Inter-Clan fighting has caused kidnapping, murder, famine and other threats in Somalia. This caused Somalia's formal education to collapse. Believe it or not, 90 percent of the schools on Somalia were destroyed during the prime of the war. In 2014, only 40% of appropriately aged children attend primary school and only 8 percent appropriately aged children attend secondary school. The education system began to deteriorate after the Al-Shabab took over most of Somalia in 2006. What happened was Al-Shabab and other militant groups implemented a Taliban-like Islamic set of rules in Somalia. These rules hold anti-educational stances, they banned women from attending schools and use schools for boys as Jihadist recruitment systems and also banned the use of English anywhere. These militant groups also implemented extreme jihad a part of the school curriculum. As a result, many parents took their children out of schools and also because they had the fear of forced recruitment or violence. This is a major cause of Somalia’s collapse of their education system. Somali's needed educational essentially, mainly because it is the only thing that will provide a good future for their children and put an end to future wars. “Education is crucial for maintaining peace and stability, it can be Somalia’s true peace dividend, we've lost two generations because of the war, and we cannot wait to lose another” Stated the Somali Minister for development and Social Affairs.

The problems Somalis face that leads to this happening is inadequate schooling facility, a shortage of qualified teachers, inadequate textbooks, lack of standardized curriculum, and finally gender enrollment disparity. Many foundations such as Safe education, Unocha, Unicef, and Unesco are trying their best to contribute to help solve this major issue in Somalia. However, Somalia is facing many obstacles trying to stop this war. The Al-Shabab’s have made it very difficult for foreigners to contribute and offer any services to Somalia (mainly education). Due to this and many other contributing factors. This can only change if awareness is spread and you can help by supporting funding organizations. Do your part so that the children in Somalia can have a promising future.

 

So many Somali individuals had to leave their home to have a promising future, an example would be Mohamud, who is a sixteen-year-old boy. He preaches for North Americans to know about Somalia but more than the media claims it to be.  He remembers so many happy and peaceful memories in Somalia.  Mohamud left his country because it wasn't safe anymore. He’s been living in Ottawa since 1990. Mohamud came to Canada with only him and his sister. He had a strong fear that he and his sister wouldn’t survive and also about the family he had left behind. His final months in Somalia were difficult because he was a scared young man. During the civil war, men were the first to be taken to jail. There was a curfew in the city. After sunset, everybody had to stay home.  His parents always advised him to never be alone while going somewhere. After school he was expected to go straight back home, he couldn’t spend time with his friends. They normally played football after school, but the civil war denied that from happening. Before he came to Canada he didn’t know where it was, he thought it was in the US. When he came he was very sad because he had left his family behind in Somalia. He wasn’t able to communicate with others because he barely knew English. Also, Mohamud is in the final year of high school. He enjoys the schools in Canada more because it is easier to focus on subjects you are interested in. However, misses Somalia because of such holidays and festivals such as Eid and Ramadan. The man used to look forward to these holidays back in Somalia however now he feels sad. Mohamud states that he, “misses the feeling of a community like Somalia.” He believes that Canada is a media driven country and that the only thing Canadians know about Somalia is what they see on the media. He states that his country wasn’t always at war and that people weren’t always starving as shown on the media. There were good times where people lived happily and peacefully together, there were no Somali refugees in the past. Mohamud is planning to return to Somalia when it is a safe place to live in. He states that his hometown is actually very different to how it looks on TV.

 

Another person who was influenced by the civil war was a thirteen-year-old boy that goes by the name ‘Iftin’. Iftin was forced to stop being educated when his family decided the only way for them to survive was to move away. Last October the family left to travel 35 km to search for pasture and water for their dying animals. Iftin had been in Grade Four at the UNICEF-supported Garbaharey Primary School one of 110 schools UNICEF supports in Gedo with teacher incentives, training of teachers, child to child clubs, community education committees, and supplies. The family did not find pasture for their animals and so they decided to return back home. By this time 37 of their 60 goats had died and the rest were weak. But Iftin still was not able to return to his studies. This is because when they got back he began collecting water from the shallow well and to sell it to the community earning around four dollars a day.

“I dropped from school when my family needed to migrate with animals. I still support the family by fetching water and selling it to get money for the family,” said Iftin looking sad. “I feel very bad not to be in school because I am not learning and missing my friends to play football with.” He explained how the whole family was suffering from the effects of the drought. “Food and water are scarce. Sometimes in a day, I only eat one meal.” The drought has led to a third of the children from Iftin’s former school being forced to leave. The school headmaster Mohamed Hassan Ilmi said, “Children are dropping out from school as they have to support their parents at home and some migrate with their families.” He added that "children from rural villages were particularly affected and children were taking on more work such as herding animals, fetching water from far distances and moving with animals during the search of pasture and water."

 

Education helps with making decisions in people's lives more healthy, an example would be a project that proved women who are uneducated tend to have an average of 7 children whereas women who are educated have an average of 3 children.  Lack of education also prevents millions from escaping the cycle of extreme poverty. 250 million primary school-aged children can not read either write, the amount of those from Somalia is heavy. 123 million aged 15 to 24-year-olds lack basic reading and writing skills, 61 percent are women.

 

f a large majority of a country's children are not educated, the prospect of the future business, political, religious and government leaders of is in danger for many generations. As a world community, we are fighting poverty, disease, war, child labor, child soldiers, human slavery, trafficking, and so much more, yet our biggest fight and the root of so many issues is a lack of education. Children and adults who are illiterate or uneducated are more susceptible for victimization and therefore decreases life expectancy. The lack of education in the developing world means more than just another generation of illiterate children, who will enter into the same cycle as their parents. This is a generation of children who will continue into a life of poverty, with no real tools to fight the cycle that plagues their families and villages. With the basic educational needs of children so often not met, children are not being given a fighting chance at breaking the cycle of poverty, disease, abuse, war, and so much more. Children are our world's most valuable resources, and therefore we must make substantial investments into developing those resources. According to the Global Fund for Children. One in five children, 120 to 125 million children, are not enrolled in school. Of those who do receive an education, mostly in the developing world, one in five will not make it past the fifth grade.