Political and economic situation
Violence and political unrest have prevented Somalia from developing a coherent and coordinated domestic marketplace. The government only controls the central part of the country. The corruption of the country is really high, so that means the government’s revenues are easy to steal. It means that it’s very difficult to the economy to grow but it is slowly expanding beyond Mogadishu. Livestock, agriculture, and fishing are economic mainstays.
Body
Education then became one of the major casualties of war. The decline of the economy due to the cost of war left little money for social programs and schools. Many schools were completely destroyed during the civil war, and even today Somalia’s education system remains largely in ruins. Somalia have affected education delivery and contributed to one of the lowest school enrolment rates in Africa, and in the world with only 42% of primary school age children in school. - only one out of every five children have access to school. Without a national Department of Education, it has become the responsibility of parents and community members to provide education for their families. Education is primarily provided by Koranic and community-managed schools. Many schools don’t have buildings and classes are often held outdoors or in temporary shelters. Girls’ participation in education is consistently lower than that for boys. Fewer than 50 per cent of girls attend primary school, and the last countrywide survey from 2006 showed that only 25 per cent of women aged 15 to 24 were literate. The low availability of sanitation facilities (especially separate latrines for girls), a lack of female teachers (less than 20 per cent of primary-school teachers in Somalia are women), safety concerns and social norms that favors boys’ education are cited as factors inhibiting parents from enrolling their daughters in school.
Conclusion
The outbreak of civil war had a devastating effect on education services in Somalia. By 1994, many schools had been damaged or destroyed, learning materials were unavailable and the majority of teachers and students had abandoned education. The southern part of Somalia has seen civil conflict and destabilisation for almost 24 years. Two generations of Somali children have missed the opportunity to attend school. In Somalia individual communities have reached out to NGO Organizations such as SAFE to help build school classrooms. Their goal is to empower these communities to continue investing in the education needs of their children. A school teacher worries that the students show too little interest in education and are more interested in playing war. A UNICEF report noted, an entire generation of children has grown up knowing only conflict and fighting and possibly thousands of children have been trained in combat. UNICEF supported education in Somalia in 1996-2010 as part of its mandate. Education can help build skills for employment or conflict resolution. It provides hope, a positive initiative helping to build ‘positive peace’. UNICEF resumed work in Somalia in 1993, helping to rehabilitate school buildings, re-printing existing textbooks and provide school kits(very basic set of instructional materials enabling a teacher to teach). We need to make sure that this generation receives quality basic education. This will stop them being sucked into the continuing violence and they will then be able to make a positive and lasting contribution to the future of Somalia. If this generation of Somali children is to find hope for the future, there needs to be an emphasis on education. Sustainable economic development will need to follow for Somalia to participate in the global economy. Without education the achievements for success will not happen. With every educated student comes the potential for a leader of tomorrow.