Letters from Somalia: Risking education

(Mogadishu, May 14,  2008 Ceegaag Online) 

Despite the shelling and pitched battles in the Somali capital, teachers, parents and students are willing to risk life and limb for an education

In a partly deserted neighborhood in the Somali capital - in particular an area that has been the scene of recent and frequent clashes between Somali government forces and insurgents - stands a very ordinary house; a house that is, despite the danger all around it, bustling with activity as if it were existing in another, more peaceful world.

This house is the Al-Khaliil Primary School, and the administrators, teachers, parents and, above all, students are determined to receive an education, whatever the cost.

Situated in Harraryale in Mogadishu's Wardigley district, the school hopes that its own courage will be the bulletproofing it needs.

Abdurrahman Fodadde is the school principal and an old friend of mine. He says that they have decided to continue to educate the children who remained in the neighborhood despite the constant flare-ups of violence.

"We cannot wait to educate our children until peace comes to the country because these people have waited long for it," Foodadde says. "I, together with the parents of the children and the teachers, have met and agreed that we should continue the education despite what is going on."

Somalia's educational system has all but collapsed since the overthrow of the late Somali ruler Mohamed Siyad Barre. Government school buildings have either been destroyed by civil conflict or settled by landless squatters. Some have even been turned into waste dumps.

The recent 18-month conflict in Somalia, particularly in Mogadishu, has led to the closure of most of the dozens of remaining schools as nearly 70 percent of the residents have fled their homes, according to projections provided by local and international organizations.

But few schools in the capital have remained opened to cater to the educational needs of the children whose families opted to stay behind. Al-Khaliil Primary is one of them.

When I visited the school this week, both teachers and students were preparing for final exams.

"We teach when it is quite stable in the neighborhood and we close when things are not that peaceful," says Foodadde. "Fortunately none of the students has been hurt inside the school, but some have had injuries outside school or at their homes."

That, says the principal, shows that we need to continue educating the children because they are in just as much danger if they stay at home.

The students were also committed to learning despite the danger.

In a half-empty classroom, the students attentively follow their teacher's lecture as he reviews with them the subjects they have covered during the year in preparation for final exams next week.

"I am trying my best to study. I want to be a doctor and cure people of diseases," Ahmed Dahir, in the fifth grade, says, proudly displaying the high marks on his homework.

For many families in the capital, educating their children has become almost as much of a priority as keeping them safe amid conflict.

For the children of displaced families, makeshift schools were the next thing - after a basic shelter - that people built for their children to receive a semblance of education.

Fodadde believes that if people do not continue to seek education for their children even in this time of social upheaval the country will never have a better prospect for stability

"As life has always to be, we have to make the next generation better than the one we now have or else there will be no future for this country," Fodadde says.

Many here seem to have a sense of what Fodadde is saying, and they have set their priorities accordingly. So you will not be surprised to see here young school children dashing about for safety in the streets in the event of a shootout or an all out confrontation between the warring sides.

Ordinary people help these children who often go to schools a bit far from home, and local authorities exempt the few existing school buses from the street closures in the capital.

Foodadde says that they have told parents and students that there are times when they should not send the children to school and that is when the fighting has already started before the children have left their homes.

"On our part we keep the students at the school in case fighting starts while the children are there," the principal says. "But if fighting breaks out, which usually lasts an hour at the most, while students are en route, there is nothing we can do but pray for their safety."

He said that his school had a number of student causalities during this school year, but that the students and teachers have adapted to working in this exceptional circumstance.

"We have no other choice but to keep on the light that will shine into the darkness of our society."

Abdurrahman Warsameh is an ISN Security Watch correspondent based in Mogadishu.

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