Early childhood education in Somalia sits where two traditions meet: the Qur'anic school (dugsi or malcaamad), which has taught generations of Somali children to read and recite, and the newer kindergartens and pre-primary classes, most of which are run by private schools. The education plans of the federal government, Puntland and Somaliland all treat the years before primary school as part of the system, but public provision at this level is still very limited.
Qur'anic schools (dugsi)
Traditional Qur'anic schools are the oldest and most widespread form of learning in the country. Children usually start young, learning the Arabic alphabet on a wooden board (loox) and memorising the Qur'an with a teacher (macallin). Because communities run them and they need little infrastructure, they are often the only learning option in rural and nomadic areas.
A 2018 World Bank study, cited in UNESCO's PEER profile of Somalia, counted 201,293 children enrolled in traditional Qur'anic schools that year. The federal Education Sector Strategic Plan (ESSP) 2018–2020, as summarised in the same profile, estimated that about 57% of their funding came from communities and 42% from private foundations, international non-state actors and Gulf donors.
A newer model, the integrated Qur'anic school, was introduced with UNICEF support. These schools combine religious study with the secular curriculum, continue into the first primary grades and are counted as part of the formal system.
Kindergarten and pre-primary classes
Federal plans describe early childhood care and education (ECCE) as one to two years before Grade 1 (ESSP 2018–2020). Puntland's education ministry has described its system as starting with two years of early childhood development, and Somaliland places pre-primary education before its eight-year primary cycle.
In practice, pre-primary classes are overwhelmingly private. In Somaliland, private schools enrolled 92% of children in early childhood education in 2018–19, according to Ministry of Education and Science figures cited by UNESCO. When the federal ESSP 2018–2020 was written, there was no approved national curriculum for this level.
Who is responsible
- Federal level: the Ministry of Education, Culture and Higher Education (MoECHE) sets policy for formal early learning, while the Ministry of Religious Affairs oversees Qur'anic schooling.
- Somaliland: the National Education Act places Qur'anic schools under the Ministry of Education and Science, in consultation with the Ministry of Religious Affairs.
- Puntland and the federal member states: each state education ministry is responsible for pre-primary schools in its area.
Why it matters
Millions of Somali children never enrol in primary school. The UN's 2025 Humanitarian Needs and Response Plan estimated that 4.5 million school-age children, more than half of the total, were out of school. For many of them the dugsi is the only structured education they receive. Programmes such as integrated Qur'anic schools aim to use this existing network to teach basic reading, writing and arithmetic as well as religious knowledge.