Mogadishu, Somalia 29^th March 2021: The Federal Ministry of Education, Culture and Higher Education, in partnership with European Union, Global Partnership for Education and Save the Children Somalia programme, 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 well- being 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 Benadir.

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