FACTORS AFFECTING THE IMPLEMENTATION OF UNIVERSAL PRIMARY EDUCATION IN SOMALIA

1. FACTORS AFFECTING THE IMPLEMENTATION OF UNIVERSAL PRIMARY EDUCATION IN SOMALIA Presented by: ABAS ALI TIFOW Reg.No: i56/79298/2012

2. Background • The role of education to national development is widely recognized in both developed and developing countries. It is believed that education was the major contributor of the development of the developed countries.

3. Countries with higher human resources are much more developed than the countries with natural resources.

4. Education is believed to contribute the economic growth by enhancing the quality of the labour force through equipping the qualified workers the skills and knowledge demanded by the modern sector of the economy, and therefore making the workers more productive.

5. Education is also an important contributor to the standard health and child care and reduces fertility rates. An educated society is a healthy society. • Education strengthens and enhances levels of interaction and individual development. It has a significant benefit on innovativeness and creativity of society.

6. Experiences from the developed nation states and indicates the high levels of educational attainment tend to encourage adaptability and willingness to innovate and create new things and further increase the chances of social, political and economic development.

7. As a result of the socio-economic benefit of education, the desire to increase access and place all the world’s children in school was firmly realized and recognized as a major international concern at the end of the 1940s by the United Nations (SIFUNA 2007). • The human right to education was established by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948.

8. Article 26 of the declaration pronounces the right to education as follows “Everyone has the right to education. Education shall be free, at least in the elementary and fundamental stages. Elementary education shall be compulsory.”

9. Apart from these international movement towards the right of children to education, the report of the conference of the African states on the development of education in Africa which was held in Addis Ababa (Ethiopia) in May 1961 under the joint sponsorship of UNESCO and the economic commission for Africa to provide a roadmap for the development of education gave more concern on the expansion of secondary and tertiary education.

10. On the other hand, steps towards achieving Universal Primary education by 1980 were also planned (UN Commission for Africa and UNESCO 1961)

11. Until the mid-1970s, primary education consisted of four years of elementary school, followed by four 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.

12. When the government established free, universal, primary education in 1975, primary education was reduced from eight to six years. However, during the 1978-1979 school years, the eight-year primary school system was reintroduced because the six-year program had proven unsatisfactory. Primary schooling theoretically began at age six, even though many children began later.

13. Girls were less likely to attend school and dropped out aftercompleting four years, which was the elementary level. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, the government provided a three-year education program for nomadic children. For six months of each year, when the seasons permitted, large numbers of nomads aggregated so that their children could attend school; the rest of the year the children accompanied their families.

14. In September 2000, 189 countries declared the millennium Declaration whose major objective was to define a common vision of development by 2015. A limited number of achievable goals to be reached by the year 2015 were agreed.

15. The declaration proposed eight goals, 18 targets and more than 40 indicators. Among these goals was Universal Primary Education which was the second goal of the Millennium development goals. It was agreed that by 2015 children everywhere, boys and girls without considering their gender, race or their economic status will be able to complete a full course of primary education.

16. Problem statement • The collapse of the state and the followed civil war since 1988 has rendered a vast majority of school-age children not able to access their basic right like education. As a result of the civil war educational infrastructure broke down. Most schools were looted, destroyed and converted to uses other than for the sector.

17. Civil unrest, inter-clan conflict and widespread lawlessness in north east and south central Somalia continue to undermine delivery of basic social services including education.

18. Education sub-sectors in all zones of Somalia are characterized by low participation and high dropout rates particularly among females. The education system is disarticulated due to limited government investment in the sector and limitation in coordination capacity.

19. Poor cohesiveness of the sub-sectors has in turn lowered quality in the delivery of education services. Widespread poverty and low levels of adult illiteracy estimated at 20 percent encourage involvement of children in work, thereby sustaining apathy towards children participation in education.

20. Somalia has one of the world’s lowest primary gross enrollment rates at 30 percent (34% boys and 24% for girls) (UNICEF 2007: EC, 2008). Up to 50 percent of children enroll in school grade 1 are not likely to complete grade 4 while up to 82 percent don’t complete grade 8.

21. Of the current primary school age population of 1.5 million children less than 300,000 are enrolled in primary schools. This represents a gross enrollment ratio of 20 percent. Since many learners are actually over-age, the situation denies more than 80 percent of children the right to education (UNICEF, 2006). Therefore , the study focuses on the internal and external factors affecting the implementation of formal primary education in general and the universal primary education in particular.

22. Objective of the study • The general objective of the study is to investigate the general factors influencing the implementation of universal primary education in Somalia.

23. Specific objective The specific objectives of the study are: • To find out the role of the central government to the implementation of universal primary education in Somalia. • To examine the role of the NGOs in Somalia to the implementation of UPE • To discuss the effect of drought and poverty to the implementation of UPE.

24. Significance of the study Since there was not functioning central government for almost twenty years and above, this study can help the current established federal government and other stakeholders of education to make policies that can be dealt with these factors.

25. This study can be used as a tool of tackling the factors affecting the implementation of Universal Primary Education as millennium development goals in Somalia. This study can also help the future policy maker of the country to identify and recognize the sole problem affecting the implementation of Universal primary education.

26. The findings of the study will add to the growth of knowledge to the population of Somalia and it can be used as a reference for the coming researchers.

27. References Sifuna, D N. (2007). the challenges of increasing access and improving quality: An analysis of Universal Primary Education Interventions in Kenya and Tanzania since 1970, Springer. Somalia - Preprimary Primary Education - School, Children, Elementary, Six - StateUniversity.comhttp://education.stateuniversity.com/pages/1379/Somalia-PREPRIMARY-PRIMARY-EDUCATION.html#ixzz2DW77sFDy

28. UNICEF (January 2006). Primary Education Survey 2004-2005 Somalia • UNICEF — 2006/07 Primary Schools Survey • U. N. Economic Commission for Africa and UNESCO (1961). Final Report: Conference of African States on the Development of Education in Africa. Addis Ababa

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