| PROBLEM: In Somalia, the members of Yibir, Gaboye, and Tumal ethnic minorities are physically, culturally, religiously, and linguistically indistinguishable from other dominant groups. However, for two hundred years they have endured oppression, discrimination, and exclusion from all aspect of the Somali social, political, economic, and educational activities. Yibir, Gaboye, and Tumal children continue to face educational barriers including bullying, discrimination, and alienation. This study investigated key factors that contributed to the educational barriers of 24 young adults from the indigenous minorities of Somaliland.;METHOD: The method used in this study was the grounded theory of the qualitative research design. The study focused on participants who were living in the country of Djibouti, and who were previously enrolled in typical Somali schools but dropped out before completing their education. Purposeful samples of 24 male participants from the Yibir, Gaboye, and Tumal indigenous minorities, between the ages 18- 24 were asked to provide answers to a written survey questionnaire. The survey consisted of 15 open-ended questions with forward and backward translation. In addition, one focus group discussion was conducted to provide detailed answers to the same questionnaire. Charmaz's method to data collection and analysis with phrase-by-phrase, open, axial and theoretical coding was used and resulted in establishing the central theme of the study.;RESULTS: The purpose of this study was to examine the Yibir, Gaboye and Tumal young adult's perceived barriers to education in Somaliland, and to generate a theory about their views. The common themes of educational barriers were bullying, verbal, and physical abuse, ethnic harassment, discrimination, fear of negative treatment by other students, and overall alienation. Additional barriers identified included distance to schools, lack of parent encouragements, lack of supportive programs for minorities, and lack of retention programs. Regarding the impact of the lack of education on their current lifestyle, the participants cited low social-economic living conditions, inadequate job skills, and a high rate of unemployment. The emerged theory proposes that in the absence of supportive educational programs such as human rights education, and /or legal laws that are designed to combat discrimination against ethnic minorities in Somaliland, barriers to their education will remain in place. |
