Police in El Qatina in Sudan’s White Nile state, have detained journalist Rasha Hassan following a complaint by a school administration over her sharing a report about students being barred from examinations for failing to pay school fees.
Hassan was detained after being summoned by telephone to El Qatina police station on a complaint filed by a school administration under Article 159, following her reposting on Facebook of a report published by the El Rakoba website.
The report, published on 19 August, concerned complaints from parents in El Qatina that their children had been prevented from sitting examinations because they had not paid school fees, despite directives from the Ministry of Education prohibiting schools from excluding pupils over unpaid fees.
The newspaper quoted a parent who said a school in block 4 of El Qatina had expelled his son and several other pupils because their families could not afford SDG 80,000. The school administration said the amount covered primary school certificate examination fees and a compulsory camp, while the prescribed examination fee was SDG 60,000.
According to El Rakoba, some schools in El Qatina continued to exclude pupils whose families could not afford the fees, despite statements by the Ministry of Education insisting that no student should be denied education because of non-payment. The ministry had also prohibited school administrations from taking such measures.
