| BASIC DATA | |
| Official Country Name: | Somali Democratic Republic |
| Region: | Africa |
| Population: | 7,253,137 |
| Language(s): | Somali, Arabic, Italian, English |
| Literacy Rate: | 24% |
| Number of Primary Schools: | 1,224 |
| Compulsory Schooling: | 8 years |
| Educational Enrollment: | Primary: 196,496 |
| Higher: 2,040 | |
| Teachers: | Primary: 10,338 |
| Higher: 324 | |
The Somali Democratic Republic is located in northeast Africa, in the region known as the Horn of Africa. Its neighbors include Djibouti to the northwest, Ethiopia to the west, and Kenya to the southwest. To the north, the Gulf of Aden separates it from the Arabian peninsula, and the Indian Ocean borders its eastern and southern regions. There are about 8 million Somalis, 60 percent of whom are pa…
The real move for modern secular education in Somalia came with a U.N. mandate in 1950. Article four of the trusteeship agreement stipulated that Britain and Italy must establish a formal educational system that would prepare the Somalis for independence in 10 years. Education was recognized as a base upon which to build the future Somali society. It stated: The Administering Authority, recognizi…
Although the school system was still undergoing reforms in 1990, it had four basic levels: preprimary, primary, secondary/vocational, and higher.
Until the mid-1970s, primary education consisted of four years of elementary school, followed by fours years of intermediate schooling. A proficiency exam was given at the end of the elementary level to move on to the intermediate level. However, in 1972, elementary and intermediate levels were combined to form one continuous program; promotion from elementary to intermediate was made automatic. W…
Few Somalis attended secondary schools.
The Somali National University in Mogadishu, created in 1972, was the nation's highest institution of higher learning; this was the old university created by the Italians under the Trusteeship. Under its new name, the institution consisted of 13 faculties, offering studies in agriculture, economics, education, engineering, geology, law, medicine, sciences, veterinary science, languages, jou…
Prior to 1991, in spite of the campaign for literacy, Somalia's educational budget remained one of the lowest in Africa.
Many attempts have been made to address the problem of illiteracy in Somalia both before and after the civil war. In 1957 a UNESCO-funded technical assistance program permitted a group of teachers to go out into the Somali rural areas to organize a literacy campaign. The teachers recruited only 20 students and taught them in Italian, one day a week, for three months. This worked only during the dr…
The first school for teachers was built in 1957 in British Somaliland to train nationals to staff the elementary schools. In 1972, a two-year course for primary teachers was established at the National Teachers' Education Center. A third school for primary teachers was built in 1974 in Hargeisa. In 1963, the Lafole College of Education, 40 miles from Mogadishu, was built to train secondary …
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 …
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