magine living in a world where going to school was dangerous. Parents did not want to send you to school, because of the violence on the way to and from school. During school hours, teachers and students are constantly on edge, as schools are often targeted by the Al-Shabaab terrorist group in the area. Abductions are not uncommon, as boys are used as recruits into the Al-Shabaab militia, and girls are used for entertainment, cooking, and cleaning. (Moyi, 2012). The Somali nation has become dangerous enough to the point where not even school is safe.
After the fall of the government of Somalia, known at the time as the Barre regime, in 1991, the entire system of education collapsed. Life was no longer focused on education and schooling, but on survival. It has not changed much since then. Somalia has been in a civil war since the fall of the Barre regime in 1991. Clan-based rivalries have led to an all-out bloodbath throughout the nation. Less than twenty percent of children in Somalia are receiving an education, and opportunities are slim without one. Somalia has one of the lowest enrollment rates in Africa. School teachers have reported that children would rather play war than participate in class. (Price, 2013).
Famine and poverty are widespread throughout Somalia, and drought caused mass-starvations have killed hundreds of thousands of Somalis. The average Somali person makes one to two dollars a day. The fact that the population of Somalia is so under-educated is why the country suffered such a large blow to its economy and is in poverty. If more children were educated, they would be
Works Cited:
Danish Refugee Council (2013, November 25). Improved Education from Conflict Resolution - Gedweyn Success story. Retrieved from http://reliefweb.int/report/somalia/improved-education-conflict-resolution-gedweyn-success-story
Lewis, T. (n.d.). Somali Cultural Profile. Retrieved from http://ethnomed.org/culture/somali/somali-cultural-profile#section-20
Moyi, P. (2012, October 16). School Enrollment and Attendance in Central South Somalia. Retrieved from http://sgo.sagepub.com/content/2/4/2158244012464060
Price, J. (2013, December 3). Somalia: Education is the Best Way to Defeat Al-Shabaab. Retrieved from http://www.ambassadorjohnprice.com/u-s-investment-in-education-best-way-to-defeat-al-shabaab/3690/
able to repair the crisis at hand and fix the nation. (Price, 2013). Somalia has not been able to rebuild and recreate itself because of their Islamic terrorist group, the Al-Shabaab. Every day, dozens of children are recruited into the ranks of the Al-Shabaab, and are uprooted from their lives to join in on the civil war that is ravaging the nation. Children are interested not in school, but in war, guns, and fighting, as that is the kind of propaganda they are seeing every day.
Public schooling has been wiped out, and only the rich and privileged are able to attend private school. Before the war, the education system of Somalia was the same level as that of the US, if not more advanced. (Lewis, n.d). However, since the collapse of the Barre regime, there is not even a national standard for education, and schools that are still running teach based on what the teachers feel like teaching. (Danish Refugee Council, 2013).
The solution to this crisis is to donate money to organizations, to help rebuild and strengthen th education system around Somalia. In addition, if children were educated, they would resist joining the ranks of the Al-Shabaab, and would be able to take steps towards fighting back. If the children of Somalia are properly educated, they will know about what is happening to their country, and will be able to take steps toward a safer, stronger future.
By: Zoe Zaleski
The Education Complication:
How Al-Shabaab is affecting education in Somalia
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