La Ley N.° 27157 y su reglamento

In 1960, when Somalia became an independent state, there was no unified system of education. Depending on the donor, each school had a separate language of instruction and management structure. There were state-owned schools managed by the Ministry of

Education, Egyptian schools were managed by the Education Mission, Italian schools under the Italian Embassy, and there were a number of other Islamic and Catholic Missionary schools (Laitin & Samatar, 1987).

Because of the disarray that existed in the education system, the first step taken by the first post-independence government in the education sector was the creation of a unified system for the entire country, providing more resources to expand primary and secondary

education, and establishing a National University, whose teaching staff were mostly Italian academics.

As pointed out by Laitin and Samatar (1987), the lack of a cohesive education policy in Somalia gave way to the language reform programme involving the introduction of a written Somali language and the launching of an adult literacy campaign in 1972. Before the

adoption of the Somali script, which is based on the Roman alphabet, English and Italian were the two official languages of Somalia. The Arabic language, which is the language of the Koran, was the third official language. Because of the low literacy rate, a minimal number of the population could speak English or Italian, and only these people could take up the few available clerical and technical jobs. Clerical and technical training became popular and in demand as there was an acute shortage of people with clerical and technical skills. Rodney (1974, cited in Abdi, 1998, p. 331) asserted that “the focus of colonial schools was to train Africans on administration at the lowest ranks and to staff the private capitalist firms, which meant the participation of few Africans in the domination and exploitation of the continents” This argument is supported by the popular Somali poem by Abdullahi Qarshe, which states “dowlad wada karani ah dunidaba majoogtee”. This poem implies that there is no government in the world whose people are trained for clerical works. Two policies which were central to the military government education reform were the closure or nationalisation of all private schools, and making primary education compulsory for school-age children. This gave a boost to state primary and secondary school

enrolments. As part of the restructuring programme, two Ministries were formed; one responsible for the compulsory sector and the other for tertiary education. The Ministry of Education was assigned the responsibility of promoting education in primary, secondary and technical schools, and in vocational primary and technical teachers training colleges. The Ministry of Higher Education and Culture looked after secondary teacher training colleges, the Somali Academy for the Development of Science and Arts, the museums and the

National Library. The National University was given autonomous status (UNICEF, 1987). The length of time spent in each part of the education system was redefined. Students now spend 3 years in early childhood education (optional), followed by 4 years elementary, 4 years intermediate, 4 years secondary and university. Other tertiary options included courses in nursing (2 years), veterinary science (2 years), and range management and forestry (also 2 years; UNICEF, 1987).

Unlike New Zealand, in Somalia, student class placement is based on students’ academic level of learning, rather than age level. In terms of parents’ involvement, in the Somali culture, teachers are deemed to be responsible for the child’s entire development, rather than just delivering the curriculum learning. Parents are usually only called upon by teachers when their child is a problem.

The education system became more centralised with the government being in charge of the administration of schools. Regional Education Officers and District Education Officers were responsible for fulfilling Ministry policies in their local schools.

Educational institutions were charged not only with the responsibility of disseminating knowledge, but were also responsible for raising the political consciousness of students in relation to the military regime’s political policies. Special programmes covering socialism and revolutionary ideology were introduced into the curriculum in all schools. As school principals and teachers were public servants, they were legally required to promote revolutionary ideas within their institutions.

Significant improvement was made in the education sector during the 1970s when Somali was adopted as a medium of instruction as a consequence of the massive nationwide literacy campaign of 1974. Primary enrolment was one of the areas of huge gain. It increased from 28,000 in 1970 to 271,000 by 1982 and the number of primary schools increased from 287 in 1970 to 1,407 by 1980 (UNDP, 1999).

During the unsuccessful attempt to liberate those areas of Somalia which Ethiopia was occupying, funding which had been previously directed to human development was

redirected to the military. The education sector was one of the sectors severely hit by budget cuts. The World Bank report released in 1990 stated that Somali “public education is

threatened with extinction as MOE receives only 1.5 per cent of total recurrent expenditure” (Retamal & Devadoss, 1994, p. 3). The huge funding cuts resulted in diminished

programmes for student support initiatives. As pointed out by UNDP (1999), government spending on every primary student in 1990 was only USD 3.5 compared to USD 27 in 1982. Such decrease in funding heavily undermined the quality of Somali education, causing a drastic decline in student enrolments and teacher retention.