 Photo: Manoocher Deghati/IRIN  |
| Education in Kismayo had been one of the many casualties of the region’s various conflicts and frequent changes of administration (file photo) |
KISMAYO, 9 August 2010 (IRIN) - Five years after a local charity
opened a university to offer this bullet-scarred city’s youth an
alternative to militia life and emigration, the first degrees have been
awarded.
"I want our people to know that education is the ladder of life and
that every step of development that a community makes depends on the
level of the community's education," one of the 27 new graduates, Qoole
Qowden*, told IRIN.
“I am delighted to have completed four years of study during which
we underwent unimaginably difficult circumstances. I am hopeful that I
will get a job since I now possess the required knowledge and skills. I
will also try to transmit what I learnt to every Somali who is ready
for it,” he said.
Like much of south-central Somalia, for the past few years Lower
Juba, of which Kismayo is the main town, has been controlled by Al
Shabab, an Islamist insurgency fighting to topple Somalia’s weak
Transitional Federal Government.
Previously, the city frequently changed hands between various warring clan militia groups.
Kismayo University has 200 students, most of whom are from Middle
and Lower Juba regions where, for many years, secondary school was the
highest level of learning available.
Since it opened, local sources said, the university has helped
reduce the recruitment of an otherwise idle youth into fighting groups.
Education collapse
Education in Kismayo had been one of the many casualties of the
region’s various conflicts and frequent changes of administration.
Several schools in the city have been converted to other uses such
as makeshift homes or stores, forcing talented teenagers to seek
educational opportunities in Mogadishu, the semi-autonomous region of
Puntland, the self-declared independent republic of Somaliland or in
neighbouring Kenya.
 I want our people to know that education is the ladder of life  |
Quruxlow Shaakle*, a resident of Kismayo, said: "We thank Allah that
higher education is now available in our region. I have lived here for
the past 33 years and education has been my greatest worry because as a
parent, and I am sure all other parents agree with me, no one wants
their child to end up as a militiaman or be used to fuel clan
divisions.
"For a long time, only well-off parents could send their children
across the border to Kenya to get an education; for poor families like
mine, this was not possible."
Shaakle urged other Somali families to focus on their children’s
education, "for that is how we can put away the gun and seek peace;
otherwise wars, famine and hardship in our country will continue".
The 27 who received degree certificates on 5 August were from two
faculties, education and business administration, according to a
university official, who added that 32 others obtained diplomas.
The university also has a Sharia (Islamic law) faculty. In all,
there are 20 lecturers and fees range from US$15 to $30 per month, with
some costs met by remittances from the diaspora.
The official said most of the graduates had already secured jobs in
local telecommunication firms, remittance or money transfer banks and in
other businesses across Kismayo.
"Some are part-time teachers in different schools," the official
said, adding that the university had requested heads of companies in the
region to consider Kismayo University graduates during their
recruitment drives.
*Not their real names
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