Schools empty as inflation soars

Thousands of Somali school children began a three-day strike on Wednesday to protest against the crippling economic effects of recent importations of fake currency into Somalia. The strike was organised by the Formal Private Education Network (FPEN), and began with a prayer meeting attended by children and their parents and teachers on Tuesday. Nearly 60 primary and secondary schools in the Somali capital, Mogadishu, were participating in the strike, Ahmad Abdullahi, the chairman of FPEN, said. “Unmanageable inflation” was the main reason for the strike, organisers told IRIN. “We are losing a lot of children in the classes because parents can no longer afford to pay even nominal fees,” the chairman said. School fees typically range from US $100 to $50 a year. Inflation in Mogadishu has soared this year as private businessmen import with impunity new currency printed abroad. Local economists say the shilling reached an all-time low against the dollar this week. On Wednesday, the Somali shilling exchanged in Mogadishu’s main Bakaara market at 19,800 to US $1. Last week - before the some 60 billion Somali shillings were flown in (about US $4 million) - the Somali shilling was exchanging at 15,000 to US $1. Galloping inflation was affecting people’s everyday lives, and had badly undermined the nascent education sector, Ahmad Abdullahi explained. After the collapse of the central government in 1991, vital institutions like schools and universities disappeared, as the city was torn apart and destroyed by competing factional militia. But private schools have been gradually re-established over the last few years, and teachers - like businessmen - invested new hope in the election of the Transitional National Government (TNG) last August. FPEN said it had worked hard over the last decade to restore education, but was being undermined by the volatile economic situation. “We are now grappling with how much to pay a teacher, and how much to charge students, whose family incomes are already very low,” the chairman told IRIN. The Mogadishu-based TNG promised last month to stop the importation of fake currency, but has so far failed. Organisers of the school strike said they wanted to show the public that “they have rights and can do something about it”. Ahmad Abdullahi said one of the purposes of the strike was to put pressure on the TNG to take action against the businessmen bringing money into the country. He said the TNG should “at least ask for help from the international community” to halt the printing and importation of the money. In an appeal to the international community, FPEN said the education sector was struggling to survive the crisis - and that if things did not change soon “there will be no students left in our schools”.