NAIROBI, Kenya- A new $ 65 million project to improve education sector in Somalia launched on 31 august, with the presences of Somali’s Federal Government officials and U.S. officials in the capital Mogadishu, Garowe online reports.

The signing ceremony was attended by the Minister of Education, Culture and Higher Education, Abdulkadir Abdi Hashi, the Minister of Finance, Mohamed Aden Ibrahim, U.S. Ambassador to Somalia, Stephen Schwartz and United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Assistant Administrator for Africa, Linda Etim, presided the signing of the bilateral agreement to formalize USAID’s support for educational development over a period of five years.

The USAID assistant administrator, Linda Etim said during the launch ceremony “the U.S. Government is committed to support the Federal Government of Somali’s efforts to restore basic education for Somali children and strengthen the Ministry of Education’s Capacity to manage and lead the education sector.”

According to document received by GO, USAID will improve access to quality basic education for all Somali’s children, including marginalized and out-of-school youth, improving girls’ enrollment to schools and training qualified female teachers.

In the last four years, USAID committed more than $50 million to improve Somali’s educational sector. It has assisted in the enrollment of 21,000 secondary school students, 86,000 out-of-school youth, construction and rehabilitation of school facilities, training qualified teacher, and providing quality teaching and learning materials and increasing educational opportunities for pastoralist children.

GAROWEONLINE