Running head: THE STATUS OF EDUCATION IN SOMALIA REPORT 1

The Status of Education in Somalia Report

Victoria Esquivel

GCU114

Arizona State University

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My topic of discussion is the status of education in Somalia. Somalia is a country that has

been through much turmoil and distress. Somalia as some of you may already know begins its

academic year in October all the way through June. We here at the UN have a couple global

initiatives. The first global initiative is global education throughout Earth. This initiative has

three priority areas that would represent success within this initiative. The first is to have every

child in school. Secondly, the goal is to improve the overall quality of learning. Lastly, the final

step in global education is to foster global citizenship. Once all these three priority areas have

been met globally the education initiative will be proven successful. (Global Education First

Initiative, 2014)

In the graphs below it is easy to immediately see some of the problems Somalia faces. To

begin, the UN goal is to have all children in school. Somalia however still faces absences within

their schools with rates as high as 96% of the poorest quintile of students out of school. This

percentage is for both poorest quintile in primary and secondary school age. The totals for the

primary school age within Somalia are a total of 77% of children out of school. For the

secondary school age that percentage is less. Only 72% of the children are out of school.

(Somalia, 2014)
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Although these numbers may seem alarming; Somalia is making progress. (Most of this

data is from areas in Somalia that can have data gathered. Some locations are not yet under

government control and make it almost impossible to get the data.) There are many advances

within the federal government creating more teaching opportunities as well as timely pay. Eight-

hundred thirty-eight head teachers along with two-hundred ninety-six primary school teachers

receive monthly incentive payments. That also included fourteen regional education officers. All

of these payments were done through the mobile phone payment system. Additionally, fifty-three

female teachers received training on educational management and leadership in 2015. The

second half of their training will conclude in 2016. (GPE in Somali, n.d.)

Figure 2

These efforts in training should be able to help reduce the problem in Somalia of such a

high pupil per teacher ratio. For primary school there are forty-four students per teacher. That

number is too high for an educator to proper fulfil their teaching requirements. (Somalia, 2014)

But with continued training efforts and consistent incentives we should see these numbers

declining. These teacher trainings will not only increase the number of children in school,

decrease the number of pupil per teacher, but it will also improve the quality of learning. Each
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student will be able to have more one on one time with the teacher, have fewer distractions, and

feel more attended to overall creating a better learning experience for everyone.

Overall Somalia has many more obstacles to overcome before reaching the UN

initiatives. But the progress will continue. The percentage of children in both primary and

secondary school will go up. The overall quality of learning is expected to flourish. Somalia has

had difficulties in the past but the plans in place depict a brighter future for Somalia.
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References

Education in Somalia. (n.d.). Retrieved November 08, 2017, from

http://www.globalpartnership.org/country/somalia

Somalia [PDF]. (2014). National Education Profile.

(n.d.). Retrieved November 08, 2017, from http://www.unesco.org/new/en/gefi/about/