Success Stories, Part one
Beyond Garade five; Getting Back to School
Mahammed and all his classmates have been in the mid of their yearly holiday after finishing their Fifth grade in Suuqsade Primary School .This holiday, how ever, was very critical for these schoolchildren ,the big question for every one was "What is next? And to which direction at this time?? Back to school or rearing animals in the bush!!
Indeed these opposite alternatives were based on the challenging educational problems the village faced in the past years. That is the only single school in the village had contained just five classrooms allocated for grades one up to five ,with only five teachers, and hence incomplete basic education.
Usually in Somaliland grades one up to eight is recommended by the ministry of education as the country's Standardized Education System.
Of course this serious educational problem touches every school child in Suuqsade as past experiences indicate that hundreds of schoolchildren in this remote village had dropped out the whole education system due to lack of space and/ or lack or shortages of learning facilities. This fact is also true for many other remote locations in Saaxil Region ,Somaliland.
Suuqsade community practice farming and rearing animals (goats, sheep, cows ... etc) as their main economic source, the results of all their economic activities, however, are no more than daily breads to mouth. And the whole community in this area have almost the same deteriorating livelihood conditions thus couldn't afford to send children to the nearest town(Shiek)where at least complete basic education is available .
One rare exception is that chances for education is possible if and only if family members living in other towns accept mothers and fathers appealing for sending a single child to live with them- aiming that the child could join schools there -but the case is 98% always unsuccessful.
This year only 2 of Mohammed's classmates (Abdirazak and Ali) have got this chance and were planning to join their relatives in Shiekh. Although living in Shiekh would at least cause departure from friends and family members in Suuqsade further more the children experience a lot of problems as a result ,but their families have always a different outlook claiming that “ if the child receives the needed education getting a home to live then there is nothing more needed ...."
Mohammed, on the other hand and the remaining 24 classmates lacked any opportunity to learn beyond grade five, the only available choices for them is to select one of the two alternatives; either to join the village farmers or rear domestic animals around the village instead!!
As there has been very critical future insights for these grade five students, there has been a big change; SAREDO (Sahil Rehabilitation and Development Organization) had worked and implemented the construction of three new classrooms in the village, equipped with educational materials and finally employed three new teachers so that in the new academic year which usually starts August in Somaliland, the new classrooms were ready to function.
