You're the Somali Education Minister !!!!!

Gedo_Boy · Post by **Gedo_Boy** » Mon Dec 18, 2006 6:54 am

And you have a lot of money, $15 billion dollars to implement Somalia's education system. What would you do? How would you it? Please Discuss.

I think what I would do is concentrate on building vocational insitutions in parallel with Kindergarten-High School education. In parallel with that, I would start construction on a university in every geographical region in Somalia. In order to provide the adult generation hands on skills and to develop children's familiarity with technology, I would institute an apprenticeship program during their late middle/early hgih school years. As kids are exposed to things like plumbing, motors, electricity, hospitals, infrastructure projects while learning the theory throughout their proper education, it will spark their interests to become doctors, engineers, scientists. Remember, it was the Wright Brothers who built the first airplane and they were Bicycle Mechanics and succeeded where PhD Engineers failed. Germany has produced fantastic engineers and I think it has partly to do with their practical exposure.

India & China.....the past century, they were unskilled laborers even as far back as the British Empire. India's first Fellow of the Scientific Royal Society of England was in the early 1900's (A self taught mathematician, who blew away the famous Cambridge & Oxford mathematicians who shipped him over to England http://www-history.mcs.st-andrews.ac.uk ... nujan.html)

Although the Islamic education would be in parallel, I would have the kids devote a full 6 months to 1 year studying and memorizing the Quran at ages 7 and 10. Memorizing the Quran at a young age has stunning effects on memory, comprehension, and overall cognitive development.

I would form partnerships and hire experts from Western, Egyptian, and Indian Universities to consult on the curriculum and establish relationships with those Universities to allow bright Somali students to pursue their graduate studies abroad ONCE they finish their undergraduate degrees from one of Somalia's newly founded Universities.

I would mandate English and Arabic to be languages that are taught and tested in schools, in addition to Somali ofcourse.

Is there anything else you would add, anything I'm missing?

Post by **AbdiWahab252** » Mon Dec 18, 2006 9:58 am

Gedo: I would invest that money in the following initiatives:

1. Arabic Script for the Somali language - Since most somalis go to dugsi at an early age, why not build upon their knowledge of writing in Arabic to teach them to write Somali using that script.

2. Invest in the formation of schools in every tuulo. Primary school education would be universal.

3. Provide incentives to parents to send their kids to school - food rations, discounted food, cash subsidy.

4. Massive education campaign for parents, elders and wadaads - show them the benefits of education.

5. Formation of Mobile Libraries for the Nomadic population & train Nomadic teachers to educate the children of nomads.

6. Creation of basic adult education curriculm about health, hygiene, agriculture, animal husbandry.

7. Estabilish 1 University & 3 colleges per region at the minimum.

Post by **Basra-** » Mon Dec 18, 2006 9:59 am

Oh Galol... Rolling Eyes

Niya · Post by **Niya** » Mon Dec 18, 2006 4:52 pm

Gedo-boy, with that kind of money you can establish satellite campuses of well established Universities in different regions of Somalia.
However, one has to think of creating jobs and opportunities for all that are being educated. This is where a national strategic plan comes in to play. One has to think of the society holistically, yes, invest in education, including paraprofessionals, vocational training (yep, we need, medical technicians, professional electricians, plumbers and carpenters etc etc etc), but also think of other sectors.

And lastly, 8 billion of that money should be allocated to the education of girls and women. Women never got their fair share before!

mahamed99_sex · Post by **mahamed99_sex** » Mon Dec 18, 2006 4:55 pm

why the fock do we have to learn arabic.wat the fock.... Mad

talking about he would invest in arabic scripts.wanna be arab lovers.uffffff

Gedo_Boy · Post by **Gedo_Boy** » Mon Dec 18, 2006 7:36 pm

Niya,

OFcourse the girls should be educated and given every opportunity.

I agree with the jobs & all, but I was only talking about what an Education minister would do. Let's assume other govt. officials take care of that stuff.

Niya · Post by **Niya** » Tue Dec 19, 2006 5:12 pm

Well in that case the first order of business would be to take stock and do a survery and needs assessment of the education sector. Come up with projected figures of number of new enrolleess and the number of teachers needed from K to K12 and then # of universities/higher education + professors to accommodate high school graduates. Survey the differrent curriculum in use and unify them, with strong emphasis in the maths, science and languages. (To pacify the ICU, religion will be mandatory class Wink

).

Several other tasks need to be taken into consideration:
I - Facilities.
A. Assess the quality of infrastructure and equipment in existing schools.
B. Determine number of new schools that need to be built. Identify other locations that can be used on a temporary basis.
C. Establish cost estimates for refurbishing old schools and building new ones. Put a procurement plan in place and have a comptetive bidding from local builders.

II. Students and faculty.

1. Mandatory placement tests for all new students.
2. Evaluation and appropriate placement for students with developmental delays.
3. Annual teacher training requirements for all teachers, to keep up with innovative teaching methods.

III. Higher learning

1. Consider distance learning and establish satellite campused of Univeristies that excell in specific subjects relevant to Somalia development.

2. ?

Ehm, ran out of ideas.

Ps.
Send my commission via paypal!

Lord Diplock · Post by **Lord Diplock** » Tue Dec 19, 2006 5:17 pm

I would build primary schools in every tuulo in the country and make primary education universally free.

Free meal for the poor (something like 50 per cent of the whole population).

that is just for starters.

gurey25 · Post by **gurey25** » Tue Dec 19, 2006 5:34 pm

good Topic GB.

You are heading in the right direction.

Somalia need 2 things and needs them badly.
Vocational Skills as in

construction- carpentry, metal working, plumming, draughtsmen, electricians etc etc etc, even basic agriculture.

but most of all Literacy.
You cannot get everyone to go to conventional schools. and colleges.
That however does not mean that they cannot continue to LEARN and Contribute to society.

Gedo_Boy · Post by **Gedo_Boy** » Tue Dec 19, 2006 6:32 pm

gurey25,

Yeah, sometimes I see that problem in some countries. For example, the Khaliiji governments used to send a lot of graduate students to the University I went to.

They looked down on technicians & vocational training. They didn't realize that this was the first step towards advanced engineering & science.

So they had a small minority of highly skilled people, with no country to take advantage of it.

I would rather have 100,000 people with bachelor's degrees than to have 1,000 with PhDs

I see the vocational & apprentice areas as very essential to the development of a country.

People want to go from geeljire to Nobel Prize Winning Scientist without the necessary steps to get there.

We don't need to invent new technologies initially.

Look @ China, they developed initially in the areas of manufacturing, textiles, cheap labor etc.

That paves the way for a workforce that will eventually be able to handle a stronger industrial & technological workforce.

Ashlee~ · Post by **Ashlee~** » Tue Dec 19, 2006 6:52 pm

15 billion WTF? I could build africa's education system forget somalia Laughing

Seriously You only need a few hundred mill too make somalia's education system the best in africa.

gurey25 · Post by **gurey25** » Tue Dec 19, 2006 7:12 pm

Gedo Boy...

as you have shown interest in the subject..
have a look at these 2 books.

http://reactor-core.org/deschooling.html
http://marxists.anu.edu.au/subject/educ ... /index.htm

youre lucky you dont have to buy them, they are fully available online
for free.

Paolu freier and Ivan Illich.

Its an interesting take on the whole subject of EDUCATION.

gurey25 · Post by **gurey25** » Tue Dec 19, 2006 7:14 pm

Gedo Boy you are thinking conventionaly.
$15 billion will kickstart the Entire Somali Economy if used properly.

10% of that will have a big impact on the Edcuation of somalia.

Ashlee~ · Post by **Ashlee~** » Tue Dec 19, 2006 7:16 pm

Gurey

The somali gov't if it works out. Is asking for 5 billion from the IMF, World bank etc Thats to bring up the whole of somali society back to the 20th century forget the 21st century Laughing

Cawar · Post by **Cawar** » Tue Dec 19, 2006 7:17 pm

[quote="gurey25"]good Topic GB.

You are heading in the right direction.

Somalia need 2 things and needs them badly.
Vocational Skills as in

construction- carpentry, metal working, plumming, draughtsmen, electricians etc etc etc, [/quote]

I think I would be very useful, a great asset for the country, in these area's..
Since I am a certified Plumber, Carpenter and have a vast knowledge in the construction buss. Smile

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You're the Somali Education Minister !!!!!

You're the Somali Education Minister !!!!!