First women's teacher training college opens

The first all-women's teacher training college in Somalia officially opened in the capital, Mogadishu, on Tuesday. The college - which will be funded jointly a Dutch NGO, NOVIB, and a local Somali education group, FPEN - is to be known as the Banaadir Teacher Training Institute, the chairman of the Formal Private Education Network (FPEN), Ahmad Abdullahi, told IRIN. The college which will train 105 women, actually started classes in February, but was officially opened on 9 April, by the minister of education of the Transitional National Government (TNG), Ahmed said. It is the first time since the start of the civil war, 11 years ago, that such an institution has come into operation, a Somali source told IRIN. Ahmad, whose group operates schools in 15 of Somalia's 18 regions, said that as the number of children in schools increased, "the need for more teachers became acute, and so we had to explore ways of getting more teachers into the classroom". There is a general shortage of teachers in Somalia, because no new teachers had entered the profession in the last 10 years. At the same time "former teachers have either left the country, changed profession to make ends meet, or simply died", he noted. Ahmad said FPEN had proposed the project to a number of agencies to solicit their assistance, but NOVIB had been the only one to come forward. "NOVIB will pay 80 percent of the cost, while FPEN will provide the balance," he said. Safiyah Husayn, the principal of the college, told IRIN that the establishment would only take on women students because "there are very few female teachers in the country". "We have a major shortage of teachers, and this particularly applies to women. You go to any school in Mogadishu today and you will lucky to find any woman teacher," she said. Safiyah said the college had planned an initial intake of 80 students, but was overwhelmed by the number of applicants who met its criteria. "We did not expect this kind of response, so we were forced to take 105 students instead of 80," she said, adding that "they seem hungry for education". The students will undergo a six-month period of intensive English-language training, before starting their two-year course, she said. Safiyah said she was optimistic that the vast majority of the trainees would graduate. The college's language of instruction will be English. Ahmad Abdullahi told IRIN that as the security situation in the country improved, more and more children would seek education. He appealed to the international community to help the education sector. "Education is the only hope for Somalia. We urge those who want to help the Somali people to start with education", he said.