LANGUAGE OF INSTRUCTION C O U N T RY P RO F I L E Somalia PREPARED FOR Bureau for Africa Office of Sustainable Development, Education and Youth Division United States Agency for International Development 1300 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20523 PREPARED BY Dexis Consulting Group 1412 Eye Street NW, Washington, DC 20005 JUNE 2021 CONTENTS ABBREVIATIONS Introduction 3 ABE Alternative Basic Education Linguistic Context 4 AET Africa Educational Trust Official Language of Instruction Policy 6 ECHO European Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid Operations Class Time 7 EGIDS Expanded Graded Intergenerational Disruption Scale Pre-Service Teacher Training Curriculum for Literacy 8 EGR Early Grade Reading Teacher Language Proficiency/Language Specific Training 8 ESSP Education Sector Strategic Plan GPE Global Partnership for Education Teacher In-Service 9 L1 First Language USAID Reading Program Approach and Ongoing Programs 9 L2 Second (or additional) Language Community Engagement within USAID Projects 10 LOI Language of Instruction MOECHE Ministry of Education, Culture, and Higher Other Donor Funded Reading Programs 10 Education REEP-A Research for Effective Education Programming– References 12 Africa SNU Somali National University Funding was provided by the United States Agency for International Development UNICEF United Nations Children’s Fund (USAID) from the American people under Contract No. AID-OAA-I-15-00019, Task USAID United States Agency for International Order No. AID-OAA-TO-16-00024. The contents are the responsibility of the USAID Development Research for Effective Education Programming (REEP-Africa) Project and do not WFP World Food Programme necessarily reflect the views of USAID or the United States Government. USAID will not be held responsible for any or the whole of the contents of this publication. SOMALIA | LANGUAGE OF INSTRUCTION COUNTRY PROFILE 2 INTRODUCTION Enhancing reading skills in the early grades is a key education priority for the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). Despite some improvements in access and learning in sub-Saharan Africa, literacy levels in the early grades remain low, and progress has been slow. Efforts to improve the quality of teaching and learning in the early grades have led to an increased focus on the role of the language of instruction (LOI). Recent research has demonstrated that mismatches between the LOI and the language that students and teachers speak and understand best, can hamper effective teaching and learning (University Research MALI NIGER Co., 2019). Thus, it is critical to understand the LOI policy and linguistic context of a SENEGAL country when trying to design programs to improve literacy and learning outcomes. DJIBOUTI SOMALIA Currently, USAID supports Early Grade Reading (EGR) initiatives in 19 countries NIGERIA SOUTH ETHIOPIA GHANA across sub-Saharan Africa. Many policies in these countries have recently shifted SUDAN toward adopting the mother tongue as the language for initial literacy acquisition, LIBERIA and then transitioning to a second or additional language, such as a regional, UGANDA DEMOCRATIC KENYA national, or international language, as the subsequent LOI. REPUBLIC OF RWANDA THE CONGO Government policies and strategies related to teachers and LOI reflect country priorities, approaches, and objectives for early grade literacy. During the design-phase of donor-funded reading programs, TANZANIA decisions are made regarding the manner and extent to which national policies are incorporated into project design, and when alternative approaches or additional elements need to be considered. MALAWI However, government policies on LOI, and other information relevant for informing design, are often ZAMBIA difficult to find and are not easily accessible. MOZAMBIQUE The LOI country profiles aim to address this need. The profiles will allow the USAID Africa Bureau, USAID Missions, and partner organizations to quickly understand the country’s linguistic and policy context in order to design an approach that most effectively helps improve EGR outcomes. These profiles, designed for 18 of the countries with current or upcoming USAID EGR initiatives, aim to SOUTH AFRICA clearly and succinctly describe and illustrate the country’s linguistic landscape and official LOI policy. This country profile in particular provides information on language policy and practice in Somalia. SOMALIA | LANGUAGE OF INSTRUCTION COUNTRY PROFILE 3 LINGUISTIC CONTEXT According to SIL International’s Ethnologue: Languages of the World, there are 13 living languages in Most widely-spoken languages in Somalia Somalia, 10 of which are indigenous and three which are nonindigenous. Of these, three are institutional Somali 7.82 million speakers languages, three are developing, and one is vigorous while five are in trouble and one is dying (Eberhard et al., 2020). For more information on how languages are categorized on the Expanded Graded Standard Arabic 2.05 million speakers Intergenerational Disruption Scale (EGIDS), please see Table 1. Maay 1.75 million speakers Article 7 of the 2004 Transnational Federal Charter declared Arabic and Somali as the national languages Source: Eberhard et al., 2020 of Somalia.1 Of an approximate total population of 15.2 million, there are 2.05 million Standard Arabic speakers and 7.82 million Somali speakers (Eberhard et al., 2020). Other widely spoken languages include English, which is often used in educational settings, Maay with 1.75 million speakers, and Swahili Figure 1. Map of Somalia with 183,000 speakers (Eberhard et al., 2020). For more information on the geographic dispersion of indigenous languages, please see Figure 2. DJIBOUTI Gulf of Aden Bosaso Table 1. Assessing Language Vitality: EGIDS Scale Hargeisa SOMALIA Institutional The language is used by institutions beyond the home and community Developing The language is in vigorous use and with literature in a standardized form ETHIOPIA Vigorous The language is not standardized but it is used among all generations Galkaio In Trouble Intergenerational transmission is breaking down Dying Only fluent users, if any, are middle-aged or older Indian Ocean Extinct The language is not used Mogadishu Source: SIL International, n.d. For more information, please see: www.ethnologue.com/about/language-info KENYA Marka Kismayo 100 KM 1 The official languages of Somaliland, an autonomous region, are Somali, Arabic, and English, and the official languages of Puntland are Somali and Arabic. SOMALIA | LANGUAGE OF INSTRUCTION COUNTRY PROFILE 4 Figure 2. Mapping of Indigenous Languages in Somalia Source: Eberhard, David M., Gary F. Simons, and Charles D. Fennig (eds.). (2020). Ethnologue: Languages of the World. Twenty-third edition. Dallas, Texas: SIL International. Online version: http://www.ethnologue.com. SOMALIA | LANGUAGE OF INSTRUCTION COUNTRY PROFILE 5 OFFICIAL LANGUAGE OF INSTRUCTION POLICY2 Somalia experienced a decades-long civil war starting in 1991, which created significant challenges for establishing an LOI policy. During the war, there were major shortages of teaching and learning materials, forcing teachers to use whatever materials they were able to source themselves, often from neighboring countries in Africa and the Middle East. As such, many materials were written in English or Arabic, and these languages were commonly used as the LOI (African Union Mission in Somalia & United Nations Assistance Mission in Somalia, 2018). The Ministry of Education, Culture, and Higher Education (MOECHE), with support from the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), recognized the need for a unified, national curriculum and developed a National Education Curriculum Framework. The framework, which was validated in 2017, outlined a policy for the use of languages in education, stating that “Somali, the first language of virtually every child in Somalia, should be the foundation upon which other languages are learnt and through which education proceeds” (as cited in MOECHE, 2017b, p. 130). As such, Somali is used as the LOI in primary schools, with Arabic and English taught as subjects. A report by the MOECHE noted that Somali is used as the LOI in alternative basic education facilities across the country as well (MOECHE, 2017a). In the upper primary grades, the LOI sometimes shifts to Arabic for subjects such as Islamic studies, history, and geography, and to English for science subjects. However, this is not the case across all schools. English or Arabic becomes the primary LOI during secondary school (MOECHE, 2017b). The extent to which the language policy is implemented is unclear. As noted in the MOECHE’s 2018-2020 Education Sector Strategic Plan (ESSP), there is a notable lack of teaching and learning materials in Somali, which has made it difficult for teachers to use Somali as the LOI (2017b). Furthermore, a large majority of primary students in Somalia attend private schools, with 87.5% of primary students attending non- government schools in 2016 (as cited in MOECHE, 2018). The presence of private education providers is often attributed to the destruction of much of the public education sector’s infrastructure and materials 2 Please note that information in the following sections refers to language and education policy of the Federal Republic of Somalia (also referred to as South Central Somalia) and its Ministry of Education, Culture, and Higher Education (MOECHE), unless otherwise stated. Somaliland and Puntland are autonomous regions, and thus administer their own education systems.