Schooling and Social Capital Among Eritrean Refugees
Revolutionary Schooling and Social Capital Among Eritrean Refugees in Sudan
Observations and Personal Experiences at UNESCO school kassala
A remarkable educational experiment took root in the arid borderlands of Kassala, Sudan, in
the shadow of Eritrea’s long and bitter struggle for independence. In the 1977, the Eritrean
Liberation Front (ELF), in collaboration with the United Nations High Commissioner for
Refugees (UNHCR) and the Sudanese Ministry of Education, established a school that did
more than teach—it transformed. Primarily operated by Eritrean freedom fighters who
doubled as educators, the school offered structured, stipend-supported education to refugee
youth. Its curriculum was purely academic. But by virtue of the background of its teachers
and students, political consciousness, national identity, and practical service became part of it.
It was a space where the displaced did not merely survive; they prepared to lead.
As a former student at the Kassala school, I witnessed firsthand how this unlikely institution
became both a sanctuary and a seedbed for revolutionary dreams. Ours was not merely a
cohort of learners, but a community in exile, bound by purpose and resilience.
These students, many of whom were exiled, orphaned, or separated from their families due to
war, were not simply recipients of charity. The educational model adopted by the ELF and
supported by the UNHCR was rooted in the philosophy that education in exile could be an
asset. The students received modest stipends to support their studies, which served as
financial assistance and a gesture of recognition and dignity. The stipend affirmed that
education was labour, and that the youth were an essential part of the nation-in-the-making.
One of the school’s most enduring legacies was its role as a site of social cohesion and capital
among a displaced but remarkably diverse student population. In any classroom during the
late 1970s and early 1980s, students from Asmara, Keren, Massawa, Barentu, and
Nakfa—urban and rural, Muslim and Christian, highland and lowland—came together in shared
classrooms. The shared educational experience created a rare space for dialogue and solidarity
across Eritrea’s regional, linguistic, and class differences. Friendships forged in Kassala
classrooms later became the foundations of transnational networks of Eritrean professionals,
activists, and educators. The school was not only preparing students for exams or armed
struggle but quietly binding together a fragmented nation in exile.
The school in Kassala was staffed by a cadre of freedom fighters who had traded their rifles
for chalk. Those teacher-combatants imbued the curriculum with a sense of urgency and
purpose. Standard academic subjects were taught, but interwoven with themes of resistance,
self-determination, and national history. The students learned under conditions far from ideal;
but the collective sense of purpose bridged the gap between resource scarcity and intellectual
richness.
What set this educational model apart was its integration of theory and practice. Upon
completing high school, students could spend their summer months within the liberated zones
of Eritrea, living and working among the ELF’s fighting forces.
This civic service was a symbolic and practical rite of passage. It allowed young people to
witness firsthand the conditions of their occupied homeland and the daily realities of the
armed struggle. It also reinforced the idea that intellectual growth and national liberation were
inseparable.
This blend of education and civic engagement forged a generation that would carry the scars,
knowledge, and dreams of a nation in exile. Many of these students eventually migrated to
Europe, North America, and the Middle East, becoming professionals—engineers, doctors,
academics, and community leaders. Their contributions abroad were deeply rooted in their
transformative schooling in Kassala, which went beyond textbooks to shape consciousness,
discipline, and commitment.
The story of Revolutionary School in Kassala is a testament to what refugee education can
achieve when guided by vision, sacrifice, and the belief that displaced people are not merely
victims but active agents of their futures. It challenges humanitarian models that view
refugees only in terms of need, and instead presents a paradigm of dignity, resistance, and
reconstruction.
In an era where refugee education remains underfunded and often depoliticized, the Kassala
school offered a powerful counter-example. It illustrates the potential of refugee-led education
to nurture leadership, preserve identity, and build transnational legacies. As more histories of
displacement and exile are recovered and documented, the contributions of institutions like
this school must be acknowledged and preserved. Their legacy is not just Eritrean or
Sudanese—it is a universal story of what it means to learn.
Awate Forum