Somaliland Classrooms

Hargeysa, Somaliland, December 22, 2007 (SL Times) – At least 1200 students study at Ahmed Dhagax Primary/Intermediate School in Hargeysa, Somaliland. The average of students in each class is 60 students per class. According to the head master of the school, Sa’id Jama, the students of two classes sit on the floor. These two classes are standard one.

“We give six subjects per day, and each subject takes forty five minutes. And the studies are good in the school,” says the Head Master speaking about the education of his school. Explaining their efforts to solve the problem of students sitting on the floor, he said, “We proposed to SOS, which is building here (a place near the school where SOS is building an orphanage center) to equip these two classes and they accepted, and they will arrange for us some materials in near future”.

The problem of Ahmed Dhagax School is not only that the students assemble on the floor, but the floor of the class in the school is also broken in a number of places.

Ahmed Dhagax School is not alone in having these problems, other schools in Hargeysa, Somaliland’s capital, have the same problems.

“Each class I teach has more than 70 students, and it takes me one full day to check their exercises,” said Animus, teacher in Sheikh Ali Ibrahim Primary/Intermediate School.

The number of students in Sheikh Ali Ibrahim is more than the Ahmed Dhagax School, but they don’t sit on the floor, since some time earlier the parents and the elders of its neighbors collected the required materials.

“The students of the school are 2300, both in the morning and the afternoon. The school has 20 classes and all of the classes have their materials. We are not like Ahmed Dhagax. The school employs more than 38 teachers,” said Mohamed Abdi Jibril, Sheikh Ali Ibrahim school Head Master.

Even though Sheikh Ibrahim School classrooms had the problem of broken floors, like the Axmad Dhagax class rooms, one of the Sheikh Ali Ibrahim teacher named Faisa Siyad, tried to solve this problem. “I met with my students and discussed the problem with them, and we have agreed to build the floor of our class alone. Then the students collected some money and I also contributed my own, and finally we have built our classroom floor, and it will open sometime in near future,” said Faisa Siyad.

In 31 May Primary/Intermediate School of Hargeysa almost two classes sit on the floor.

This school teaches the orphanage students, and is without equipment. The school was once a female boarding school in Hargeysa, but today the dormitory is the home of 50 families of SNM widows and orphans.

“Even though we proposed to remove these people out of the school many times, we have not received any response yet,” said the Head master, Mouse Mohamed.

These are few examples of the problems facing basic education in Somaliland.

Even though there are a number of private schools, they are not that different from public schools, when it comes to the number of students in each class. Speaking to his parent, a student of one of the Hargeysa-based private schools said: “We are 58 students in one class.”

All in all, it is high time for Somalilanders to wake up to the real conditions of their children’s schools.

“The Parents whose children study in these circumstances will not elect the people whose children are outside the country or learn in private schools. Whoever wants to be the leader of the country should first think about the future of these children. How can we complain about Somaliland’s children wanting to leave the country and never come back when they go to class rooms like these,” said Ahmed Shunuf, the Chairman of Gud-Gude, a political organization that promotes free education for all.

Source: Somaliland Times

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