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| Lessons are held despite the constant fear of danger - Photo: SOS Archive |
After a violent incident on the compound of the temporarily rented premises in October 2008, our school was temporarily closed. It reopened 7 March. We currently have 500 students at the school, with more than 500 others on a waiting list. As soon as the school reopened, applications came pouring in. There have been requests that we start afternoon lessons and I support the idea.
Currently, the area around the village is the safest part of Mogadishu, but the fear of war affects everybody. People are divided into two groups: those who have given up their lives to die because they have nowhere to run and those who run away day and night because they don’t know what’s going to happen next. They are full of anxiety, lack hope and feel insecure. Those who can afford it leave the country, those who can’t, keep moving. And yet we still have children who come to school everyday because the demand is so high.
One of our students was killed the day before an exam. And still, the following morning, all the students attended the exam, the only absence was that of the victim. They are hungry to learn, very hungry. And they’re willing to learn. The way they are willing to listen to you makes it hard to imagine that these children live in a war zone. Students always come to school, regardless of the fighting. They don’t want to run away, they come and wait for you to teach them. When they are there, they are ready.
There’s still a lot for us to do in Mogadishu, but SOS Children's Villages has given the children hope. Ours is the only English speaking school with a proper curriculum in Mogadishu. All other schools teach in Arabic or Somali. It is also very well equipped with science and computer labs and a library. Students get access to all the facilities at almost zero cost, $10 per term, $2,5 a month - no other school in town offers all these facilities, including the best teachers from Kenya, at such a low price.
However, there is a problem few are aware of and it has been disturbing me: What happens to those students who pass their national exams? Where do they go? As educators, we like to see where our graduates end up, as this is only way we can contribute to the world as teachers.
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| Musa Ibrahim Dugow discusses the school situation with deputy national director for Somalia, Sahara Mohamed - Photo: Hilary Atkins |
The top 35 graduates of the primary school can attend the secondary school, the others must join other schools which are below our standards. As for the graduates of the secondary school, they can attend local institutions, but not universities outside the country. I have made arrangements with some universities in Uganda who have accepted to admit them and recently I managed to develop a relationship with a teachers' training college in Puntland that has granted us two full scholarships. The condition is that the students return to teach at the school. Our national office in Somalia has already given one full and three half scholarships to our secondary graduates to train as teachers so as to develop our own personnel for the future. There is also an urgent need for scholarship programmes, since our curriculum is based on that of Kenya and lessons are given in English, which is totally different from the rest of the schools in the area.
I remember saying four years ago that if proper use of the facilities is made, the day will come when most of the leaders of Somalia will be students from our school. There is progress being made, but there are difficulties that will not be easy to overcome. And yet, it is our daily work to maintain the hope of the children - it is the only hope they have.