Attachments
OPERATIONAL ENVIRONMENT
In 2016, Somalia has experienced a number of emergencies. In addition to the protracted IDP crisis, severe drought, floods, and internal conflicts have occurred. These emergencies have put extra pressure on the government and partners to provide protection and basic services to citizens including education services which are already extremely constrained. Country wide an estimated 5 million Somalis are in need of humanitarian assistance incl. 1.1 million IDPs1
Somalia has one of the world’s lowest gross enrolment rates for primary school‐aged children with only 30 percent children at primary education level and 26 percent for secondary education. Newly published data from UNFPA suggest that the number of out‐of‐school children and youth aged 6‐18 years is at 3 million2 which is a significant increase compared to the previously estimated 1.7 mill out of school children3 . The majority of out of school children are found in Central and South Somalia.
The primary barriers to education are the lack of safe spaces for learning (security), insufficient teachers (both qualified and unqualified), limited oversight and outreach by Ministry of Education (MOE) among others. The Ministry of Education has very limited control over education services in Somalia, specifically in Central South Somalia. At the moment there is not yet a harmonized curriculum, there are no government supported teacher training institutes in Central South Somalia and only a very limited government supported teaching force. This means that there are a wide variety of actors (civil society and private institutions) offering education which is outside of the jurisdiction and control of the government.
The limited outreach and inadequate capacity of MoE pose a huge challenge to education in Somalia.
Humanitarian actors continue to be a significant provider of education services without proper possibilities of linking with and handing over to the MOE. The humanitarian funding structure is not designed to fill this kind of long term gap in the social services. As a consequence Education Cluster partners reported in May 2016, that an estimated 28,000 children in IDP settlements had dropped out of learning centres due to lack of continued financial support to operate the schools including specifically the emergency teacher incentives. In total 142 learning centres shut down and 61 others were on the brink of closure with limited possibilities of maintaining operation in the 2016-17 academic year. The majority of the affected schools were in Banadir, Lower Shabelle, Middle Shabelle, Bay and Galgaduud regions.
In the beginning of 2016, the El Nino caused severe drought in Somaliland and Puntland. The drought had a significant impact on the education system leading to a rise in dropout rates and closure of schools. In April 2016, the Education Cluster estimated that as many as 180 schools and up to 34,000 students in Somaliland and Puntland were directly affected by the drought4 . For Puntland this constituted 30%5 of the schools in drought affected areas. The increased dropout rates were caused by a number of reasons including families being forced to enlist children to search for water and food resources. In addition, the rising food and water prices cut into the incentives for teachers provided by parents and communities leading to higher teacher absenteeism. In the second half of 2016, the poor Deyr rainy season has led to extended drought conditions in Somaliland and Puntland, and have expanded drought conditions to a number of regions in Central South Somalia. The drought in the Central South regions is exacerbating the already poor conditions of the schools where an average of 90% of schools do not have access to safe drinking water and 61% of schools do not have functional latrines. An estimated 277,600 students are enrolled in schools in drought affected areas.
In July 2016 major flooding hit Hiraan region and especially Beletweyne district. 36 schools and 13,279 children were affected. The schools were about to finish the 2015/16 academic year and a number of students had their final exams postponed.
Armed conflict keep being a destabilizing factor in Somalia. In October alone 90,000 people were displaced due to armed conflict in Gaalkacyo. The conflict resulted in the closure of all schools affecting an estimated 20,000 students. During the same month, the withdrawal of the Ethiopian National Defence Forces and the subsequent takeover by Al Shabaab led to further displacements in Hiraan, Bakool and Galgaduud affecting at least 3,3000 students and resulting in at least 10 schools closing. Also in October alone additional 18,800 people (more than 30,000 since the beginning of the year) were displaced in Lower Shabelle due to conflict between armed groups. This displacement also affected the education system with the closure of 8 schools directly impacting 3,800 children.
Though not prevalent in Somalia, currently there are schools that are reportedly occupied by either armed groups or IDPs. In 2016, one school occupied by Somali national army was vacated in September 2016. The cluster has been collaborating with the CIVMIL unit to address school occupation by military in Central South Somalia and there is a strong engagement of the CECs, leaders and local authorities.
Over the cause of 2016, nearly 27,000 Somalis have returned from Kenya to Somalia following the decision of the Kenyan government to close the Dadaab Refugee Camp. Of these, 47 per cent are children of school going age. The return process has posed a number of challenges including the limited absorption capacity of the education sector in areas of return and lack of national education policies to ensure recognition of education obtained in Dadaab for learners as well as teachers. Ideally the returnees would integrate into the Somali society with the help of good legal frameworks and the repatriation package from UNHCR. Unfortunately many of the returnees end up in overcrowded IDP settlements and become a part of the humanitarian caseload with very limited possibilities of a self-sustaining future.