By Ayaanle Mohamed Omar
Kampala I. University,
Uganda

Although human being in this world has started with the same level of development or underdevelopment in terms of education, life expectancy, standard of living, poverty etc but today it seems that there is big difference among the people in this world.

Some people in this world today are enjoying with high living standard characterized by high life expectancy, literacy, medical care provision, political stability etc while others are under circles of poverty, illiteracy, diseases, conflicts and wars, and has been exploited heavily by the other people in this world.

Although it is not clear the patterns in which the developed world has followed to development but it is beyond doubt education has played a very vital role in the development process of developed countries.

Education is continuous process of learning things through out the life. The education was the centre of all these development in developed nations and its role cannot be ignored. However it seems that some countries have used their advanced education in the development while others have not strongly empowered their education system to use as part of their development process.

However it can be argued that the education has been in Africa since colonization and even before colonization but it has led a very little progress why?

The answer may be the education system that we have in Africa is more theory than practical. In other words the education we have in Africa puts more emphasis on theory than practical hence leading the students to know the things theoretically but they cannot do things practically.

Another reason can be the education in Africa is pyramidal education system where by more students are at primary schools but less students are at secondary schools and the universities, and very few at higher institutions of learning for higher education such as PhD.

In addition to that school drop outs are so higher in the developing countries compared to the developed countries. Hence reducing the number of students going to universities and higher institution of learning.

In contrast to above education system of developed countries is square model system where by more students are at primary level and the same number (about 90% of the original number) will be at secondary schools and also at universities.

In addition to that there are more students at higher institution of learning defending their PhD’s at the young ages compared to few students in the developing countries especially Africa. To add on that the education system in developed countries puts more emphasis on practical than theory hence making their education system more effective.

Now let come in the context of Somaliland, optimistically speaking although we have made some progress but let us examine where are we in the competition? If we are to compare ourselves with our neighboring countries we will see that there is a big difference between us and our neighboring countries. See figure

Data Source: UNDP human development Report (2005) and Somaliland country’s profile

As you see from the table, compare us with the other countries, you can understand gap between us and them. For instance our neighboring countries are ahead of us in terms of education, per capita income, life expectancy etc so we need to work hard to compete with the world but how? I think in our competition education will be one of the solutions.

Though we have a large percentage of people who neither can nor write and there is a lot of work in front of us! But we can start step by step by starting reducing or eliminating illiteracy.

“A journey of a mile starts with one step” Chinese proverb.

I think it is time wake up from sleep and work together to eliminate illiteracy and empower our education system. However this will need building more schools and even universities, and opening more schools for adult education which will cost lot of money. Some people may suggest that to wait government support and others may wait of foreign aid to make things work but I believe that we can do every things as we did before for instance many schools in Somaliland has been built without any help either the government or foreign help like Sh. Jawhar Secondary school in Borama, Awdal. In fact this has been for self-help “iska-wax u-qabso” don’t you think we can do now as we did before?

“Think what you can do for your self but not what other people can do for you”Ayaanle Mohamed

It is time for development since we have achieved stability, good governance, and democracy. So I believe that we need, as Somaliland people, to put more efforts in education by creating awareness among the communities on the importance on the education. Parents should take their children to schools at an early age regardless the sex.

It is important the students not to stop at first degree (although most of our people are satisfied for the first degree but it good to think of getting higher degree) but look for higher level of education such as Masters and PhDs if possible. Because higher education is the one that strongly empowers the human intelligence and human creativity and performance hence leading more innovations and inventions thus development.

In nutshell, I’m encouraging parents, students, teachers, professors, local leaders, religious leaders, politicians, government, NGOs, etc to work collectively together to eradicate illiteracy and empower education system. Together we can make a change!!!

ayanle97@hotmail.com

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