12 (girls 20.5% and boys 19.2%), followed by the age group 13-18 (boys 16.9% and girls 22.5%). Education services are provided for children with special needs. The following table shows numbers of children, teachers and institutions. Table (7): numbers of children, teachers and institutions No of Institutions Type of Disability Public Private Total Sight Hearing Mental Physical Total 43 41 84 7251 18639 5170 8692 39752 Source: Ministry of Education, Education Statistics Book 2008-2009 Teachers 598 C. Services in the Health Sector: A survey conducted by the Ministry of Health in May-August 2008 on the map of medical services in 12 out of 15 states in northern Sudan revealed the following results:  There were disparities between states where the numbers of populations and villages are not commensurable with numbers of health institutions. For instance the Northern state with 380 villages and a population of 625,428 has 303 health institutions while the state of Southern Kordufan with a population of 2,528,619 and 2,101 villages has only 395 health institutions.  The survey indicated that accessibility to health institutions was good in general. The percentage of population who live 5 km from health institutions was 75%. The states of North Kordufan, North Darfur and South Darfur have the least accessibility percentage, with percentages of population who live 5 km from health institutions amounting to 32%, 45% and 47% respectively. Despite the high percentages of accessibility, yet there are disparities between localities which call for reconsideration.  The survey revealed that the percentage of coverage in all northern states is one institution for every 6,587 people. This is close enough to recommended percentage. However, disparities between localities call for reconsideration of the geographical distribution of health institutions to ensure equity. Distribution of rural hospital should be one hospital for every 100,000 people as recommended.  The survey also revealed that percentage of coverage of health canters is a little short of the recommended number (one center for every 20442) and the total number of health centers is 32 centers short of the recommended number of 1566.  The survey also showed that only 15.3% of the total number of health institutions provides the whole package of primary health services (immunization, nutrition, pregnancy care, full treatment of light diseases).  It was noticeable from the survey that 3977 of the villages surveyed have midwives (a coverage percentage of 57%). This means there was a gap in villages with population of 1000 and above amounting to 3006 villages. This gap was 60% in S Darfur, 52% in Sinnar and 22% in the Northern state. 41