Blog 4: Education Challenges Terror

Somalia has been at war for well over two decades, making it difficult for education to be obtained by the younger generation of potential students. Refugees from this country are living in Kenya and Ethiopia, getting away from the destruction and lost opportunity to learn due to the state collapse and the attacks on schools. From the 1980s to now, the children of richer families between the ages of 13 and 17 have had less than six years of education, while the poorer children have had less than one year (Education: A Challenge to Terror). Refugees living in Kenya are searching for education, one Somali seventeen-year-old says that education makes a person's life and also makes their future (Education: A Challenge to Terror). Education has many benefits, as reported from the UN General Assembly. Some of these benefits include increased job opportunities, tolerance, faster economic growth, and says that "youth who are educated are more likely to be economically, politically, socially, cognitively and psychologically resilient in all stages of their lives" (Education: A Challenge to Terror). However, the war in Somalia has made it difficult for the citizens to receive the education needed to make these types of changes. There is an organization called the Borderless High Education for Refugees that seeks to educate the world because it is essential for the youth. The refugees from Somalia believe that the war itself is caused by a lack of education and that only through knowledge can the country hope to recover and rebuild. Because of this, refugees believe that education is the key to saving Somali from its own terror.

Education, to many people, is something precious that can change lives. To the refugees of Somali, they believe that educating themselves and their children will help to create a better future, particularly in regards to their war-torn home country. Education is considered a valuable resource because it is not available to all, although the UN is attempting to make it easier to access. It is slowly becoming a widespread belief that education is the key to fixing problems in countries, such as Somalia in this case or in Turkey, where students are seeking education abroad in order to return with new knowledge to make Turkey a greater economic success. It is also important to see that it is not merely adults who see education as important and want it for their children, but that the children themselves recognize what they do not have and seek the knowledge necessary to make a change. They are investing in education in hopes of acquiring a better and brighter future, not just for themselves, but for their own countries.

Tara Cook
October 4, 2013
4:10 p.m.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/sarah-drydenpeterson/education-a-challenge-to-_b_4018869.html