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The eldest amongst them cleared his throat. “Hmm” he said, “Gentlemen, when a problem happens, we ask ‘how do we solve it?’ and not ‘how did it happen?’”

It is common to start trials with such words and it is usually meant to make the elders from the victim’s side see things outside the box and conform to the fact that the gathering is to find a solution and not create another problem. This time the case was between Fatima and Sahra who fought at the tap-stand where people fetch water. They disagreed on who came first between them and put an empty jerry can in the water queue. Fatima was known to be very aggressive and had previously fought with many of the girls in the neighborhood. This time Sahra was determined not to give up her position in the queue.

The engine of the water borehole had broken down a week ago and people had no water left in their homes for the last seven days. Other girls were shouting behind them encouraging them to fight. Each of them had her friends motivating and backing them to fight and teach the other a lesson. At this point, both of them stood with fierce looks on their faces, looking straight at each other.

“Dhilo yah … heey …” Fatima stepped forward with each word and jumped into Sahra.
Sahra was expecting this and registered it with a tight and ready body. She buried her legs into the wet sand soil around the tab. Water that had skipped from the mouth of the jerry can had wetted the areas around the tab stand. All of a sudden, Sahra was put on the ground and was bleeding furiously. All the other girls were shouting and jumping up and down, some with the excitement of a fight and others crying for help to separate them. The adults around them jumped in and separated the girls. Somehow, Sahra had lost half of her tongue in the fight. She could not speak or cry. Everyone saw her spitting blood. People around the tap stepped in to take Sahra to the agency hospital.

This was the reason why the elders had gathered today at the local meeting point under a big acacia tree. The headman of the Odoyaal kept speaking,

“We are here to address the issue of the two girls. The daughter of Ree Qansaxhas been assaulted by your daughter” pointing his hand to the man beside him who is Fatima’s father.

He kept speaking, “Our families have a tradition of washing our hands down. We usually say, ‘what did our forefathers used to do when such a problem happens,’ but this is a strange one and we have never seen it. We do not know how to recompense for half a tongue. We know that it is a very important organ and the girl cannot talk or even pronounce a word while she is “reading,” the old man explained.

Somali clans have their own way of valuing how much the victim will be compensated taking the values from previous similar problems and translating it into current values. The compensation is usually done through money or animals most often camel, goats or cattle. This particular case was difficult to value because it had not been seen before and it will have an impact on future similar strange cases. An overestimation or underestimation of the blood money will have a consequence on the mutual non-biding relations between family friends. Those families that are not friendly usually go for an eye for an eye kind of resolution. It is therefore very important to retain the friendship with other families. After all they cannot know who will be the next victim or the next victimizer.

After a whole day session, the elders could not reach an agreement on how much compensation should be given to the girl’s family. It is usually customary to consult with the Sheikhs during difficult times and seek their advice since the majority of people trust them and accept their judgment. The elders went to one of the respected Sheikhs in the refugee settlement and explained their situation.

After a lot of considerations, the sheikh asked the elders to call the girl and asked her to try to pronounce the Quranic alphabet, which is similar to Arabic alphabet. The girl pronounced ten of the twenty-seven alphabets. He ordered the girl’s family be given camels equal to the number of alphabets the girl could not pronounce. The elders looked at each other with amazement at the sheikh’s judgment. It did not underestimate or overestimate the compensation and was far more practical and conceptually appealing to the elders. As was customary, each team of elders went outside to reach a decision and when they came back they both accepted.

First of all, why are secondary (high school) graduates hired as teachers in their own schools as soon as they graduate? To answer this question, let me give a brief summary of how secondary schools are run in Dadaab. In Dadaab there used to be three secondary schools; one in each of the three main refugee camps that make up Dadaab camp: Ifo, Dagahaley and Hagadera. The number of untrained teachers used to be few. In the last eight years or so more people have fled to Dadaab, and as a result the camps were expanded with new camps eventually created. The increase in population meant that primary (elementary) schools have increased in population which has led to more students wanting to and qualifying for secondary education.. Currently there are seven high schools in Dadaab. They are managed by only one non-profit organisation formerly CARE International but now Windle Trust Kenya (WTK). Hiring trained teachers, who are all Kenyans, is costly for the NGO since they earn teacher salaries as well as free accommodation. The process of hiring trained teachers from Kenya is quite lengthy because they may come from different parts of the country. The refugee teachers are readily available; all have the energy and the potential to immediately start teaching their fellow refugees. However, refugee teachers, because they are untrained and non-Keyan usually receive meagre payments for their work.

Providing training to refugee secondary teachers like the Teacher Education Program facilitated by some universities in Canada and Kenya will expose teachers to use of technologies and proper teaching methodologies that they  can use in their day to day knowledge delivery. Untrained teachers may attach more value to the conveyance of the theoretical aspect of the teaching than the delivery method, evaluation and reflection on what methodologies worked and why they did or didn’t have any impact. Such knowledge upgrading programs will enable refugee teachers to develop and/or maintain the high level of academic and professional standards required of high school teachers as well as becoming more creative on their jobs and improve their teaching styles and skills.

Teachers may also become more specialized on some few subjects. It is common in Dadaab secondary schools that teachers are tasked with teaching a variety of subjects at different times. Specialization may build their strengths on a few subjects and make them more passionate about teaching those subjects. It can also enable them to track their progress as they teach the same subjects year after year. Students have different needs and teachers vary in characteristics. The program can create better incentives for teachers to acquire the skills that students want. This can allow for teachers and their students to be better matched together, and hence promotes growth.

Finally, due to limitation of resources Dadaab teachers are sometimes expected to handle huge workload which especially new teachers may have difficult to bear with that and can lead to burn out and stress. Training can help them properly manage  the challenges they face in their different areas of teaching, which can be directly or indirectly related to teaching, in an environment where all the life hurdles outside of school can easily affect teaching and learning in schools. The teaching skills they learn in the training can promote better ways of teaching and advance student-teacher relationship which can in turn improve the quality of education in Dadaab to a more impressive level.