Challenges confronting the education sector are the direct consequence of protracted emergencies over the past two decades stemming from conflict, drought and flooding. Together the multi-pronged emergencies have had a significant impact on the education systems and on the lives of children and youth. The challenges facing the sector are daunting, including lack of access and widespread inequity.

Progress in restoring the delivery of educational services has differed across regions. In South central, Somaliland and Puntland where there was greater political stability, security, and administrative development, student enrollments improved substantially over the past two decades. Post-war educational reconstruction has been slow in South Central Somalia and opportunities for public education are limited as most primary and secondary schools are managed by non-state providers.

In addition, the education provision is of low quality, mainly due to the high number of unqualified and untrained teachers, multiple curricula, poor education infrastructure and weak capacity for service delivery. A decentralized education system is currently being operationalized, however, newly formed states, regional and district-level offices have limited technical and financial resources.

The Federal Government of Somalia’s Ministry of Education, Culture and Higher Education has developed its Education Sector Strategic Plan, which outlines its priorities to increase access to quality education for children and equip youth with the skills and knowledge needed to contribute to the social, political and economic development.

The education sector is primarily financed by donor contributions and most of the schools are either community owned or under the management of private-sector umbrellas. Further, the lack of reliable data on children’s learning outcomes presents a major challenge to assessing the effectiveness of education at primary school level.

Recent achievements in support of improved learning outcomes include the development of the first unified curriculum and the implementation of a standardized exam system.

Taking the acronym “SFH” – “Solutions for Humanity” to represent the much sought-after solutions to the crisis in Somalia. The organization is locally formed and operate through its main office in Kismayo city of lower juba since our inception. SFH was formed to help vulnerable communities in distress to turn crisis into opportunity. SFH works in education, emergency response program, children & youth, conflict management, Health, Nutrition, WASH, FSL, Shelter/NFI, CCCM among other resilient program.

SFH help communities recover from disaster, build resilient communities and find their own solutions to man-made and natural calamities. Since 2011, SFH has implemented projects in Education particularly support to girls and women, emergency response, economic recovery & development.

Our education programs aimed to improve equitable access and quality education outcomes for all Somali primary school children. With a particular focus on the following component:

  1. Increasing equitable access to quality primary education for out-of-school children. This component seeks to expand equitable access to quality primary education opportunities. It will address the needs of out-of-school children in Somalia, with a focus on children from marginalized groups such as IDPs, urban poor, minority clans and children with disabilities, with an emphasis on girl’s education.
  2. Enhancing quality of primary education to ensure grade appropriate learning outcomes. This focuses on improving learning outcomes by investing in the construction/rehabilitation of teacher training institutes; conducting early grade assessments; tailoring in-service teacher training, coaching/mentoring support follow up among others.
  3. Enhancing capacity at Federal and Member State levels. The aim is to strengthen system capacity in central and state ministries to regulate, manage and monitor schools with a focus on strengthening regulatory environment for private, community and government schools.

We help internally displaced youth access safe spaces to learn and provide school supplies to help them study with ease and comfort. Further, we provide teachers training to provide student-centered learning and ensure all children are receiving high quality education. In addition, we work with the ministry of education to develop and review critical educational policies and guidelines, and to develop strategies to promote girl’s education and teachers training programs.

In partnership with Arc Solutions and SSUN-Forum Syd, -SFH implemented education initiative known as “WAX BARO”- “Strive to educate” in 2018-2020 in Lower Juba and Baidoa to ensure marginalized and poverty stricken children has access to quality primary education. The Joint initiative aimed to address the education barriers, such as insufficient school facilities, over-crowded class rooms, lack of gender-sensitive WASH rooms that disproportionately impact girls and untrained teachers.

The project aimed to enroll an estimated 60,000 marginalized children into quality primary education. Through our education program which we often integrate with other programs to bring about meaningful impact on children’s lives, we built and renovate schools, provide teaching and learning materials and build the capacity of the ministry of education –Juballand.

SFH also provide alternative basic education that enables pastoralist and urban working children and those who failed to enroll at the right age to catch up on the curriculum.