively higher deprivation of girls in terms of educational opportunities at all levels in Sudan. Sudan has one of the highest rates of illiteracy approximately near to one half of females are illiterate compared to only one third of males.¹⁵ Moreover, data and information from the Sudan Ministry of Education and Ministry of Higher Education provide further evidence for the incidence of gender gap in education as measured by enrolment of students in primary (basic), secondary and tertiary education (measured by students nominated and admitted for governmental, private and foreign higher education institutes) over the period (2004–07). For instance, the gender gap for basic (primary) education is higher than for secondary and tertiary education. The incidence of gender gap in tertiary education as measured by the share of female students enrolled or admitted in tertiary education in public and governmental higher education institutes is higher than that for private and foreign higher education institutes in 2005. The high share of female students compared to male students in tertiary education, can be interpreted in relation to the observation from the preliminary findings of the Sudan Central Bureau of Statistics on Sudan’s fifth population census which indicate that the structure of Sudan’s total population according to different age groups implies that for the age group 20–39 the total number of females is slightly higher than the total number of males. Another justification is probably because of the presence of male Sudanese studying abroad (Nour 2011: 7–10). Therefore, these findings imply low commitment to the standardised international adequacy and equity criterions in the demand side as measured by the lack of adequacy and gender equity in enrolment rate in primary, secondary and tertiary education and literacy rate of population.

Fig. 9.21

Enrolment ratios in basic, secondary and tertiary education in Sudan compared to the average for the Arab countries defined by educational level and gender (2000) (%) (Source: Arab Knowledge Report (2009: 279))

In addition we observe that the low commitment to equity criterion and the incidence of wide gap and regional disparity between the main regions in Sudan is not only limited to the supply side but also holds for the demand side. For instance, Tables 9.8, 9.9, 9.10, 9.11, 9.12, and 9.13 below indicate the incidence of regional disparity that appear from the share of main regions in total number of students enrolment in basic, secondary and tertiary education in Sudan over the period 2001–09. For instance, we observe the large share of the Central and Darfur regions followed by Khartoum in total numbers of students enrolled in basic education, and the large share of the Central and Khartoum regions followed by the Darfur region in total numbers of students enrolled in secondary education as compared to Kordofan, Eastern, Northern and Southern regions over the period 2001–09. Moreover, we note the large share of the Central and Khartoum regions followed by the Northern region as compared to Darfur, Eastern, Kordofan and Southern regions in terms of the total numbers of students enrolled in tertiary education over the period 1996–2007. Moreover, we observe the heavy concentration of privatisation in Khartoum region that has the highest share in terms of total number of student enrolment in private basic and secondary schools as compared to other regions. This low commitment to equity criterion and the incidence of unbalanced distribution in the demand side as measured by the distribution and share of student enrolment in total and in public and private basic, secondary and tertiary education levels can be perceived as an implication that is consistent with the share of these regions in total number and public and private schools in basic and secondary education as we explained above in this section. This probably implies that the low commitment to equity criterion and the incidence of unbalanced development planning and unbalanced distribution in the supply side and investment as measured by the number of schools, number of teachers and the pupil/teacher ratios for basic and secondary educational levels that probably led to further implications in the demand side as measured by the distribution and share in total number of student enrolment in public and private schools and in basic, secondary and tertiary educational levels as we explained above in this section. Moreover, using the ordinary least squares method and E-VIEWS, Tables 9.8, 9.9, 9.10, 9.11, 9.12, and 9.13 below explain that it is probably plausible to interpret the observed regional disparity in the share in demand and enrolment in education due to demographic reasons (measured by the share in total population), economic reasons (measured by per capita income and poverty rate) and other reasons (measured by the degree of urbanisation) across the main regions in Sudan. Starting with the demographic reasons, Table 9.13 indicates significant positive correlation between the share in enrolment in basic and secondary education and the share in total population and positive correlation between enrolment in tertiary education and the share in total population. These results can be used to argue that the share in total population seems to be the first important factor determining the share and regional disparity in enrolment in education. Moreover, as for the economic reasons, Table 9.13 indicates significant positive correlation between per capita income and total, female and male literacy rates, between per capita income and enrolment in secondary and tertiary education and female enrolment in tertiary education, and also significant positive correlation between per capita income and enrolment in basic education and female enrolment in basic and secondary education. In addition, Table 9.13 indicates significant negative correlation between poverty rate and total, female and male literacy rates, significant negative correlation between poverty rate and total and female enrolment in basic and tertiary education and negative correlation between poverty rate and total and female enrolment in secondary education. These results can be used to argue that the economic reasons as measured by per capita income and poverty rate seem to be the second important factor that determining the share and regional disparity in enrolment and demand for education. Notably, our results imply that the incidence of high poverty rate seems to be the most important factor determining or limiting the demand and enrolment, notably, in basic education. These findings imply that especially among the poor regions, economic reasons were considered to be the most important factor limiting poor students and especially, girls’ potential to complete their primary (basic), secondary and tertiary education and that region economic problems impact more negatively on female than on male education. These results imply that the increase in the incidence of poverty and the low per capita income limited or led to low demand and enrolment in education, notably, across the poor regions and this probably explains the regional disparity in the demand for education across the main regions in Sudan. In addition, as for the other reasons, Table 9.13 indicates positive correlation between enrolment in secondary education and degree of urbanisation, significant positive correlation between enrolment in basic and tertiary education and degree of urbanisation and between female enrolment in basic, secondary and tertiary education and the degree of urbanisation. These findings can be used to argue that the degree of urbanisation is the third and other factor determining the share and regional disparity in enrolment in education. The major policy implication from our findings is that Sudan has the potential to achieve equity and fulfil the second and third United Nations Millennium Development Goals (UN MDG) on universal access to primary education and gender equality respectively through reduction and elimination of poverty, notably, across the poor regions and population in Sudan, and this implies achievement of equity and international commitment to fulfilment of UN MDG in Sudan.

Moreover, we observe the low commitment to equity criterion and the incidence of regional disparities in terms of technical and vocational education. For instance, the Central and Khartoum regions followed by Eastern region as compared to the Northern, Darfur, Kordofan and Southern regions respectively show the large share in total number of schools, students, total number of teachers and trained teachers in technical and vocational education in Sudan over the period 2001–09. In addition, Khartoum and the Central region followed by the Eastern region as compared to Kordofan, Darfur and Southern regions respectively show the large share in total number of trained and graduated students of the apprenticeship programmes and vocational training in Sudan over the period 1995–2006. This probably implies the low commitment to equity criterion and the incidence of regional disparity and unbalanced distribution of trained human resources available for technical and vocational education. That may not be surprising in view of the fact that these regions also reported the large share in total numbers of basic, secondary and tertiary education over the period 2001–09 as we explained above in this section.

One major problem of the educational system in Sudan and the Gulf countries is the recent serious deterioration in the quality of tertiary education; for instance, after considerable improvement and increase in enrolment in tertiary education in Sudan until around 1995 – after the higher education revolution in 1990s – while the gross enrolment figures have increased, the net enrolment ratio of the number of tertiary students of official tertiary education age who are enrolled in tertiary education to the total population of students remains low and below the international standard and also the quality has deteriorated in recent years (see Fig. 9.22 below). Therefore, this implies an ample role for policymaking to improve the quality and enrolment in tertiary education. In addition, as in most other developing countries, one serious problematic feature concerning tertiary education in Sudan and the Gulf is that enrolment and graduation ratios in tertiary education are biased against scientific, technical, engineering, agriculture, medical and natural sciences and are focused on art, humanities, law and social sciences. For instance, in the period 2009–10, enrolment and graduation ratios in medical sciences, natural sciences, engineering and agriculture accounted for only 30 % as compared to 70 % for art, humanities, law and social sciences; these biases remained for enrolment and graduation rates in the period 1994–2009 (see Table 9.7 above).¹⁶ The share of tertiary students enrolled in sciences, math and engineering in Sudan and the Gulf is low compared to Korea (34 %), Algeria (50 %) and China (53 %) (see for instance, Figs. 9.23, 9.24, and 9.25 below).

Fig. 9.22

Gross enrolment in tertiary education in the Sudan, UAE, Bahrain, Brazil and the Netherlands (1975–2000) %) (Source: WDI (2004) Database)

Fig. 9.23

Relative distribution of tertiary education students (%) by fields in the Sudan compared to the Gulf countries, Algeria, India, China and Korea (1994/1997- 2009/2010) (Source: UNDP (2004), UNDP – AHDR (2003) and UNESCO-UIS (2003): UNESCO web site (www.unesco.org))

Fig. 9.24

Relative distribution of enrolled tertiary education students (%) by fields in the Sudan (1996/1997- 2009/2010) (Source: Own calculation based on Sudan Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research, the Annual Educational Statistics Reports Various Issues (1993/1994–2008/2009))

Fig. 9.25

Relative distribution of graduated tertiary education students (%) by fields in the Sudan (1994/1995–2007/2009) (Source: Own calculation based on Sudan Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research, the Annual Educational Statistics Reports Various Issues (1993/1994–2008/2009))

2.4 Return, Efficiency and Quality of Educational Policies

Another common characteristic of the educational system in Sudan and the Gulf countries is the low commitment to the standardised international efficiency criterion and the weak internal efficiency/quality of primary, secondary and tertiary education; the severity of the problem varies across the main regions in Sudan.¹⁷ For instance, Table 9.14 below illustrates that in the period 2006–09, the percentage of repeaters in primary schooling was high in Sudan and in Saudi Arabia, while the percentages of transition to secondary and tertiary education were low in Sudan and Saudi Arabia.¹⁸

Table 9.14 The quality of education in Sudan and the Gulf countries: and regional distribution and share of main regions in Sudan government basic education defined by the percentage of repetition, transition and dropouts (%) (1995–2009)

The UNESCO indicators on the quality of education implies that the average for Sudan and the Gulf countries in terms of quality of education has improved over time; the performance for Sudan is lower than the Gulf as is apparent from the considerable decline in the percentage of repeaters in primary schooling and increase in the percentages of transition from primary to secondary education, however, across the main regions in Sudan poor quality is still obvious. For instance, Table 9.14 indicates that throughout the period 2006–09 the percentages of repeaters in primary schooling increased from 2.7 % in 2006 to 6.5 % in 2007 and 5.3 % in 2008 but declined to 4.3 % in 2009. Moreover, Table 9.14 indicates that throughout the period 2006–09 the percentages of dropouts from education in primary schooling increased from 1.4 % in 2006 to 3.3 % in 2007 and 2.6 % in 2008 but declined to 1.3 % in 2009. Therefore, further efforts are needed to enhance the quality of education at all levels, in order to avoid the exacerbation of the problems that will result in the event of a failure to implement some effective policies to improve the quality of education. Moreover, we observe the improvement in the quality as measured by the decline in the percentage of repeaters and dropout despite the decline in the percentage of success in the basic education. We observe the low commitment to the standardised international efficiency and equity criterions and the incidence of considerable regional disparity between the main regions in Sudan. For instance, the efficiency and quality of primary and secondary education, as measured by low percentage of repeaters and dropout in basic and secondary education, are relatively better in Khartoum region followed by the central regions as compared to the Darfur, Kordofan, Eastern and Northern regions respectively. In addition this regional disparity in the quality of education also holds for the percentages of success in the basic education which are reported high in the Northern region followed by the Central, Kordofan, Eastern, Khartoum and Darfur regions respectively. This regional disparity in the quality of education is not surprising in view of the fact that these regions also reported the large share in terms of quantitative supply and demand in basic and secondary education over the period 2001–09 as we explained above in this section. Furthermore, we find evidence of the gender differences that appear in terms of the efficiency and quality of education across the main regions in Sudan as measured by the percentage of repeaters and dropout from basic education. For instance, Table 9.14 indicates that over the period 2006–09 the percentages of repeaters and dropout in primary education for female students are less than those of male students for the majority of the main regions in Sudan. It is the need to work that probably has the largest effect on the withdrawal of boys from school.

In addition, the poor quality of education can be observed from the results of the percentage of success in Sudan’s basic education certificate (2000/01–2008/09) and percentage of success in Sudan’s secondary school certificate (1996/97–2007/08). For instance, Table 9.15 indicates that throughout the period 2000/01–2008/09 the percentage of success in Sudan’s basic education certificate declined from 71.9 % in 2001 to 71.4 % in 2006 and then increased to 73.7 %, and 76.4 % in 2007 and 2008 respectively but declined to 74.9 % in 2009. Moreover, Table 9.15 indicates that over the period 1996/97–2007/08 the percentage of success in Sudan’s secondary school certificate increased from 69.4 % in 1996/97 to 73.5 %, 75.4 % and 75.9 % in 2000/01, 2001/02 and 2002/03 respectively but then declined to 72.1 %, 71.4 %, 73.7 %, 74.1 % and 73.7 % in 2003/04, 2004/05, 2005/06, 2006/07 and 2007/08 respectively. Furthermore, the reported annual success in Sudan academic secondary education is higher than Sudan’s technical secondary education; the technical education not only showed a very poor but also a continuous declining annual rate of success over the period 1996/97–2007/08 (see Table 9.15 below). Al-tuhami (2007) finds many reasons for the poor quality problem of technical education in Sudan. For example, the lack of clear vision regarding technical education, lack of central body for organisation, planning and development, the transfer of technical education schools to the States in 1993, weak relationship between technical educational policies and development planning and mismatch between specialisations and content of technical education courses and requirements in the labour market. In addition: the lack of financial resources, facilities and infrastructure (such as buildings, laboratories, workshops, halls, books and references), the critical shortage of qualified and trained Sudanese teachers and trainers specialised in technical education in accordance to the requirements of the labour market and the lack of favourable educational environments and facilities for supporting, hosting and accommodating students in technical education. Further to the social/cultural aspects, due to high preference for enrolment in academic education and low preference for enrolment in technical education, there is a lack of appreciation in the society and lack of attractive working conditions for graduates of technical education that discourage involvement in technical education and work. In addition to: deficiency of the current structure, which implies the sudden move of students from basic school to technical education, lack of a specialised institutional body for preparing technical secondary education courses, lack of linkages between technical education in secondary and tertiary levels, easy transfer from technical to academic education, and from industrial apprenticeships to technological colleges, low rates of enrolment and graduation and low opportunities for postgraduate studies in the fields of technical colleges and tertiary education (Al-tuhami 2007: 2–12).¹⁹

Table 9.15 The percentage of success in Sudan basic education certificate defined by gender and main regions and Sudan secondary school certificate defined by secondary education type in Sudan (1996/1997–2009)

Therefore, our findings presented above imply that the low commitment to the standardised international efficiency criterion and poor quality and efficiency is obvious not only from the supply side as measured by low rates of trained teachers and over-crowded classrooms as indicated by students enrolment per education institutions as we explained above (see Tables 9.2, 9.6, and 9.11 and Figs. 9.7, 9.8, 9.9, 9.11, and 9.12 above), but also holds from the demand side as measured by low rates of enrolment and attendance, high rates of dropout, high rates of repetition and weak rates of success in the final exams in the basic and secondary, mainly, technical education.²⁰

Apart from the problem with regard to enrolment ratios, as with most developing countries, the quality of education in Sudan and the Arab region poses a serious problem. Our findings presented above concerning the poor quality and low commitment to the standardised international efficiency and quality criterion are consistent with the results of Sudanese and Arab literature, notably, Suleiman (2007) and Jalal al-Din (2002) are very useful sources to qualify them; we shall here take up part of their description. For instance, Suleiman (2007) argues that there is a common complaint in Sudan about the poor quality of education in all its stages: primary, secondary and university education. Suleiman (2007) indicates the difficulty to identify or measure the poor quality of education, but he observes that the failure to achieve an acceptable standard of educational efficiency criterion takes the form of high rates of absence of pupils from attending school, high rates of repetition and failure in the final examinations, high numbers of unsuccessful educational institutions, poor training for teachers, overcrowded classrooms with students, shortages of teaching equipment and materials needed for the teaching of some courses, absence of textbooks even for undergraduates, as well as the absence of libraries, all of which adversely affect basic, secondary and tertiary education (Suleiman 2007: 122–123). Moreover, Jalal al-Din (2002) notes that all indicators and reports show that the internal efficiency of public education is extremely low and means that the overall system of general education is characterised by waste, high rates of repetition and dropout, and low enrolment ratios (Jalal al-Din 2002: 23–24). Suleiman (2007) finds that the explanation of poor quality of education is related to several reasons, the first reason is the low public spending on education as a proportion of total public spending, and this low ratio has even declined from 8.4 % in 1997/98 to 6.9 % in 2001/02.²¹ This ratio does not include public expenditure on above secondary (higher) education and it could drop more and more when adding to public expenditure on defence and security, especially given that public spending in these areas has increased greatly in Sudan because of its circumstances. Also, this proportion may decline significantly if they attribute it to the national income, which is a standard method that is often used for measuring the share of education of a country’s resources and to compare between different countries in terms of allocation of appropriate resources for the provision of adequate level of education in terms of both quality and quantity. Suleiman (2007) indicates that another reason for the low quality of education in Sudan is that despite the expansion in public and private education the adequacy standard criterion (as measured by the ratios of spending on education and enrolment in education) is not only still very low, but also still focuses on quantity over quality in Sudan (Suleiman 2007: 122–121). Jalal al-Din (2002) confirms that the commitment to high quality and internal and external efficiency of education so as to respond to the economic and social needs in Sudan, does not imply that it will be rational to stop expansion of enrolment in higher education; on the contrary it implies the need to stop the policy of continued random quantitative expansion in enrolment in higher education that caused a serious negligence of improving qualitative efficiency in higher education in light of the limited material, human and financial resources (Jalal al-Din 2002: 5). Jalal al-Din (2002), argues that the financial difficulties faced by some Arab governments led to an unacceptable reduction in material resources and financial resources allocated to higher education institutions. He indicates that it seems public and political pressure forced many governments to swap the quality of education by quantitative expansion; while this a swap might seem politically acceptable in the short term, it will have serious repercussions on educational trends and economic and even political directions in the medium- and long-terms. He argues that in Sudan and some Arab countries, the continuous random unregulated expansion, establishment and opening of more universities and colleges and increases in student enrolment rates in the existing universities without allocation and provision of the required material and financial resources, sufficient numbers of qualified faculty members, sufficient facilities for libraries, books, laboratories, materials and equipment for laboratories has led to serious deterioration in higher education institutions. Due to lack of public funding for universities some universities and colleges were even opened in existing old buildings without making the sufficient infrastructural changes, buildings that were not originally suitable for academic higher education institutions. Libraries, which earlier regularly subscribed to important periodicals and journals no longer do so, so they fail to acquire basic references due to lack of funding in both local and foreign currency, which has led to further deterioration in higher education institutions (Jalal al-Din 2002: 22). Jalal al-Din (2002) explains that the deterioration in the quality of higher education in the Arab countries is related to the fact that the majority of plans which have been prepared in many Arab countries in the fields of labour and employment during the past four decades, in particular the last three decades, implies that on the one hand Arab governments were more interested in hiring the holders of diplomas and university degrees more than hiring the holders of lower certificates. This policy has led to wider and greater demand for higher education in various forms and has also led governments to respond to this social demand through the increasingly quantitative expansion of higher education, regardless of the needs of the economy. On the other hand, universities and other higher education institutions seem to have responded to these directives, convictions and plans through exaggeration in the excessive branching and introduction of narrow disciplines (that are increasingly narrowed year after year) in a rigid system in order to respond to the specific needs of professionals and specialists and it seems that this is the most important dilemma in which universities and higher education institutions in the Arab and in other countries are involved.

Moreover, Jalal al-Din (2002) notes that another problem is related to the lack of favourable environments, which exist in Western universities and communities, to fill the gap in higher education curricula, that does not exist in any reasonable amount in any of the Arab countries (Jalal al-Din 2002: 14). Jalal al-Din (2002) attributes the weakness of the general public’s education to the seemingly greater focus on lower levels (recognition and understanding) rather than higher levels (analysis and reflection and systematic application); less attention is paid to refinement of imagination, independent thinking and interest in knowledge and research and less emphasis is also placed on modern sciences, including mathematics and basic science (Jalal al-Din 2002: 23–24). Jalal al-Din (2002) discusses the implications of rapid quantitative expansion on education experienced by all Arab countries, he indicates that the first implication is that it has led to qualitative deficit and rapid degradation and deterioration in the quality of higher education because it implies that higher education has become merely an extension of general public education in the Arab countries. He finds that another serious implication is that this situation has led to the graduation of students who are less familiar with and have limited ability and knowledge of their disciplines even closely related to their narrow fields of specialisation; it seems that this situation has been taking root and growing in many Arab countries and it has been producing huge surpluses of graduates in specific areas who are not playing a great role in economic and social development due to using obsolete methods of learning (Jalal al-Din 2002: 7–8). Jalal al-Din (2002) notes that further serious implication is that the trend and direction of universities and other higher education institutions do not only suffer qualitative deficit as explained above, but also do not seem compatible with the local environment and community and practical needs. That is probably because not only have education curricula in universities been taken from the curricula of Western universities, but they are also taught and examined by traditional ways (Jalal al-Din 2002: 23–24).

Suleiman (2007) notes that further reason for the poor quality of education in Sudan is that a large number of teachers are currently working in various stages of education without any training (Suleiman 2007: 117). Suleiman (2007) and Jalal al-Din (2002) explain the reasons of poor quality for tertiary education in Sudan (Suleiman 2007: 122–123). Suleiman (2007) shows the links between the policy of upgrading teaching staff and some issues related to quality of higher education and universities in Sudan. Suleiman (2007) indicates that in the past Sudanese universities implemented a policy with regard to selection, appointment, upgrading by emission of teaching assistants on the basis of academic excellence, similar to the best universities in the UK, USA or elsewhere, as appropriate for their fields of specialisation. This policy allowed the external exposition of excellent international higher education and acquisition of high quality knowledge that also contributed to the promotion of excellence in Sudanese universities. Suleiman (2007) indicates that the problem with regards to the shift from this past policy and recent focus on alternative policy of localisation of knowledge, where the process of “breeding” could be followed by some universities, now means that university graduates are then appointed to teach after studying their Master’s or doctorate, yet only know the Arabic language and do not know of any other university except their own. Suleiman (2007) indicates that this policy of “hatching” weakens the universities a lot, because it limits the ability of fulfilling the functions of a faculty member, which is not limited to lectures, but includes regular participation in personal and academic development and revision of the contents of the courses in the area of specialisation in the light of scientific development, selection of new textbooks that are more relevant to the content of new courses, and doing high quality research published in peer-reviewed scientific journals that should assist in economic and social development, in addition to contributing to training and development of academic rules and regulations to better upgrade the academic level of university over time (Suleiman 2007: 117). Moreover, Jalal al-Din (2002) observes that the lack of funding and deterioration of facilities and deterioration of Sudan’s relations with the majority of advanced donor countries, has put some limitations on the regular provision of scholarships and led to interruption of scholarships and limited the opportunities for most professors and graduate students to follow the rapid developments in their area of interests and studies in applied and social sciences. In addition, the low salaries of university professors have limited their ability to acquire scientific books and sometimes forced them to work in other income-generating activities or teaching in several universities to maximise their income; this implies that they do not have any free time to develop their abilities through the follow up of successive developments, even if facilities are available for free. Jalal al-Din (2002) indicates that the deterioration is not only limited to infrastructure or basic standard of living for teachers, but also extends to include teaching staff, as some of universities professors do not originally possess the required qualifications for engagement in teaching or university colleges. Jalal al-Din (2002) argues that part of the continued decline is also due to low capacity of people in charge of higher education, in particular members of the teaching staff as reflected in their weaknesses and limited abilities not only in the field of research and preparation for lectures but also in terms of interaction with students (Jalal al-Din 2002: 12–13, 22).

Jalal al-Din (2002) indicates that the agreed efforts in all Arab countries to achieve the required balance between the tracks of humanitarian and scientific paths, including science, engineering, medicine and agriculture, should not hide the fact that the random expansion in scientific paths, including science, engineering, medicine and agriculture, has led and still leads to serious deterioration in the quality of education, even for disciplines that affect human life such as medicine, pharmacy, architecture, civil engineering and chemical. For instance, the rapid expansion in engineering education in Sudan and some Arab countries has led to rapid decline and continued chronic weaknesses and deterioration in the quality of engineering education that still does not meet the needs of the advanced industrial sector. For example, some of the newly established engineering schools in Sudan completely suffer from the lack of laboratories and workshops, and therefore, in the practical aspects depend mainly on vocational training centres or where available on the laboratory equipment of secondary schools, which are not available in most cases. As a result of this situation, the students of some universities do not have any laboratory experience even after several years of study. For example, the students of the Faculty of Engineering in the Red Sea state had completed seven semesters without conducting any experiments in the laboratory during the period 1993–96, but only three semesters of the ten that are required to achieve a degree in engineering sciences were left until they graduated. This sad situation is accompanied by quantitative and qualitative deficit in the faculty members, where the percentage of students to professors of engineering in some universities has increased to more than 90 students per professor; consequently, these colleges are forced to resort to employing colleagues from abroad, who mostly hold initial university degrees or a Master’s degree. Jalal al-Din (2002) observes that the deterioration in the quality is not only limited to the engineering sciences but also extends to the medical sciences. Jalal al-Din (2002) argues that in fact, the expansion in medical education has been slowing not commensurate with the potential facilities of Sudan and its demographic weight. For example, until 1978 there was only one medical college, and it absorbed no more than 50 students per year; until 1990 the number of medical schools in Sudan was around four colleges, all of which were supposed to accommodate less than 200 students annually. Then an expansion in enrolment throughout the 1990s led to the opening of dozens of colleges in a decade, reaching 26 completely by the third millennium. However, the expansion has not only been limited to the further opening of new colleges, but also focused more on further increases in the number of students admitted each year, for example, the number of students admitted to the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Aljazeera during the academic year 1989/90 was only up to 59 students, but this number jumped to about 400 students per year during the next 3 years, 1991/92–1993/94. This expansion of colleges and numbers of enrolment has happened without being accompanied by the provision of the minimum financial, material and human resources to help accommodate the new colleges in their absorption of these numbers and provision of the minimum required acceptable academic standards. Moreover, these new medical colleges not only lack many of the required disciplines but also they do not have close ties with teaching hospitals and other medical and health facilities that provide practical training for medical students and graduates. In general, all teaching hospitals are still lacking adequate and qualified staff, lacking medical practical equipment to an acceptable and satisfactory level, and also lacking all the required museums of pathology and anatomy. For instance, a report prepared by the Sudan Ministry of Higher Education indicates that in Sudan a lot of new universities lack references, books, periodicals, or that these references are too few, the majority of them are obsolete and few of them are relevant to recent developments in medical science and health. In general, the specialised laboratories of pre-clinical medical sciences are either not available or are incomplete in almost all new universities and the laboratory facilities in all new and old universities are very limited and unsatisfactory, lacking in teaching staff members in basic medical sciences and relying either wholly or partly on visiting lecturers, which lead to weak links and interactions between teachers and students (Jalal al-Din 2002: 15–19). In addition, colleges of medicine, pharmacy, nursing and medical laboratories are often face the difficulties to be closely related with hospitals and pharmaceutical industries in order to provide training for students and researchers in these fields. The attainment of medical and pharmaceutical overseas education is not only expensive and attracts only the best students in the Arab countries, but also it has tended more and more to sub-specialities in diseases that affect only a small percentage of citizens, particularly in the poorer Arab countries. This medical and pharmaceutical education is not available in an acceptable level in universities in the Arab countries, but only in universities in Western countries, which makes distinguished Arab students continue their specialties and their training process in these Western universities and often end up settled in Western societies. The migration of Arab medical specialists trained in Western universities with scholarships financed from public spending in education in Arab countries, implies a great loss for the poor people in Arab countries, not only because the poor people in the Arab countries partially and indirectly bear part of the burden of subsidising the high spending on educating the migrant Arab medical specialists; but also because the poor people in Arab countries are still susceptible to highly prevalent diseases such as malaria, tuberculosis, schistosomiasis and other diseases, which are not being sufficiently tackled by most of the medical specialists in the Arab countries. Jalal al-Din (2002) argues that medical science, although significant in the fight against poverty and disease, has not received so far the significant progress it deserves in the Arab countries; it has suffered from poor quality because of qualitative and quantitative deficits in the medical staff in poor regions and rural areas, and qualitative deficit despite quantitative surplus in the medical staff in urban cities. Jalal al-Din (2002) notes that apart from that, the level of medical education on the one hand and the level of wages and incentives for doctors and medical facilities available do not help provide any reasonable degree of public health requirements (Jalal al-Din 2002).

Moreover, the poor quality and efficiency of higher education in Sudan is probably related to the short age of some universities. For instance, Sudan Central Bureau of Statistics (1990–2009) shows that three quarters of Sudanese universities were established in the last period between 1991/92–2008/09, and 58 % are no more than 15 years old having been established between 1996/97–2008/09. These results seem consistent with the results in the Arab countries. For instance, the AHDR indicates that three quarters of Arab universities were established in the last quarter of the twentieth century, and 57 % are no more than 15 years old.²² This observation is telling since higher education institutions, and universities in particular, require a long time to consolidate their institutional structure, and to foster their role in the dissemination and production of knowledge.²³ Our results presented above concerning poor quality and low commitment to the standardised international efficiency and quality criterion in Sudan are consistent with the results in the Arab literature. For instance, the AHDR authors (2003) argue that: “The quality of higher education institutions in Arab countries is affected by many factors, chief among which is the lack of a clear vision, and, as noted earlier, the absence of well-designed policies regulating the educational process. One of the main features of many universities in the Arab world is their lack of autonomy, i.e., they fall under the direct control of the ruling regime. Nevertheless, universities are often the arenas for political and ideological conflicts, the more so because of restrictions imposed on political participation in general and the promotion of political currents that owe allegiance to the regime more particularly. These contextual features have adverse effects on the degree of freedom allowed for education and research. This lack of autonomy has resulted in a situation where universities run according to the requirements of the governing political rationality and not according to a plan. [Higher education institutions often suffer from a lack of funding that prevents them from implementing sound scientific plans]. Some universities, for example, are overcrowded on account of the uncalculated increase in enrolment rates, simply because the announcement of enrolment numbers in universities has become a political gesture to appease society. The quality of higher education is also influenced by an ongoing decline in expenditure, reflected in inadequate facilities for students and faculty. Quantitative expansion in higher education came at the expense of quality. University libraries are in a sorry state, laboratories are old and cannot accommodate the increasing numbers of students, and classes are over-crowded, thus creating a wide distance between students and teachers. Moreover, faculty members in many Arab universities earn meager salaries, and therefore cannot devote themselves fully to teaching or research”.²⁴

The dearth of reliable information precluded an analysis and discussion of interesting policy issues related to the quality of the private sector’s contributions to both spending and enrolment in tertiary education in Sudan and the Arab countries. Although in the recent years Sudan and most West Asian Arab countries have been overwhelmingly open to private education, however, in terms of quality, it has not produced yet any visible results. Moreover, in Sudan as in most Arab countries, there is strong debate that the private universities are mainly businesses, the only exceptional cases being those of few older “private” universities, which rely on a history of good teaching and patient growth of research. This implies that the increasing private sector’s contribution and the observed shortcomings in the quality and performance of the government or public education institutions, however, should not hide the fact that public sector institutions will remain very important; it would not be rational to absolutely replace them by a massive introduction of private education institutions and establishments in Sudan and all Arab countries, not only because of the uncertainties of a contribution to higher education by the private universities, but also because of the potential failure of private universities when deviating to target mainly business and profit objectives instead of focusing on targeting the conventional intrinsic values of higher education and higher quality. And also it is worth noting that the status of higher education, science and scientists is much better in Sudan and the Arab countries (especially in the Maghreb, see UNESCO) than in other parts of the world (e.g. Africa, see STS)²⁵ where, neoliberal policies have lead to the withdrawal of governments’ support, the collapse of renowned establishments and the ruin of the profession, while such a deinstitutionalisation and the replacement by a global market of scientific skills had no results or disastrous ones in terms of scientific publications. Moreover, the bibliometric data demonstrate that the “newly founded” private establishments in Sudan and Arab countries (with the exception of three or four ancient and proud research universities like AUB or St Joseph in Lebanon and to some extent AUC in Cairo) contribute very little to the research output of the country, and that most of them do not care at all about research (see ESTIME 2006). Jalal al-Din (2002) explains that in light of the increasing economic difficulties, the declining public spending in education and increasing dependence on private spending in education, a serious growing trend appearing in higher education in Sudan is that the ability criterion (ability to pay large expenses by the student’s higher income groups) has started to replace the merit and efficiency criterion. This is not only detrimental to society’s poorest sections but also impairs the efficiency and quality of higher education itself, when the merit is replaced by the ability to pay and to bear the costs, and this has increased the disruption of the relationship between education and work (Jalal al-Din 2002: 22).

2.5 The Impacts of Educational Policies on Literacy and Access to Schooling (School Life Expectancy)

Educational policies in Sudan, Arab and Gulf countries lead to only slight improvements in school life expectancy and enrolment in all educational levels. However, in Sudan the educational policies have insufficient effects on improving school life expectancy, which remains low and lags behind when compared to the Arab and international standard. One important positive implication of educational policies is the increase in literacy rates; however, the educational policies have so far only managed to alleviate rather than fully eliminate the youth illiteracy problem in Sudan compared to the Gulf countries. For instance, Table 9.16 illustrates that in 1990 illiteracy rates amongst the youth population was 40 %, throughout the period 1990–2008 it continuously declined, but in the year 2008 it still remained in excess of 30 % in Sudan (30.7 %). Moreover, the youth illiteracy rate for women was in excess of 40 % (40.4 %) and was higher than for men, which accounted for 21 %. This implies that there is an ample room for policy to increase the literacy rate among the young population, especially for women. Furthermore, when comparing the supply and demand sides, we observe that the supply side or public spending seems to be only one component in the educational policies, because higher public spending per se does not imply higher demand, participation and enrolment ratios at all educational levels, access to schooling/school life expectancy and higher literacy rates.

Table 9.16 Educational outcomes: literacy, youth illiteracy rate and school life expectancy in the Sudan and Gulf countries (1990–2008)

3 Characteristics of Training Policies and The Impact of Educational Policies on Training Policies: Large Mixed and Private Firms and Public Policies of Training and Skills Upgrading in Sudan

Based on the above, this section shows the major characteristics of training policies and the impact of education policies on training policies and skill upgrading in Sudan. Before proceeding to discuss the impact of education policies on training policies and skill upgrading, it is useful to begin with a brief explanation of the major characteristics of training policies in Sudan, in particular the structure and pattern of training policies.

3.1 Characteristics of Training Policies in Sudan

Starting with the major characteristics of training policies in Sudan, we observe the biased structure in terms of type, duration and specialisation pattern of training policies and the low commitment to efficiency, adequacy and equity criterion in the provision of training in Sudan over the period 2004–09. In particular, beginning with the biased structure, we find that one major characteristic of training policies in Sudan is the biased structure in terms of type and duration of training, which indicates greater focus on internal type training (99 %, 98 %), particularly training that achieved during the short run (99 %, 96 %) as compared to external type training (2 %, 2 %), particularly training that achieved during the long run (1 %, 4 %). In addition, another characteristic of training policies in Sudan is the biased structure in terms of specialisation pattern of training, which indicates that training seems to be more biased towards practical specialisation pattern of training (88–73 %) as compared to academic specialisation pattern of training (12–27 %) in Sudan over the period 2004–09. This biased structure in terms of type, duration and specialisation pattern of training may imply the low commitment to the efficiency criterion and that has most probably immensely undermined the efficient provision of training. Another major characteristic of training policies in Sudan is the inadequate financial resources allocated for training, for instance, the annual training budget implies serious inadequacy in terms of finance allocated for training, as the real training budget represents only 46.5 % of the total budget approved for training in Sudan in 2009. This implies the low commitment to the adequacy criterion in the provision of financial resources for enhancing training in Sudan. Moreover, another characteristic of training policies in Sudan is significant regional disparity across the main geographical regions as measured by the share of the main regions in terms of supply side as measured by the total number of training centres, the demand side as measured by the capacity of training centres and the impact of training as measured by the share of trained work force as a percentage of total labour force and the share in internal and external short and long run training in Sudan 2004–09. In particular, from the distribution and share of main regions in training we observe the high share and greater concentration of training in the Khartoum region as compared to other regions in terms of the regional share in the supply side as measured by total number of training centres, the demand side as measured by the capacity of training centres and the impact of training as measured by the share of trained work force as a percentage of total labour force and the share in internal and external short and long run training in Sudan over the period 2004–09. This implies the low commitment to the equity criterion in terms of supply, demand sides and impact in the provision of training for different geographical regions in Sudan. Moreover, we observe that the disparity between Khartoum and other regions in terms of capacity of training centres implies the full utilisation of capacity of training in centres located in Khartoum as compared to under-utilisation of capacity of training centres located in others regions that most probably critically undermined the efficient provision of training. Therefore, the low commitment to efficiency, adequacy and equity in the provision of training led to limited effect of training in upgrading skill level for the labour force; this is observable from the low share of trained labour force that accounts for only 16 % and 17 % of the total labour force in Sudan in 2008 and 2009 respectively (see Table 9.17 below and Figs. 9.26, 9.27, 9.28, and 9.29 below).

Table 9.17 Regional distribution and share of main regions in total number of training centers, capacity, trained work force and internal and external training in Sudan (2004–2009) (%)

Fig. 9.26

The share of internal and external short and long types of training in total training in Sudan (%) (2008–2009) (Source: The National Center for training -Ministry of Labour, Public Service and Human Resources Development Report (2007–2009) – cited in the General Secretariat of the National Council for strategic planning. p. 439)

Fig. 9.27

The share of academic and practical types of training in total training in Sudan (%) (2004–2009) (Source: The National Center for training -Ministry of Labour, Public Service and Human Resources Development Report (2007–2009) – cited in the General Secretariat of the National Council for strategic planning. p. 439)

Fig. 9.28

The total approved budget and real budget for training in Sudan (Million Sudanese Pounds) (2004–2009) (Source: The National Center for training -Ministry of Labour, Public Service and Human Resources Development Report (2007–2009) – cited in the General Secretariat of the National Council for strategic planning. p. 439)

Fig. 9.29

The ratio of total real budget /approved budget for training in Sudan (%) (2004–2009) (Source: The National Center for training -Ministry of Labour, Public Service and Human Resources Development Report (2007–2009) – cited in the General Secretariat of the National Council for strategic planning. p. 439)

3.2 The Impact of Educational Policies on Training Policies: Large Mixed and Private Firms and Public Policies of Training and Skills Upgrading

Our findings presented above concerning the low commitment to adequacy, equity and efficiency in the provision of education and training imply that the educational policies in Sudan have insufficient effect on training provision and failed to integrate sufficiently with training policies. This is probably because the relationship between the educational and training policies are somewhat separated from each other in Sudan. For instance, technical education and technological education are integrated in secondary and higher educational institutions and are administered by the Ministries of Education and Higher Education respectively, whereas the official general public training (including vocational training and apprenticeships) are separated from educational institutions and integrated within three official public training entities that are administered by independent institutions headed by the Minister of Labour, Public Service and Human Resources Development.²⁶ This organisational structure implies that educational policies in Sudan are still needed to enhance the fruitful cooperation, coordination and integration with training policies.

Earlier findings in Chap. 5 show that the lack of interaction between educational and training systems hinders the provision of training and upskilling plans within private firms. We will illustrate below that the interaction between educational and training policies appears to be effective only within very large two mixed and private firms that adopt training policies consistent/in line with public policies.

Table 9.18 illustrates the case of two of the largest mixed and private enterprises in Sudan, namely, Kenana Sugar Company (KSC) and DAL Group; both are astonishing Sudanese success stories, which seem committed to implement diversified training and skill upgrading policies that are quite consistent with the line taken by public policies. In particular, they adopt similar strategies that highlight training and upskilling of workers, linkages with universities to absorb graduates, active human resources development units and recruitment policies to set up and implement regular internal and external training plans and wide use of ICT to upskilling workers. Therefore, in contrast to the other private firms, these two large mixed and private firms (KSC and DAL) have successfully contributed to serve the public policies for enhancing training and skill upgrading (cf. Table 9.18 below).,^{27 , 28} However, it is less clear whether these two large mixed and private firms (KSC and DAL) induce positive effects on upskilling workers in private firms. In our view, the interpretation of the serious discrepancy between these two large mixed and private firms and other firms can be attributed to presence of high resources, support and incentives within these two firms, which are probably lacking within other private firms.,^{29 , 30}

Table 9.18 Human resources development and training policies in the large mixed and private firms in Sudan

The major policy implication from these findings is that the improvement of the educational systems in Sudan is essential and requires improvement of adequacy, equity and efficiency including quality/internal efficiency, supply (investment) and demand (enrolment) sides, particularly with respect to tertiary and technical education. From that perspective, we explain below the views of the policy makers and experts regarding the relevant plans and policies to reform the educational system, which is essential for skill development. After that, we show that policy makers, experts and firms all view the improvement of education as important for enhancing the provision of training and knowledge transfer/external schooling effects.

4 Plans and Policies and Mechanisms for Skill Development: The Macro–Micro Views

The major policy implication from these findings is that the improvement of the educational systems in Sudan is essential and requires improvement of adequacy, equity and efficiency including quality/internal efficiency, supply (investment) and demand (enrolment) sides, particularly with respect to tertiary and technical education. From that perspective, we explain below the views of the policy makers and experts regarding the relevant plans and policies to reform the educational system, which is essential for skill development. After that, we show that policy makers, experts and firms all view the improvement of education as important for enhancing the provision of training and knowledge transfer/external schooling effects

It is useful in this section to discuss and compare first the relevant plans and then policies and mechanisms for skill development from both macro and micro perspectives/views.

4.1 Plans for Skill Development: The Macro–Micro Views

In light of the above findings, we now use the results of the macro and firm surveys (2010) to provide insights to help generate policies to enhance skill levels by implementation of short- and long-term plans at the macro–micro levels. We then compare and integrate the macro (official: policy makers and experts) and micro (firms) views concerning the important tools and plans for skills development in the current, short run and long run.

The policy makers and experts suggest several important instruments for skill development, some of which have already been implemented and others being implemented now or in the near future. For instance, Table 9.19 shows that the policy makers and experts highlight investment in training of existing employees, investment in vocational training, improving the quality of teachers, trainers and mentors and encouraging learning on the job. This is to be coupled with investment in formal education, using ICT to upgrade skill levels, enhancing the system or programme of apprenticeship, sending teachers and mentors abroad to acquire knowledge and skills and sending workers abroad to acquire skills.³¹ Measures such as supporting long distance learning, enhancing the system of accreditation and licensing, sending students abroad to acquire knowledge and skills and bringing/attracting new foreign skills, scientists and engineers from abroad are viewed as somewhat less important factors. ³² In addition to the official perspective, other less important factors for enhancing skill upgrading in Sudan include: increasing motivations, follow-up, increasing the effectiveness of the national training strategies and policies, improving work environment and condition and encouragement of interest in other languages, specifically English, to facilitate communication with international communities and learning from the experiences of other countries. In addition: increasing motivation by offering scholarships to encourage continuing education, training and learning, improvement of education and training curriculum, facilitating the ownership of modern information technology and modern methods of learning (computer per learner) to promote single education and distance education, reviewing government strategies in all education levels, specification of an annual fixed percentage of national expenditure for education and training, provision of equal education and training opportunities to reducing the regional disparity in the provision of education and training and unbalanced development in human resources and finally, establishment of a specialised ministry responsible for national human resources development. Plans currently implemented include investment in education, investment in training of existing employees, investment in vocational training, improving the quality of teachers, trainers and mentors, enhancing the system or programme of apprenticeships, using ICT to upgrade skill levels, bringing/attracting new foreign skills, scientists and engineers from abroad and sending workers, teachers and students abroad to acquire knowledge and skills and encouraging learning on the job. However, our earlier discussion in this chapter and in Chap. 5 above, illustrates the serious shortcomings of some of these components, particularly with respect to investment in education, training and vocational education. Hence, the officials’ view suggests further efforts in the short run to motivate investment in education, investment in training of existing employees, investment in vocational training, sending workers abroad to acquire skills and improving the quality of teachers, trainers and mentors. Further efforts considered important in the long run are to enhance the system or programme of apprenticeships, support long distance learning, encourage the system of accreditation and licensing, sending teachers/instructors and trainers abroad to acquire knowledge and skills and to improve the quality of teachers, trainers and mentors.

Table 9.19 Plans and tools for skill development: macro-policy makers and experts view

On the other side, at the micro level/across firms, the results of the firm survey suggest differing points of view with different priorities that highlight learning on the job as main priority,³³ especially in the short run.³⁴ Whereas, using ICT to upgrade skill levels, investment in training of existing employees, supporting long distance learning, sending trainers, mentors and workers abroad to acquire skills and knowledge and bringing/attracting new foreign skills, scientists and engineers are receiving less attention, particularly in the short run. Firms highlight these components in the long run and highlight learning on the job in the short run (see Table 9.20 below).

Table 9.20 Plans and tools for skill development: micro-firm view

From Tables 9.19 and 9.20 and from the macro-firm surveys it appears that views of the policy makers and experts and those of the firms are consistent in highlighting the learning on the job as one of the top priority for skill development. However, on the other hand, we observe that there appears to be clear discrepancies between the macro–micro views (and also across firms) concerning the selection of both tools and plans for skill development. For instance, the macro/policy makers and experts’ view tends to highlight investment in training of existing employees, investment in vocational training, improving the quality of trainers and mentors, encouraging learning on the job and investment in formal education as top priorities. Their next priorities are: using ICT to upgrade skill levels, enhancing the system or programme of apprenticeships, and sending trainers, mentors and workers abroad to acquire skills. Supporting long distance learning encourage the system of accreditation and licensing, sending students abroad to acquire skills and bringing/attracting new foreign skills, scientists and engineers from abroad are viewed as somewhat less important tools. On the other side, the micro (firm) view highlights learning on the job as main priority. The rank of the firms’ other priorities are: using ICT to upgrade skill levels, investment in training of existing employees, supporting long distance learning, sending trainers, mentors and workers abroad to acquire skills and knowledge and bringing/attracting new foreign skills, scientists and engineers.

From the policy makers, experts and firms’ perspectives the top priorities in the short run are encouraging the system of accreditation and licensing, learning on the job, using ICT to upgrade skill levels, supporting long distance learning, improving the quality of teachers, trainers and mentors and bringing new foreign skills, scientists and engineers; this is followed by investment in education, training (including vocational training) and sending trainers, mentors and workers abroad to acquire skills. From the policy makers, experts and firms’ perspectives the top priorities in the long run highlight sending students abroad to acquire knowledge and skills, encouraging the system of accreditation and licensing, investment in training (including vocational training) of existing employees, improving the quality of teachers, trainers and mentors and sending teachers, mentors and workers abroad to acquire knowledge and skills.

From the macro/policy makers and experts’ perspective, the top priorities in the short run are encouraging the system of accreditation and licensing, learning on the job, using ICT to upgrade skill levels, supporting long distance learning, improving the quality of teachers, trainers and mentors and bringing new foreign skills, scientists and engineers. Less emphasis would be placed on sending trainers, mentors and workers abroad to acquire skill, investment in education, training (including vocational training) of existing employees and sending students abroad to acquire skill. On the other side, firms highlight encouraging learning on the job as top short run priority, followed by using ICT to upgrade skill levels, investment in training of existing employees, supporting long distance learning, and bringing new foreign skills, scientists and engineers. Less emphasis would be placed on sending trainers, mentors and workers abroad to acquire skills.

Furthermore, from the macro/policy makers and experts’ perspective, the top priorities in the long run would be sending students abroad to acquire knowledge and skills, encouraging the system of accreditation and licensing and investment in vocational training. This is followed by investment in training of existing employees, improving the quality of teachers, trainers and mentors and sending teachers/instructors, trainers and workers abroad to acquire knowledge and skills. Less emphasis would be on supporting learning on the job, supporting long distance learning, enhancing the system or programme of apprenticeships, investment in education, bringing new foreign skills, scientists and engineers and using ICT to upgrade skill levels. On the other hand, firms tend to highlight sending trainers, mentors and workers abroad to acquire skills as main long run priority, followed by investment in training of existing employees, supporting long distance learning and bringing new foreign skills, scientists and engineers. Less emphasis would be placed by firms on using ICT to upgrade skill levels and encourage learning on the job.

In addition to the above observed discrepancies between macro–micro views concerning the selection of plans and tools and arrangement of priorities and policies for enhancing skill, we explain below the visible differences in the macro–micro perspectives in suggesting policies for improving the provision of training and transfer of knowledge. Therefore, this implies that further efforts are needed to enhance the consistency between the macro–micro views and public-private sectors, particularly with respect to the arrangement of priorities and plans to ensure more successful and consistent implementation of policies for skills development and encouraging private sector participation in education and training.

4.2 Policies and Mechanisms for Skill Development: The Macro–Micro Views

The implementation of the above plans for skills development requires an integration of the macro–micro policies; the results of the macro and firm surveys (2010) are useful for discussing and integrating these policy perspectives. From the macro survey we find that the policy makers and experts’ view concerning skill development policies highlights the mechanisms/policies for enhancing the efficiency of educational system, enhancing the external schooling effects/transfer of knowledge and planning skill needs. Additional mechanisms/policies identified include promoting of resources allocation, enhancing social partnership and collaboration between educational and training institutions, employers, workers and the state to determine skill needs and the most effective ways of meeting and financing them, enhancing the provision of training, monitoring skill needs on a regular basis and importing skills from abroad.³⁵

Our analysis below discusses the mechanisms for enhancing the educational system, transfer of knowledge/external schooling effects and provision of training. Other components include: planning skill needs, monitoring skill needs on a regular basis, enhancing social partnership in skill development, promoting of resources allocation and importing skill from abroad are somewhat integrated in the above components. We begin with the reform of educational system because we want to argue that both training provision and transfer of knowledge can be enhanced by an efficient educational system.

• (a) Reform of educational system

Beginning with the reform of the educational system, Table 9.21 summarises the official view concerning the reform of the educational system, which highlights improvement of internal efficiency/quality of tertiary education, encouragement of modernisation and dynamism in the educational system and enhancing planning for educational need. In addition, the official prioritise the improvement of internal efficiency/quality of basic and secondary education, improvement of the quality of teachers and mentors, improvement of infrastructure, increasing the harmony/consistency between educational output and market needs by focusing on particular future skill needs, increasing public spending on education, increasing spending and incentives to encourage enrolment in technical education, encouraging the system of flexibility of educational institutions and encouraging the use of new technologies for improving education and skill. Further reform measures include monitoring educational needs on a regular basis, increasing motivation for improving education and skill, increasing motivation and incentives to change student attitudes, enhancing the linkages (network) between universities, colleges, technical and training institutes and increasing private sector involvement on education. Additional reform measures include encouragement of apprenticeship education, establishment of the Academy of Educational Sciences and establishment of a national council to establish links between the policies of population, education, training and employment. Further reform measures include provision of free education, increasing awareness of the value of e-learning, periodical review of education policies, development of curriculum to ensure consistency with labour market requirements (consistency between education output and labour market needs), enhancing enrolment in technical education by provision of incentives such as monthly support (bursaries) for students and incentives for technicians employed in government jobs. Finally, we suggest an improvement of duration of compulsory education and autonomy of educational institutions and serious intervention from the government to improve education in all its levels needs.

Table 9.21 Policies and mechanisms for skill development: (a) macro/official view: Reform of educational system

In recent years, there have been several recent initiatives in Sudan aimed at long-term solutions to develop human resources, reform educational and training programmes and the labour market. For instance, Sudan has established the National Center for Training and Administrative Systems, the Selection Committee for the National Civil Service and the Supreme Council for vocational training and apprenticeships – affiliated to the Sudanese Ministry of Labour, Public Service and Human Resources Development to help improve the skills of Sudanese national workers and help with looking for jobs. For instance, the National Center for Training and Administrative Systems is implementing policies linked and consistent with the government strategies that aim to enhance the development and modernisation of training, development of capacity, development of the civil service, address the gaps in the performance of the civil service, activate and develop the workers training programmes using modern methods of training, planning and determining of training needs and preparation of annual plans and budget for the establishment of training programmes and courses aimed at raising the skill level of workers in the civil service intermediate cadres and executive managers. Moreover, the Supreme Council for vocational training and apprenticeships is established in 2001 to be responsible of controlling and monitoring of vocational training and apprenticeships. It is implementing specialised policies aimed to develop vocational training and apprenticeships, preparation of plans and vocational training programmes, examine the need for vocational training in different units, the establishment of specialised committees to assist in implementing its duties, the adoption of training curricula for various categories, development of standards and levels of different professional, adopting approach to training of trainers and observers and any other categories, cooperation to arrange and conduct vocational and professional performance testing, encourage research in all vocational training and apprenticeships fields, certification of national vocational training and apprenticeship certificates or any other certificates.³⁶ In our view, these recent initiatives would be more effective if the government in Sudan collaborates with the private sector to work actively to influence both the supply and demand sides by implementing more effective policies to increase incentives, for example, through subsidies to improve both education and training. For instance, public policies can influence the demand side for education and change the low enrolment ratios at the tertiary level, especially technical education, by providing more fellowships, scholarships and prizes for engineering and science students, and increasing incentives for students to increase attraction for enrolment into science and engineering at secondary schools levels. The government should continue to upgrade schooling and increase enrolment at all levels, especially in higher education.

In our view Sudan can benefit from the experiences of other advanced countries to improve the coordination and planning to avoid the mismatch between supply and demand and to meet critical skills needs. For instance, Sudan can benefit from the experiences of the European countries, where the government limits itself to pay teachers’ salaries and leaves the coordination problem to employers’ federations. Sudan should continue to upgrade schooling and increase enrolment in all levels especially in higher education and should also induce firms to organise in a federation, which has the task to organise branch specific education, by using taxes as a stick and the payment of teachers’ salaries as a carrot.

• (b) Enhancing the transfer of knowledge/external schooling effect

The reform of the educational system is expected to have a direct positive effect on motivating/enhancing the transfer of knowledge/external schooling effects. For instance, Table 9.22 shows that the macro–micro views highlight the potential positive implications of improving the qualifications of skilled and unskilled workers, the quality of education and training in enhancing the transfer of knowledge/external schooling effects. Furthermore, from the official perspective, other important factors for enhancing the external effect of schooling include enhancing the role of personal internal motivation and leadership in raising the level of skills, the relevant selection of more appropriate trainees for internal and external training programme to acquire training that match with their skills and enable them to transfer a positive external effect in their institutions. Moreover, from the firms’ perspective the other important factors for enhancing the external effects of schooling includes provision of incentives, supporting provision of training opportunities at all levels of at the firms and supporting stability and continuity of workers in the firms. The macro–micro views differ with respect to the potential effect of improving firm conditions to encourage external effects and sponsoring educational scholarship. In addition, the macro survey shows that the policy makers and experts’ view highlight the importance of improvement of awareness for enhancing the incidence and the transfer of knowledge/external schooling effect. Moreover, the macro survey shows that the policy makers and experts’ view indicates that the transfer of knowledge/external schooling effect can be motivated via minimisation of education, learning and training costs in addition to increasing the interaction to market needs and increasing the information about future educational, training and skill needs in the productive sectors. There is also a need to increase awareness about the future value of investments in education and training to minimise the risk aversion: preference of more certain short term returns to available jobs than long-term skill investments. Both the provision of adequate incentives for trainers and enhancing a system of certification of skills acquired are expected to have somewhat less important potential effects in the transfer of knowledge/external schooling effect.³⁷

Table 9.22 Policies and mechanisms for skill development: (b) macro–micro views: factors enhancing the transfer of knowledge/external schooling effect

• (c) Enhancing training provision

From the macro-firm surveys it appears that views of the policy makers and experts and those of the firms are consistent in highlighting the reform of educational system as an important mechanism to improve the provision of training, and the reform of educational and training systems for the enhancement of knowledge transfer/external schooling effects. However, on the other hand, there appears to be clear discrepancies between the macro–micro views (and also across firms) concerning the arrangement of priorities of other mechanisms for improving the provision of training. For instance, Table 9.23 presents the policy makers and experts’ view to improve the provision of training that highlights enhancing training programmes to fit the changing technical needs, regular/adequate assessment and monitoring of training needs and improving the quality of trainers and mentors. Other measures towards enhancing planning for training needs, include: increasing the appreciation of/information on the benefits of training, enhancing the availability of finance to cover training costs, improve quality, efficiency and comprehensiveness and modernity of training programmes and enhancing the interactions between training institutions and firms, are also highlighted. Further, measures aimed at enhancing the educational qualifications of workers, enhancing the specialised training institutions, enhancing the appropriability of the return from investment in training, increasing the availability of training materials and equipment, increasing availability of trainers and mentors, enhancing training programmes to fit the changing skill needs, enhancing the system of training certification, increasing the participation of private training institutions and decentralisation of decision-making, are also mentioned. Furthermore, from the firms’ perspective others enhancing factors for provision of training includes the promotion of awareness, encouragement of modernisation and development amend the restricting laws, reduce government control and censorship, enhancing adequate availability of trainers rather than restricting the movement of trainers and trained persons.

Table 9.23 Policies and mechanisms for skill development: (c) macro–micro views: promotion of training

Moreover, from the official perspective, the other important factors for enhancing training include linking training by administrative development for staff, making training a prerequisite for career advancement, increasing the financial rate of return from training for the participants during the training period and after obtaining a certified training, enhancing continued practical training, encouraging training institutions to adopt certificates of competency and quality from international centres of excellence and finally increasing government concern for prioritising training by prioritising financing training and human resources development apart from current government strategy that focus in prioritising financing roads, bridges, dams, etc.

The firms’ view indicates that the provision of training could be improved by enhancing educational qualifications of workers, increasing the appreciation of/information on the benefits of training, enhancing training programmes to fit the changing technical needs, enhancing the availability of finance to cover training costs and enhancing encouraging the specialised training institutions. Mechanisms such as, increasing availability of trainers and mentors, enhancing the availability of training materials and equipment, enhancing the system of training certification and restricting the mobility of trainers are viewed by the firms as being of somewhat less importance. That also holds for regular/adequate assessment and monitoring of training needs, and enhancing planning for training needs, enhancing the interaction between training institutions and firms, enhancing training programmes to fit the changing skill needs, improving the quality of trainers and mentors and enhancing the appropriability of the return from investment in training. Since training is costly, firms prefer policy interventions to finance training; however, it is less clear to what extent firms have a sound policy to contribute to training costs, as only 54 % of all respondent firms have upskilling plan (see for instance Chap. 5 above).

Our findings in this research are consistent with the findings of Suleiman (2007). For instance, Suleiman (2007) argues that the good provision of training required the provision of sufficient resources to meet all the needs of the Sudanese economy by enhancing the provision of training and variety of skills for the labour force in Sudan. In addition to the need to benefit from the technical assistance offered by friendship cooperation agreements with partner countries that in the past have been already long established in the field of vocational training for instance, in the past Germany has offered a good contribution to vocational training. Furthermore, the training in business management in various specialties requires cooperation to be undertaken between the public official bodies in charge of training with the private sector to provide a significant contribution to training in management according to the needs, in addition to investment incentives to encourage investors to train skilled workers, and by linking them with the quantity and quality achieved by the training facility for Sudanese workers. Finally, it is important to point out the importance of broadening and deepening the training of teachers by establishing institutes for education, especially in rural areas as one of the necessary steps to improve the quality of primary and secondary education, as well as considering training of Sudanese women. Suleiman (2007) notes that it is true that there are faculties of education in some universities in Sudan, but these colleges focus mainly on the theoretical, while the training of teachers needs more focus on the practical or applied sides. Therefore Suleiman (2007) indicates that it is necessary to create several institutes to train teachers at different levels of education and curriculum in order to achieve all goals of education, based on the lessons to be learned from the rich experiences of the Bakhtelrdah Institute, which was established in 1964 and enables the connection between teacher training and curriculum reform and scientific research in the development of primary and intermediate education. Suleiman (2007) believes that for a better future for training in Sudan, the country needs to start sooner in the preparation of these trainers both internally and externally through scholarships – each according to his qualifications and the type of training will do in the future (Suleiman 2007: 112, 114–115, 117).

Finally, in view of the complementary relationship between skills, skill upgrading and technological progress (see Chapter 7 above), the development of education, training, transfer of knowledge and skill levels may have further positive implications on the development of local technologies. Accordingly, the promotion of local technologies depends on skill upgrading, the promotion of R&D activities and enhancement of networks systems, collaboration between universities, firms, public and private sectors and the implementation of an explicit technology policy.

Therefore, our findings in this section support our three hypotheses presented in Sect. 9.1 above. We verify our first hypothesis that Sudan needs to upgrade skill through the relevant policies for enhancing educational system, provision of training and transfer of knowledge/external schooling effect at the macro–micro levels. We prove our second hypothesis that the educational reform will have positive implications on: (a) enhancing training provision; (b) skill upgrading; (c) planning skill needs and matching educational output with the needs in the labour market; (d) enhancing the transfer of knowledge/schooling effect; and (e) collaboration between public and private institutions. Finally, we confirm our third hypothesis that the effective institutional environment: consistent policies of public and private institutions will enhance upskilling plan and skill development.

5 Conclusions

In this chapter we use some secondary data and information and the macro and firm surveys (2010) to analyse the educational, training and skill development policies in Sudan. We prove our hypothesis 8 in Chap. 1 above that Sudan’s needs to enhance skill upgrading through the reform of the educational and training systems/policies and the transfer of knowledge. In particular, we show that skill development depends on: (a) reforming the educational system; (b) enhancing the provision of training; (c) planning skill needs and matching educational output with market needs; (e) enhancing the transfer of knowledge/schooling effect; and (d) incentives and collaboration between public and private institutions. We explain that the promotion of local technologies and adoption of appropriate foreign technologies and the interaction between both these to foster economic growth in Sudan depends on skill development. Particularly, on an enhancement of: (a) skill upgrading: educational and training systems; (b) R&D activities; (c) the transfer of knowledge/schooling effect; (d) networks system; and (e) incentives to motivate collaboration between universities and firms and between public and private institutions.

Our findings in Sect. 9.1 show that despite the enormous variations with respect to the supply and demand sides of educational policies, the educational policies in Sudan and Arab and Gulf countries share several problematic features such as an insufficient duration of compulsory education, the dominance of public sector and the lack of incentives/marginal contribution of the private sector on educational investment. Additional problems include poor quality, insufficient demand (enrolment ratios), an insufficient supply (spending) and the biased structure of tertiary education. We find that the priority of investment in education, as measured by public expenditures on education as a percentage of total government expenditures the priority of investment as a percentage of GDP in Sudan lags far behind the level prevalent in the Arab and Gulf countries and the level of developed countries.

Our results show the low commitment to the standardised international adequacy, equity and efficiency criterion related to the supply and demand sides of educational policies. We explain the low commitment to the standardised international adequacy criterion in the supply and demand sides. On the supply side, the low commitment to the standardised international adequacy implies the allocation of less than 8 % of GDP on education and less than 20 % of total government or public spending on education and in the demand side the low commitment to the standardised international adequacy implies the inadequacy in intake and enrolment rates in primary and secondary education, gender equity in enrolment in education and literacy rate of population. Furthermore, we then discuss the equity criterion, which implies the equal distribution and allocation of financial resources to achieve the balance between the different education sectors and between different geographical rural and urban areas. Moreover, we then examine the international efficiency criterion which implies that low efficiency often appears from the low rates of attendance, high rates of dropout, high rates of repetition, weak rates of success in final exams, low rates of trained teachers and over-crowded classrooms as indicated by the rate of students enrolment per education institutions.

Moreover, we explain that it is probably plausible to interpret the observed regional disparity in the share in demand and enrolment in education due to demographic reason (as measured by the share in total population), economic reasons (as measured by per capita income and poverty rate) and other reasons (as measured by the degree of urbanisation) across the main regions in Sudan. Starting with the demographic reason, our results can be used to argue that the share in total population seems to be the first important factor determining the share and regional disparity in enrolment in education. Moreover, our findings can be used to argue that the economic reasons as measured by per capita income and poverty rate seem to be the second important factor that determining the share and regional disparity in enrolment and demand for education. Notably, our results imply that the incidence of high poverty rate seem to be the most important factor determining or limiting the demand and enrolment, notably, in basic education. These findings imply that especially among the poor regions, economic reasons were considered to be the most important factor limiting poor students and especially, girls’ potential to complete their primary (basic), secondary and tertiary education and that region economic problems impact more negatively on female than on male education. These results imply that the increase in the incidence of poverty and the low per capita income limited or led to low demand and enrolment in education across the main, notably, poor region and this probably interpret the regional disparity in the demand for education across the main regions in Sudan. In addition, our findings can be used to argue that the degree of urbanisation is the third and other factor determining the share and regional disparity in enrolment in education. The major policy implication from our findings is that Sudan has the potential to achieve equity and fulfil the second and third MDG on universal access to primary education and gender equality respectively through reduction and elimination of poverty, notably, across the poor regions and poor population in Sudan, and this implies achievement of equity and international commitment to fulfilment of UN MDG in Sudan

We observe that while the educational policies in Sudan and the Gulf countries have raised enrolment ratios and literacy rates, they have failed to show satisfactory outcomes with respect to access to schooling/school life expectancy and training. This is due to serious deficiencies concerning the quality of education, coupled with the serious problems of biased structure and inadequate spending and enrolment in tertiary education in these countries. Hence, the major policy implication from our findings is that the improvement of the educational policies in Sudan and Gulf countries is vital and requires an improvement in the quality/internal efficiency, in the supply (investment) and demand (enrolment) sides, particularly in tertiary and technical education, and encouraging private sector investment in education.

Our results in Sect. 9.2 explain the major characteristics of training policies, in particular the structure and pattern of training policies and the impacts of education policies on training policies and skill upgrading in Sudan. First, we observe the biased structure in terms of type, duration and specialisation pattern of training policies and the low commitment to efficiency, adequacy and equity criterion in the provision of training and under utilisation of capacity of training centres all of which most probably critically undermined the efficient provision of training and led to limited effect of training in upgrading skill level for the labour force, this observable from the low share of trained labour force out of total labour force in Sudan. Next, we show that the implication and interaction between educational and training policies seem to be effective but limited to only within the largest two mixed and private firms, which appear more committed to implement skill upgrading policies that are consistent with the line of public policies. These two largest mixed and private firms successfully contribute to serve public policies of training and skill upgrading via establishing active human resources development units, recruitment policies and specialised training centres to implement various regular and special internal and external training programmes, especially for national workers. In addition they encourage the use of ICT to upgrade skill levels, offer scholarships and collaborate with universities to absorb young national graduates. These results support our earlier findings in Chap. 5 above, which indicate a lack of effective interaction between educational and training policies and a lack of incentives for provision of training within private firms. Hence, these findings imply a further duality/discrepancy at the micro level/across small-medium and large private firms.

In Sect. 9.3 we use the results of the macro and firm surveys (2010) to integrate the divergent macro–micro views concerning plans and mechanisms for skill development in the short and long run and propose some policies and recommendations. The short run plans include encouraging the system of accreditation and licensing, learning on the job, using ICT to upgrade skill levels, supporting long distance learning, improving the quality of teachers, trainers and mentors and bringing new foreign skills, scientists and engineers; this is followed by investment in education, training (including vocational training) and sending trainers, mentors and workers abroad to acquire skills. The long run plan highlights sending students abroad to acquire knowledge and skills, encouraging the system of accreditation and licensing, investment in training (including vocational training) of existing employees, improving the quality of teachers, trainers and mentors and sending teachers, mentors and workers abroad to acquire knowledge and skills.

The policy makers and experts’ view concerning the reform of the educational system highlights improvement of internal efficiency/quality of tertiary education, encouragement of modernisation and dynamism in the educational system and enhancing planning for educational need. They also prioritise the improvement of internal efficiency/quality of basic and secondary education, improvement of the quality of teachers and mentors, improvement of infrastructure, increase in the harmony/consistency between educational output and market needs by focusing on particular future skill needs, increase in the public spending on education, increase in the spending and incentives to encourage enrolment in technical education, encouragement of the system of flexibility in educational institutions and encouragement of the use of new technologies for improving education and skill. Further reform measures include: monitoring educational needs on a regular basis; increasing motivation for improving education and skill; increasing motivation and incentives to change student attitudes; enhancing linkages (network) between universities, colleges, technical and training institutes; and increasing private sector involvement in education.

Moreover, the macro–micro suggestions with respect to knowledge transfer/external schooling effects stress the improvement of quality of educational and training systems, qualifications of skilled and unskilled workers. In addition, recommendations include increasing information about future skill needs and the value of investments in education and training, interaction/consistency to market needs and a certification system and improvement of awareness for enhancing the incidence and the transfer of knowledge/external schooling effect.

Moreover, the macro–micro views regarding improvement of the provision of training vary in arranging priorities, but generally emphasise enhancement of training programmes to fit both the changing skill and technical needs, enhancing planning for training needs and quality and availability of trainers and mentors. Other measures include enhancing of training materials and equipment and educational qualifications of workers, assessing and monitoring of training needs regularly/adequately, increasing appreciation of/information on the benefits of training, enhancing availability of finance to cover training costs and enhancing specialised training institutions.

Therefore, our findings in this paper support our hypothesis 8 presented in Chap. 1 above. We verify part of our hypothesis 8.a that Sudan needs to upgrade skill through the relevant policies for enhancing educational system, provision of training and transfer of knowledge/external schooling effect at the macro–micro levels. We prove part of our hypothesis 8.a that the educational reform will have positive implications on: (a) enhancing training provision; (b) skill upgrading; (c) planning skill needs and matching educational output with the needs in the labour market, (d) enhancing the transfer of knowledge/schooling effect; and (e) collaboration between public and private institutions. Finally, we confirm our hypothesis 8 that the effective institutional environment and consistent policies of public and private institutions will enhance upskilling plan and skill development.

In addition, in view of the complementary relationship between skills, skill upgrading and technological progress (see earlier discussion in Chap. 1 above) the development of education, training, transfer of knowledge and skill levels may have further positive implications on the development of local technologies. Accordingly, this proves the second part of our hypothesis 8.b that the promotion of local technologies depends on skill upgrading, promotion of R&D activities and enhancement of networks system, collaborations between universities, firms, public and private sectors and the implementation of an explicit technology policy

Finally, our results show a serious discrepancy between small-medium and large private firms regarding the implementation of public policies of training and skill upgrading and also divergent macro–micro views concerning the arrangement of priorities to implement plans, mechanisms and policies for enhancing skill, provision of training and transfer of knowledge. Therefore, we recommend further efforts to be made to enhance the consistency between the macro–micro views and public-private sectors, particularly with respect to arrangement of priorities, plans and mechanisms to ensure more consistent, effective and successful policies for skill development and encouraging private sector participation in education and training. We find that the percentages of female students in all levels of education in Sudan are low compared to most other Arab countries. So, more efforts are required to improve the percentage of female student enrolment ratio for all levels of education in Sudan and Arab countries.