Saturday 18 Oct 2025 {HMC} Free schools supported by the Galmudug education authority failed to open in several parts of Adado district this academic year due to a funding shortfall.
Around 450 students from pastoralist families in the rural areas of Gelinsor, Wadgelinsoor, Far-janno, and Qurdubanle were unable to go to school when classes were supposed to start in September.
The authority, which had been running the schools with support from humanitarian organisations, was unable to pay teachers’ salaries after donor funding stopped.
Abdi Mahmoud Hassan, a father of seven in Qurdubanle, said six of his children who were attending primary and intermediate school were now at home.
“There’s no education at all. Now everything has fallen apart. We never had proper school buildings anyway, the classes were held under trees. But now the teachers have left, and 90% of parents can’t afford to send their children elsewhere,” Abdi told Radio Ergo.
He described the free school as having kindled his children’s hopes of learning, only for those dreams to fade away.
Parents had collected money among themselves to pay the teachers, but could not raise enough. This was because they are grappling with the economic impact of severe drought that has left their livestock emaciated and unproductive.
Abdi can’t afford to send his children to schools in Adado town, 25 km away, as he has no means to support them there. He said all of his herd of 50 goats are too weak to sell in the market.
Without any livestock income, his family is living on one meal a day, mostly supported by relatives in Adado. Shops that gave him food on credit have stopped until he pays off his debts.
“The shops I used to take goods from on credit have all refused me now. One I owe $5,000 has sworn not to give me anything again. Another I owe $3,000 also turned me away. People and livestock alike are suffering. No one will lend me food or grain anymore. I don’t even know where to turn, the whole town has become unbearable for me,” he said.
Abdi said he had been trying to find manual jobs in Adado but failed to get any work.
Another parent, Fadumo Elmi Abdi, whose three children were in lower and intermediate grades, is also disappointed that they are now at home as their school in Qurdubanle is closed.
She said her children benefited greatly during the two years they attended school, but now they are idle at home with no alternative education.
“The children who dropped out have started engaging in bad habits because they have nothing to occupy them. They are young, and as you know, when youth have nothing to do, many bad things can happen,” she said.
Fadumo said she worries about her children’s future, as well as the family’s worsening living conditions. The household of seven now depends on help from neighbours.
Like other families in the area, her livestock have lost value due to lack of pasture. They used to depend on income from their herd of 30 goats. She feared the herd may not survive unless the rain arrives soon.
Water trucked from Adado town is too expensive, and those who used to give her water on credit have stopped.
“A small water truck costs around $50 to bring water here, sometimes even $60. We have two jerrycans left, and they’re almost empty. We don’t have a motorised pump. If we had a reliable water source, life would be much easier because water is the number one need,” she said.
Her family owes around $800 in debts for food and water, which they have been unable to repay. Creditors have given them a one-month grace period, leaving her in constant worry.
The impact of the school closures has been felt across the affected villages. The education coordinator for Adado district, Hussein Ali Sahal, said efforts were underway to reopen the schools, although funding remained a major challenge.
He said organisations including CERA International, JOSBO, and Save Somali Children, which had been covering teachers’ expenses, withdrew their support this year after their projects ended.
“The government teachers deployed to Adado town cover only about 15% of the area’s needs. Many rural teachers were not included in that programme, which is why these villages remain without teachers. If we could recruit new teachers, we could restart classes. We’ll keep working on it, no matter how long it takes,” he said.
Hussein added that the schools, which had been operating for the past three years, were established to give pastoralist children access to the same education as their peers in urban areas.
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