Somalia: Investing in Teachers

October 5 was World Teacher’s Day. It is a day to honour educators worldwide who believe in the power of learning and the value of education. This year’s theme focuses on teachers for gender equality.

Recently, I had the opportunity to work with the Somalia education team and learned about an amazing teacher, she is one that deserves a spotlight on World Teacher’s Day.

Fadxiga is a twenty-four year old female teacher, currently she teaches in a primary school in Hargeisa, Somaliland. Much can be shared of her journey.

Born to teach

She is the eldest of six children. Her father is a bus driver and her mother works in the home. While she was still in high school, recruiters from the  Somaliland education ministry visited and presented a teacher training program supported by Save the Children.

Fadxiga had always wanted to be a teacher, so she was excited, applied and was selected to join an in-service teacher training program at Hargeisa University.

The program was intensive requiring her to attend morning sessions at the university, teach in the afternoon and study in the evenings. Upon completion of the final exams, she received the highest mark in a class of seventy females.

Example for the future

Now, Fadxiga can be found hard at work in her former school and when not teaching she’s busy writing lesson plans, schemes of work and strategizing on how to engage her sixty-four students to actively participate in her lessons.

On top of that, she is also undertaking a capacity building course and aspires to pursue a degree in education.

And, I wonder, reflecting on Fadxiga’s story and teachers who have inspired me, out of her sixty-four students, fortunate to have a trained teacher, how many are now motivated to become like her – a quality teacher.