The future of education in Somalia remains dim. Divided into three political regions, violence continues in Somalia, and children remain its chief victims. With no national government and no educational system, boys as young as 14 or 15 years of age live out their lives on the streets as thugs and gang members. Those who attend schools find that they have few resources. Schools at all levels lack textbooks and decent facilities. Teachers are poorly trained and poorly paid. The literacy rate is 25 percent. Many Somalis call upon the international community to help its children and rehabilitate its educational system, but there is no doubt that the Somalis must first find a way to reform their nation.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Abdi, A. Ali. "Education in Somalia: History, Destruction, and Calls for Reconstruction." Comparative Education 34, no. 3 (1998): 327-340.
International Handbook of Universities. 15th ed. New York: Grove's Dictionaries Inc., 1998.
Laitin, David D. Politics, Language, and Thought: The Somali Experience. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1977.
Lewis, I. M. Blood and Bone, The Call of Kinship in Somali Society. Lawrenceville, NJ: The Red Sea Press, 1994.
Metz, Helen Chapin. Somalia, A Country Study (book online). Washington, DC: Federal Research Division, 1992. Available from http://www.somaliaedu.com.
Nnoromele, Salome C. Somalia. San Diego: Lucent Books, 2000.
U.S. Department of State. Human Rights Reports for 1999-Somalia. Washington, DC: Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor (U.S. Department of State), 25 February 2000. Available from http://www.state.gov.
—Salome C. Nnoromele
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