By Ibrahim Ayeh

Agenda Major education crises in Somalia Issues that prevent children to go to schools How Somalia could provide equitable access to basic education for all children Improving the quality of education for children

Major education crises in Somalia School age children are under attack by terrorists Terrorists recruit youth to be militants who could do for them suicide bombing activities - that includes school age children Terrorists intimidate and kill youth who has promising future by attacking graduation and scholarship ceremonies to say the least Terrorist intimidate, kidnap, and kill humanitarian aid workers for the needed children and their families

Major education crises in Somalia cont’d Because there is no free basic education available to all children, there is large percent of children who are denied from their basic rights to education. Rural area has no secondary or middle schools available to children to attend, this forces a lot of children to drop out from school – mainly in the nomadic areas. Somalia needs badly teacher training workshops that will upgrade the qualification of the teachers and their instructional methods – for example diversification of instructions, and moving the learning from teacher centered learning to student centered learning.

Major issues that prevent Somali children to go to schools War, hunger, malnutrition, poverty, droughts, floods, and diseases. - Haiti and Somalia are the two worst countries in the world which school- age child are not getting education (UN report)

Major issues that prevent Somali children to go to schools ……. Cont’d Recommendations: We could improve the surrounding environment that causes children not to participate in schools by doing the following: Strong commitment of international community to stabilize Somalia Creating strong advocacy group from the Diaspora to promote the Peace Settlement in Somalia Empowering the Somali leaders on good and fair governance Implementation of education policies that will adopt UN Millennium goal of development, UNICEF initiative to abolish fees, and programs on Child-Friendly Schools (CFS) by UNICEF

Equitable access to basic education for all children Recommendation Somalia could provide equitable access to basic education for all children (girls & boys) by doing the following: Free and compulsory education Building boarding school for rural area students Rising parent and community awareness to the importance of education for all their children Abolition of arranged marriage for under age girls that will deprive the child from school

Section IV Improving the quality of education for the children in Somalia

Recommendations Since teachers can only be what the system have trained for, and students are what their teachers can provide we need to create a summer institutes that could provide teachers the necessary training and Staff Development they need. We need to improve resource material for instructions, like science labs, and hands on material that can be locally created We need to improve facilities for sports recreation activities by protecting and rehabbing school playgrounds and parks. Improving the quality of education for the children in Somalia

Improving the quality of education for the children in Somalia Cont’d Recommendations Enriching the curriculum by adding character education that will improve the child’s future civic responsibilities, and moral ethics. Creating small libraries/store in all school where teachers could have access when they need reference material that will enrich their instructions. We need to create central library at least in the cities - libraries are needed in order children to have and opportunities to research and to have lifelong learning.

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