GAROWE, Somalia May 8 2012 (Garowe Online) - Across Puntland state, secondary students are taking their final exams for this year, Radio Garowe reports.
It is estimated that there are close to 15 thousand students are taking the secondary exams this year.
According to the Puntland Ministry of Education, across the board there are close to 200,000 thousand students that are currently enrolled in education institutions. More than half of those students are enrolled in primary schools, with at least 20,000 thousand attending secondary school next year.
"For the past week, I have been taking my exams for Form 1, a twelve subject course load, I've studied hard and I think I've done well," said Mahamoud Mohamed Yusuf a student at Gambol secondary school in Garowe.
Education in Puntland
The collapse of President Siyad Barre's regime in 1991 caused a breakdown of government and institutions but really had an affect in education institutions across Somalia. A long time has passed since 1991 and across Somalia despite conflict , the quality of education institutions have somewhat regained their previous prestige.
Puntland state of Somalia, since its establishment in 1998 has made significant improvement on the standards of the education sector. According to the Puntland Ministry of Education from 2005 to 2006 there was an increase of 135 educational institutions across Puntland. According to the Ministry of Education, there are currently 460 primary schools, 54 secondary schools, 200 adult schools and eight universities in Puntland. Over the years rural areas in Puntland gained much need access to primary and secondary schools.
Late last year Turkey awarded scholarships for 400 students from across Somalia, but according to Puntland Minister of Education Abdi Farah Juha the scholarships were not properly distributed to Puntland. According to government sources in Mogadishu the controversial scholarships were handed out by officials for cash and some students deserted there educational opportunities to illegally enter Europe. Officials in the Ministry of Education said that some of the students awarded scholarships were not contacted and left behind while others who bribed officials took their positions.
According to Puntland Minister Juha, Puntland did not receive support from the Transitional Federal Government (TFG) of Somalia in the education sector as promised to Puntland in December's Garowe conference.
"We did not get any support from the TFG. During the Garowe conference the TFG agreed to support %25 of aid donated to Somalia's education sector to our educational programs, but nothing has been done yet, although they received the funds from the international community," said Minister Juha.
Despite the lack of promised funds for the Ministry of Education, Puntland educational institutions have progressed significantly over the past 14 years with the assistance of the government, Puntland businessmen/women, parents, the international community and the Somali Diaspora.
GAROWE ONLINE
