Lack of Rain should not mean lack of Education: Drought and Education in Dangorayo, Puntland
People do not often correlate drought with education, but in Puntland located in northeastern Somalia, for hundreds of children the recent drought means that their hopes of gaining an education will be put on hold due to the recent climatic conditions affecting the region.
World Vision Somalia recently visited the children of Budunbuto village in Dangorayo, Puntland. Due to the drought, which is, ravaging the area and the children’s knowledge has gone from classroom based to nomadic. As their parents’ livelihood is dependent on livestock, when there is no pasture or water for the animals their families must move to other districts where there is available water and pasture. As they move, they cannot leave their children behind thus forcing parents to pull their children out of school.
This sporadic and often constant movement affects children’s learning as they miss classes, often for long periods of time. Also, if they return to school they have to repeat classes and usually stay in school longer than normal to complete academic years.
“Some of the pupils here in Budunbuto are not in school because of the drought in the village. Most of the parents have moved from Dangarayo district to Burtinle district,” said a teacher at the school. “Though some have returned, the children cannot recover the lessons that they have lost and this causes them to repeat the class they were at before they moved,” he empasised.
The school authority has tried to discuss the issue with parents who are caught at a crossroad; “they either let their animals die-their only source of livelihood-or have their children stay in school” he stressed.
One of the schools that has been affected the most by the drought in Dangarayo is Budunbuto where 66 children no longer attend classes because their parents have moved to another district in search of water and pasture for their livestock. The enrollment in the school at the beginning of the school calendar was 174 children and at present there are only 108 pupils (88 boys and 20 girls). Another nearby school that has been affected by the drought is Uskure where the enrollment was 209, but currently there are only 188 pupils in attendance.
In Puntland, the government declared a drought in January stating that 213,000 people have been affected due to poor performance of the most recent rains. However, in September 2015, World Vision Somalia and other humanitarian agencies raised concerns about the deteriorating conditions in Somaliland brought on by a severe drought and the need for urgent funding for life saving activities for people and livestock. At the time, The Government of Somaliland estimated that 240,000 people were severely food insecure. Since then, the conditions have worsened with a new estimate of approximately 337,000 people affected.
Overall, the humanitarian situation across Somalia is dire with the latest report from The Food Security and Nutrition Analysis Unit (FSNAU) estimating that 4.7 million people, (40 per cent of the population) in need of humanitarian assistance. The assessment further revealed that over 900,000 people will be in crisis across Somalia through June 2016 if no immediate action is taken and an estimated 305,000 children under five are acutely malnourished with 58.300 children facing death if not treated.