Education in an Underdeveloped Country(Sarah Olivarez-Cruz)

What is an underdeveloped country?

• An Underdeveloped country is at the very bottom of the global economy, with widespread extreme poverty and dire living conditions.

• It usually have little or no infrastructure or reliable health care and other social services.

• It has experienced long-term political unrest in the form of civil war or armed conflict with other nations, or have been subject to unstable governments, dictatorships, and/or corruption.

• It may frequently suffer environmental events and natural disasters that cause famine, destruction, and displacement of large segments of their populations.

Which countries are classified as underdeveloped?

There are nearly 200 underdeveloped countries in our world today.

Afghanistan Bangladesh Bhutan Cambodia Kiribati Laos Myanmar Nepal Samoa Solomon Islands Tuvalu Vanuatu

India Pakistan Bangladesh Nepal Bhutan Uganda Tanzania Zimbabwe etc……

SOMALIA

• Somali Republic

• Capital city (and largest city): Mogadishu

• Official language(s): Somali, Arabic

• Ethnic groups: Somali 92.4%, Arab 2.2%,Banto1.3%, other 4.1%

• Religion: Islam 100%

• Independence from: Britain and Italy, June 26 and July 1- 1960

• Currency: Somali shilling

About Somalia Republic

• Land: It is about the size Texas. Borders Djibouti, Kenya and Ethiopia

• Coastline: About 3,025 kilometers, the longest in Africa

• Climate: principally desert

• Population: 9,832,017 45% are ages 0-14 52% are ages 15-64 2.5% are over 65 years

The World Factbook, 2009 WHO

The Situation on Living Standard

• . Extreme poverty (less than $1/day) 43% of the

general public 53% among the rural and

nomadic people

• General poverty (less than $2/day) 73% of

households 80% in rural and nomadic people

WB, 2008 Living Standard Adnahospital.org

The Situation

• Somalia has existed without a central government since 1991

• Over 17 years of armed conflicts between rival groups, recurring draughts, and the absence of any public infrastructure have led to famine, diseases, and the deaths of over one million people

The Situation UN 2009 and USAID, 2009

The Situation on Health

• Life expectancy: 48 (2007)

• Under-5 mortality 142/1,000 (2007) 68/1,000 World (2007)

• Access to clean water 29% of population

• Infant mortality rate: 88/1,000 (2007)

• Maternal mortality rate: 1,044/10,000 (2006)

• The main causes of death among children are acute malnutrition, diarrheal diseases, respiratory infections and malaria

UNICEF, 2009 Health

The Situation in Education

• Literacy Rate: 24%

• Number of Primary Schools: 1,224

• Compulsory Schooling: 8 years

• Educational Enrollment: Primary: 196,496

Higher: 2,040

• Teachers: Primary: 10,338 Higher: 324

• One in five people is illiterate

Educational System

• It had four basic levels: preprimary, primary, secondary/vocational, and higher.

• The Ministry of Education is responsible and takes 15 % of the government’s budget

• It comprises two years of Early Childhood Development (ECD), eight years of primary(four years of lower primary and four years of upper primary) and four years of secondary. University education comprises an average of four years. Thus, it is a 2-4-4-4 system.

Educational System

• The school year is composed of 10 months

Start: September

End: June Vacation: July and August

Enrolment Rate:38% = girls62% = boys

VISION & MISSION of Education

• Our Vision is to provide quality education service for development by enabling our citizen to acquire knowledge and skills necessary to make well achievement in the highly competitive global economy.

• Our mission is to contribute to the

sustainable development and improvement of society as a whole, through new education interventions plans that can answer challenges caused by the numerous different curriculums, unknown education programs going on in the country and strengthening and expansion of primary and higher education to all.

Preprimary/Early childhood education(ECD)

• It entails the essential skills of literacy and numeracy upon which further learning is built.

• Quranic Education also forms a component

• Offered to children in the 0-5 age bracket

• It prepares children for school and facilitates the transition from home to primary school

Primary Education

• Primary education is consisted of four years of elementary school, followed by fours years of intermediate schooling

• The primary curriculum included reading, writing, and arithmetic. Arabic was taught as a secondary language, and social studies courses were taught using textbooks that focused on Somali issues.

• Students are taught for 36 and 42 lesson periods, each lasting 35 and 40 minutes, respectively, per week. The language of instruction is Somali in subjects other than Arabic and Islam. English is taught as a subject from Grades 2 to 8.

Secondary/Vocational Schools

• There are 11 secondary schools, 3 in Somaliland and 8 in Mogadishu, all operated by private organizations

• Is offered for four years to pupils between the ages of 15-18, and leads to a Puntland Secondary School Certificate Examination (PSCE)

• Ten subjects are taught in secondary schools, namely: Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry, Biology, Somali, Arabic, Islamic studies, English, physical education, geography and history.

• Vocational schools are for students who wanted to obtain technical skills in the areas of agriculture, mechanics, masonry, or forestry

• Only about 10 percent of those who enter primary school graduate from secondary school.

Higher Education

• Universities offer studies in agriculture, economics, education, engineering, geology, law, medicine, sciences, veterinary science, languages, journalism, and Islamic studies

• Higher education is largely private, with the capital’s University of Mogadishu ranking the 29 in Africa’s top 100 universities

• It has six major universities offering completion of secondary education

On Teacher Education

Teachers are trained in 2 years

1972=primary level

1973=secondary level

1978= vocational and technical education

Non-Formal Education

Funded by UNESCO

Focused on Adult Education

Curriculum is centered on literacy campaign

On site or distance Learning

Summary

• The future of education in Somalia remains dim. Divided into three political regions, violence continues in Somalia, and children remain its chief victims.

• Those who attend schools find that they have few resources. Schools at all levels lack textbooks and decent facilities. Teachers are poorly trained and poorly paid

• There is no doubt that the Somalis must first find a way to reform their nation.