Children in Somalia who are unable to attend school owing to poverty and a lack of educational infrastructure benefit from scholarships offered by the Turkish Maarif Foundation (TMV).
Many households in Mogadishu’s capital, where education is virtually entirely supplied by private institutions, cannot afford to send their children to school.
Maarif schools, on the other hand, educate 1,200 pupils on three campuses in Hargeisa and Mogadishu.
Yakup Abdinur Absir, 9, lives in one of Mogadishu’s tiniest households with his 12 siblings. He is one of the students who has been awarded a TMV scholarship.
Absir told Anadolu Agency (AA) that he is pleased to have joined the school and hopes to one day become a teacher.
Ihsan Cerrah, TMV’s Somali representative who has been managing the educational institution for three years, said the schools have symbolic importance as they are the first ones taken over from the Gülenist Terror Group (FETÖ), the group behind the 2016 defeated coup in Turkey.
Cerrah said they provide education from kindergarten level to high school, and they are also carrying out feasibility studies to start education activities in two more regions in the East African country.
He said Maarif schools provide quality education and the majority of its students are accepted into Turkish universities. Students here receive English, Arabic and Turkish lessons as well, he added.
“I think Somalia is the country where the Turkish language has the most demand … in the fields of politics, trade and diplomacy. We need to contribute to this. The progress of bilateral relations will be based on the language factor,” the official said.
Children who cannot receive an education due to poverty and insufficient educational infrastructure in Somalia are benefitting from scholarships provided by the Turkish Maarif Foundation (TMV).
Many households in Mogadishu’s capital, where education is virtually entirely supplied by private institutions, cannot afford to send their children to school.
Maarif schools, on the other hand, educate 1,200 pupils on three campuses in Hargeisa and Mogadishu.
Yakup Abdinur Absir, 9, lives in one of Mogadishu’s tiniest households with his 12 siblings. He is one of the students who has been awarded a TMV scholarship.
Absir told Anadolu Agency (AA) that he is pleased to have joined the school and hopes to one day become a teacher.
TMV’s Somali representative, Ihsan Cerrah, who has been in charge of the educational institution for three years, said the schools are symbolic since they were the first to be taken over.
Cerrah said they provide education from kindergarten level to high school, and they are also carrying out feasibility studies to start education activities in two more regions in the East African country.
He said Maarif schools provide quality education and the majority of its students are accepted into Turkish universities. Students here receive English, Arabic and Turkish lessons as well, he added.
“I think Somalia is the country where the Turkish language has the most demand … in the fields of politics, trade and diplomacy. We need to contribute to this. The progress of bilateral relations will be based on the language factor,” the official said.