“Our problems are man-made; therefore, they can be solved by man”

J.F. Kennedy “Our problems cannot be solved on the same level of thinking that created them”Albert Einstein

 Great education systems focus on improving teaching quality

With great leadership, training, curricula and assessment.

As always, a thoughtful well-presented blog, grasping the nettle. A few observations:
I’m not convinced that the Republic of Somaliland education system is as bad, overall, as the international comparative data suggests. Education systems are messy, in the sense that it is not always clear what data means, and not clear that it can ever be clear what it means (very many confounding factors). Although there must be a connection between a society’s education system and wider economic and civic outcomes, it isn’t particularly clear how this connection actually works. However, the RSL is more prosperous and affluent now than it was 3-4 years ago, and we are still a major world economy and punch above our weight in the world. I would also venture that our education system is in a better state now than it was 10-20 years ago, too. I am not convinced that we should worry too much about what other countries are doing, but should focus on what we want to do. Education is more than the international comparative data. Change, though, is required.
There is much talk of applying scientific assessment of methodology, and generating evidence in a scientific manner. There is clearly much thought required here, as currently things are introduced that have no credible evidence associated with them. However, scientific assessment is especially difficult in such a messy environment as education (any area that involves large numbers of people is very difficult to analyse and predict – e.g. economics). We will need to be very smart about how we understand what evidence is, and very careful about the conclusions we draw.
Professionalism for teachers is very, very important. Teachers should be confident in, and comfortable with, their position. They should not live in fear but be in charge of the learning and teaching in their classrooms; able to analyse their strengths and weaknesses. They should be expected to evaluate, and capable of evaluating, new approaches and other initiatives and decide for themselves if the evidence is compelling. There must be room for diversity of approach. Professionalism amongst SLNCEB is as equally important. Leadership is exceedingly important (in any enterprise, actually), and too many SLNECB are forgetting that their role is to support and empower their exam quality and, through that, serve the students (not to serve themselves). Teachers can really stretch if they know they have support from the public and private schools.
Formative assessment is vastly more important than summative assessment (especially when there is no fear).
The use of the word ‘great’…..when used, it can usually be replaced with the word ‘effective’. ‘Great’ implies earth shatteringly outstanding; that’s not what we are looking for in education; we want highly effective teachers and SLNECB, as standard (that should be our expectation)….let’s reserve the word ‘great’ for something truly great.
Finally, beware of huge, overarching initiatives; we should serve our nation honesty and create a justice.

Mustafe Abdirahman Habane

E-mail: mustafe107@gmail.com

Cell Phone: 063-4404520

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