L'ambiente nord sudanese è sempre stato molto critico nei confronti del ruolo della missione in campo educativo. Specialmente l'impegno nel sud ha contribuito a dividere il paese. Tra gli storici ed intellettuali sudanesi Mohamed Omer Beshir è stato fra coloro che più ha curato lo studio della politica educativa in Sudan.
Le considerazioni che qui presentiamo riflettono bene il punto di vista sudanese sulla questione:

"From the Government's point of view the work of the missionary societies was "rather that of civilizing agents than an attempt to at once introduce Christianity among the pagan tribes". The Christian missions were therefore expected to emphasis social and educational work rather than proselytism. The missionary societies on the other hand made proselytism their main object without neglecting the fact that education was a necessary part of their work. The establishment of a church in the South always went hand in hand with the opening of a school usually on the same premises", p. 31.

The missionaries who were "watching with alarm the growing power of Islam in the pagan areas and were urging their conversion to Christianity lest they became Mohamedans, co-operated in the execution of the Southern Policy. Their contribution was mainly in the field of education and training. During the period 1933-8 several meetings were held between the missionary societies and representatives of the Department of Education with a view to increasing the facilities and reforming the system of education so that it would suit the Southern Policy. A report in 1936 by C. W. Williams, Assistant Director of Education, suggested more financial aid to the missionaries and the reform of the educational system in the South. Government grants-in-aid to education increased from £E 7,605 in 1933 to £E 9,155 in 1937 and as a result the number of schools during the period 1927-38 increased as follows:

Since the Government was committed to a policy of replacing the Northern personnel by Southerners, it would have been expected that educational expansion, especially at the Intermediate and Trade School levels, should have been greater than it was. But the missionaries /53/ where short of staff and funds and were therefore unable to assist the policy of southernisation by accelerating education at the post-elementary level.
Thus by 1941 the Southern Policy, which aimed at the building of self-contained tribal units, became one for separating the South from the North.
It should not be assumed that the Southern Policy was carried out succesfully in all its different aspects, nor that it was free of contradictions. The District Commissioners, Western District, Bahr al Ghazal (now called Equatoria) confessed in 1941 that:

"the most disappointing aspect of the working of Southern Policy is the failure to produce in ten years any Southerner staff trained for executive work"

While official policy set out to encourage the Southerners to adopt their tribal names and customs, the missionaries were encouraging them to adopt Christian names and values. Missionary education was as disrupting to tribal life and values as Muslim influence was. The dominance of Roman Catholic missionaries was a matter of great concern to the Administration. When the Italians invaded Ethiopia in 1936 and Fascism became a real danger to the security of the Sudan, the value of the presence of the Italian Verona Fathers became doubtful. On the recommendation of C. W. Cox, the Director of Education, their activities in the South were curtailed. The Vatican was approached, and it agreed to replace the Verona Fathers by the English-speaking Mill Hill Fathers.
The Northern Sudanese, on the other hand, became more suspicious of the Southern Policy. The Graduate's Congress, founded in 1938, in a memorandum on education submitted to the Government in the following year, was critical of the educational policy in the South and demanded the removal of restrictions on Northern traders, the expansion of educational facilities in the South, and the unification of the system of education in the whole country. In its  Memorandum of 1942, the Graduate's Congress, demanded the cancellation of grants-in aid to missionary schools and the unification of the education syllabuses in the North and the South", pp. 53-54.

Tratto da: Mohamed Omer Beshir, The Southern Sudan. Background to Conflict, London, Hurst, 1968.

Education in the Southern Sudan
Another outcome of these educational policies and attitudes was the development of an educational system in the South different from that of the North. Education in the South was administered controlled and partly financed by European Christian Missionary Societies and Organizations. While the makers of educational policy in the North were concerned with the employment and job opportunities, the missionaries were concerned with postlization [sic] in the first place, On the other hand, while the administrators in the North were concerned with the removal of Egyptian influence, the missionaries, working according to instructions of the British Administrators in the South, were concerned with excluding the Northern Sudanese Arab and Moslem culture. Contact with northern neighbours and the teaching of Arabic was discouraged. Education was left except  for limited  financial aid, entirely to the hands of missionaries - Catholics and Protestants. The south was divided between the missionaries each with its own sphere of influence. A new factor of rivalry was introduced into the south wich added to the traditional tribal rivalries already existing. New and different concepts and values based on Christianity, different from those in the North, were promoted. The missionaries with their limited resources, were naturally unable to extend educational facilities to the same extend that was extended among the northern population. The result was a limited education in quantity and quality which was different from that of the North. Education in the South lagged behind that of the North. In addition to this, education in the south contributed to the development of attitudes and concepts hostile to the culture of the North. The seeds of separation which were planted from an early period of separation flourished later and were a factor contributing to the conflict that later erupted into civil war. It was only in 1953 that a new policy of promoting government controlled schools and discouraging missionary education was started. Arabic was introduced into the schools of the South. The Military Regime of General Aboud (1958-64) set out to promote Islamic schools and a number of arabic speaking notherners were sent to the South as teachers for this specific purpose. In the 1962 this policy was further promoted when the missionaries were expelled. This happened at a time when missionary education in the north was being encouraged. One aspect of education already referred to which failed to take off in the south was a voluntary movement in education similar to that of the North. The reason was that the factors which assisted the movement to grow in the North were until the absent in the South"

Tratto da:
Mohamed Omer Beshir Educational policy and the employment problem in the Sudan, Khartum, Development Studies and Research Centre, 1977, pp. 16-17.