The Federal Ministry of Education, Culture and Higher Education,in partnership with European Union, Global Partnership for Education and Save the Children, has launched The Alternative Learning Option (Online Platform) that will benefit 392,400 primary school children affected by learning disruptions due to COVID-19 pandemic to continue their learning remotely.
H.E Mahdi Mohamed Guled, Deputy Prime Minister of The Federal Government of Somalia, H.E. Abdullahi Abukar Haji, The Federal Minister of Education, Culture and Higher Education (MOECHE), Mr. Morten Sigsgaard, GPE Secretariat Country Lead for Somalia, Mr. Mohamed Sabul, The EU Education Programme Manager and Mr. Mohamud Mohamed Hassan, Save the Children Country Director for Somalia participated via online.
The COVID-19 Accelerated Funding programme is funded by the Global Partnership for Education to help countries with COVID-19 response as it aims to ensure the continuity of learning and maintain the wellbeing of teachers and students by development and implementation of alternative distance learning options; distribution of learning materials for learning outside of school/at home; and (c) provision of teachers’
incentives. The program targets both public and community run formal primary schools in the four Federal Member States and Banadir.
The programme has also other key milestones including Development of Alternative Learning Option (Radio platform) that will be rolled out in April. The aim is to ensure learners who have connectivity issues to utilize the radio platform. The program procured 17,324 Radios to reach out the target vulnerable school children in all regions.
The Deputy Prime Minister of the Federal Government of Somalia, H.E Mahdi Mohamed Guled, stated that: “Launching this Alternative Learning Option to enable the continuation of learning for Somali children is one of the efforts of the government to respond to Covid-19 pandemic and mitigate its impact on service delivery”.
“The launch is a milestone for the capacity of the Education sector in Somalia to ensure that children are able to learn while they are at home” said Minister of Education, Culture and Higher Education (MOECHE), H.E. Abdullahi Abukar Haji. “ I want to thank to our partners in Somalia particularly the EU, GPE and Save the Children for their unwavering support for the development of the Alternative Learning Option to enable the continuation of learning for Somali children” continued the Hon. Minister.
The GPE Secretariat Country Lead for Somalia, Mr. Morten Sigsgaard said “GPE is very pleased to see the launch of the alternative learning platform, funded through the GPE COVID-19 accelerated grant.
We appreciate the leadership of the Federal Ministry and the partners involved in development of the online platform. In fact, it has been a great collective effort of, for example, teachers, consultants, supervisors, facilitators, editors and many others”.
“The EU congratulates the federal Ministry of Education on the launch of the Alternative Learning Option (Online platform) said European Union Education Programme Manager, Mr. Mohamed Sabul. “This provides an opportunity for learning to continue considering the disruptions occasioned by COVID-19. The response plan developed last year has set a good basis for response measures. There is need to review and further improve content, provide gadgets and improve connectivity’’ continued Mr. Sabul.
Save the Children Somalia programme Country Director Mohamud Mohamed Hassan stated
that: ‘’Save the Children celebrates with the Ministry for this significant milestone. Indeed, this will help learners to continue with their education in the midst of the global pandemic of COVID-19 Response. While remote learning technology cannot completely replace the classroom experience, this Alternative Learning Option will create classroom-like interaction between teachers and students. It is a blended approach of online and offline which has the potential to reach more children of both rural and urban areas, narrowing the gap between children who are able to access internet and those who do not have internet access at home”.
Background Information
The GPE funded program is designed to implement the Somali Government’s education sector priorities focusing on the primary education subsector. The program aims to improve the equitable access to education, improve the quality of education outcomes for all Somali children and to strengthen the education system capacity for better service delivery. The program supports the provision of school capitation grants, improvement of learning environment and school infrastructure, construction of teacher training institutes,
pre-service and in-service teacher training as well as activities aimed at improving institutional capacity at Federal Government, State, regional, district and school levels.
The Global Partnership for Education (GPE) supports close to 70 developing countries to ensure that every child receives a quality basic education, prioritizing the poorest, the most vulnerable and those living in countries affected by fragility or conflict. GPE mobilizes financing for education and supports developing countries to build effective education systems founded on evidence-based planning and policies.
Somalia has been a GPE partner country since 2012. In 2013, Somalia received its first GPE grant of US$14.5 million for the period 2013 to 2016. GPE’s support portfolio to Somalia is over $100 million covering the whole of Somalia.
The European Union is the coordinating agency for GPE across Somalia and CARE USA, Save the Children USA and UNICEF also serve as grant agents for GPE support to Somalia.
