In 1996, the first secondary school was opened in Somaliland, hence the fourth high school graduates took their Gc examination last year. But every year, the results of the examinations are shocking, because a great number of students fail. For instance in the final exam of last year, twenty percent of students failed. Although the failure rate was low when compared with the previous exams, another twelve percent of the students didn’t take their final exam for unknown reasons, and another twenty seven percent of the students passed with Grade D which is not a recognized grade in the world, even though the ministry of education and the Center for British Teachers (CFBT) which conducts the final exams in the Horn of Africa agreed to lower the passing grade down to Grade D in order to let more students pass the exam. However there is an important question, which is why so many students fail their final exam? To answer this question, Somaliland Students Assembly (SOLSA) has researched this problem in order to find out its causes. Emphatically the root causes of this failure stems from three sides namely students, parents and teachers.

STUDENTS

Students as the victims of this tragedy do shoulder a lot of responsibility in educating themselves and they contribute a lot to this problem. Most of the students neglected their learning because some of them regard the school as pastime, coming only to wait for lunchtime. Others come to school to satisfy their parents who would otherwise put pressure on their children. These types of students don’t focus on learning.

Another factor which makes students neglect their learning while they are in school and at home is their indulgence in QAT and cigarettes. As the Somali adage says (LAABI LABA U LA’) which is tantamount in English to: a person doesn’t have two hearts, meaning that they cannot make use their precious time and focus on learning while they are searching for and chewing QAT.

The English language has become the first language in the world. For this reason Somaliland students take their subjects in English with the exception of Somali and Arabic languages. So it will be hard for the students to learn something, if they don’t comprehend the English language well, and suffice it to say, it is the stumbling block to their learning and success in the final exam. Paradoxically, most of the students do not know English well although there are a great number of English language schools in the country, so we can say failure is almost attributable to the lack of comprehensibility in English language.

PARENTS

Normally, parents should have been taking the lion’s share for educating their children, but they do not play their role as they neglect their responsibility towards the education of their children due to the following two reasons:

Since a high percentage of our population is illiterate, parents completely lose track of the education level of their children because they cannot help them do their homework, or in other words, the home teaching process doesn’t exist.

Cooperation between parents and teachers rarely exists.

3. TEACHERS

Teachers are the source of education and bear a great responsibility for educating the students. But teachers get much of the blame due to the following reasons:

They do not complete the annual curriculum, which is intended to be taught for the school year.

They do not monitor the educational performance of the students, and they do not report back to the parents.

Most of them are ill-trained as result of these two reasons:

Private schools, which are widely developing, attract the well-trained teachers because of better pay rates, which are threefold of the salary earned by teachers from the ministry of education.

Since the downfall of Siyad Barre’s regime and the declaration of Somaliland’s independence in 1991, the teachers industry collapsed, and the production of highly qualified teachers came to halt, and this forced the ministry of Education to employ high school graduates as high school teachers.

In conclusion, we have gathered a number of suggestions which we think will help in reducing the rate of failure in the schools, and they are as follows:

To the students

1. Students should make use of their precious time, and learn as much as they can to make their dreams and their parents' dreams come true.

2. They should go to school regularly instead of playing hooky. They should read more and focus on learning while they are in school and at home. They should learn English well, since English is the key to higher education.

TO THE PARENTS

They should keep track of the education level of their children.
They should encourage the students to read more and help them do their homework. If the parents can’t, they should hire a teacher to tutor their children at home. They should build a tangible cooperation with the teachers, in order to monitor the education level of the students.

TO THE TEACHERS

1. They should complete the annual curriculum.
2. They should avoid absence from their periods.
3. They should report back to the parents.

TO THE MINISTRY OF EDUCATION

The ministry should raise the salary of the teachers in order to attract highly qualified teachers.

The ministry should establish teachers training centers in order to produce highly qualified teachers.

The ministry should supervise the schools regularly in order to know the situation and the needs of the students.

By: Somaliland Students Assembly (SOLSA)

Email: Solsa10@hotmail.com
 

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