156 • The Status of the Education Sector in Sudan
• The average size of a class in basic education is 48 students, but class size varies significantly by the type of school and by grade level. Of particular concern are IDP schools, which have an average of 92 students per class and thus have the potential for poor learning outcomes. • On average, students receive 336 fewer hours of annual instructional time than the government-mandated number. This deficit results in insufficient time for learning. • There is not sufficient evidence yet to ascertain whether the new prequalification requirements yield better performance by teachers. More research is needed to determine the cost-effectiveness of the new program compared to the old program.
NOTES 1. Government teachers, administrators, inspectors, and other nonteaching staff are on the government payroll, whereas national service and volunteer teachers are not. 2. The average annual salary at the secondary level is 8,184 Sudanese pounds (SDG), as opposed to SDG 6,708 at the basic level (per chapter 7, on education finance). 3. The Teacher Assistance Course is a nine-month open learning course developed and delivered by the Sudan Open Learning Organization, a national nongovernmental organization. 4. The average actual instructional time is calculated by dividing the intended number of instructional hours by the number of teachers and multiplying this ratio by the total number of classes. 5. The survey was conducted one month after a teacher’s strike, which was initiated because of a lack of salary payments to teachers in October 2009.
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