Education system in Somalia

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The education system in Somalia is not organized by the state. Education takes place in private and religious schools as well as in institutions run by international organizations. An estimated 13% of boys and 7% of girls go to school. The reasons for the low level of education of the population are general poverty and the Somali civil war .

A rural Koran school in Somalia

historical development

Before the colonial era, there was hardly an educational system in the true sense of the word in the Somali populated area . Reading and writing skills were hardly relevant, especially since the Somali language was transmitted orally. The skills considered vital were taught to children within their own families. Little emphasis was placed on the education of girls in particular; the boys were also used early on as workers for daily work. Few attended Koran schools that taught the Koran and Arabic.

The colonial rulers of Somalia pursued different educational policies. The Italians in Italian Somaliland saw the locals primarily as farmers and low-skilled workers and trained their students accordingly so that as few Italians as possible were needed for the relevant work. Before the First World War , less than 0.1% of the population in Italian Somaliland attended one of the 15 "western" schools (ten state schools and five orphanage schools, usually Roman Catholic mission schools).
The British initially limited their educational activity in British Somaliland to supporting a few Koran schools and granting scholarships for training in Sudan or Aden . After the loss and recapture of British Somaliland in World War II , they built up a primary school system that was primarily geared towards training administrative employees. They also opened a training center for police officers and one for nurses, and in 1944 a teacher training center with 50 graduates. In 1955, an estimated 1.4% of school age children in the UK were in school.

In 1949, Haji Dirie Hirsi founded the first secondary school in Somalia, in addition to the now 29 primary schools. Teaching was in English, Arabic and Italian. The fact that there were three different educational languages, while the main language of the population could not be used for this purpose due to the lack of uniform writing, turned out to be a significant obstacle to the development of an educational system.

An improvement in educational opportunities and, for this purpose, the standardization and writing of the Somali language became one of the central demands of the Somali Youth League , the first Somali party that formed the government from the country's independence in 1960 until Siad Barres came to power in 1969. In 1972, Siad Barre's government implemented the standardization of Somali and its writing using the Latin alphabet. Government campaigns were then launched to literate the population. According to the Somali government, these measures had achieved a literacy rate of 60% by the mid-1970s (independent data estimated the success to be less). From 1977 the rate fell again as a result of the economic and political difficulties after the Ogaden War , especially among nomads. In 1990, according to UN estimates, 24% of Somalis could read and write.

There has been no state education system since the collapse of the Somali government in 1991.

Official education system

The official Somali education system provided for pre-school education and, from the age of six, eight years of primary schooling, followed by four years of secondary school and, where applicable, higher education. There were special educational programs for nomads in which the children went to school for three years for six months each and during the rest of the year they could go hiking with their parents.

Todays situation

Classroom in Hargeysa, Somaliland

Between 2000 and 2005, an estimated 12% of children attended primary school, with a higher proportion of boys and less of girls. Education is offered by private institutions, (with the support of) local and international organizations and above all by Koran schools (madrasas) ; The latter offer minimal education in addition to learning the Arabic script and memorizing the Koran. For example, a private initiative in the Shabeellaha Dhexe region has increased the school enrollment rate to 24%, which is the highest rate in southern Somalia. UNICEF and local organizations also run teacher training initiatives.

In the de facto autonomous Somaliland , the education system has been expanded since the declaration of independence in 1991, but remains at a low level. According to an estimate, 30% of school-age children attended school in 2010, 30% of whom were girls. In January 2011, Somaliland's government announced that it would make primary and secondary education free and double teacher wages; however, there are doubts whether the education system can cope with the increased costs and student numbers.

The National University of Somalia in Mogadishu, founded in 1970 as the main institution for higher education, has been closed since the beginning of the civil war; In 1997, the privately operated University of Mogadishu was founded. In Somaliland there are universities in Hargeysa , Berbera , Burao and Boorama ( Amoud University ).

See also

swell

  1. ↑ UNICEF
  2. ↑ Somaliland meets giant education challenge , in: afrol, December 2, 2010.
  3. ↑ Free education “too expensive” for Somaliland , in: IRIN News, January 25, 2011
  4. ↑ afrol.com: Somaliland now counts on four universities