Hiiraan Online
Saturday May 20, 2017
Mogadishu (HOL) - More than 23,000 secondary school students have sat for the General Secondary Certificate exam in 77 test centres across south and central Somalia on Saturday, according to the Ministry of Education.
Students in Mogadishu wrote the exam under tight security and many of the roads leading to test centres were cordoned off by government soldiers.
The exam is the third standardized formal testing in Somalia since the collapse of the previous government in 1990.
Secondary schools in Somalia are largely operated by private, for-profit organizations with very few government run schools. The government has however produced a new curriculum for primary and secondary schools. Extreme poverty in many communities in urban and rural Somalia make it difficult for parents to afford school fees, leaving many parents with the agonizing decision of choosing which kids to educate.
Accessibility to quality formal primary and secondary school remains a major hurdle for the federal government. Decades of conflict has led to Somalia having one of the world’s lowest enrolment rates for school-aged children. Participation of girls is even lower, a countrywide survey from 2006 showed that only 25 percent of women between 15 and 24 were literate.