SOS Hermann Gmeiner Sheikh Secondary School

The school is situated in the town of Sheikh between the port city of Berbera and Burao, the second largest town of Somaliland. Sheikh is located in a mountainous area, which enjoys a pleasant, cool climate throughout the year.

It is also blessed with abundant rainfall. It is for this reason that the British colonial administration found the town a suitable learning environment and decided to build a modern boarding school in 1959. From then on, the school developed to become one of the best institutions in the region. Many of the prominent Somaliland politicians, key officials and academics, are graduates of this prestigious school. Unfortunately, the quality of education in the school deteriorated during the last decade of Siad Barre's military dictatorship, and later on, because of the outbreak of the civil war, the buildings were badly damaged, equipment was looted and the school was completely abandoned.

 

Renovation of the school

It was in this context that SOS Children’s Villages stepped in once Somaliland had announced its independence and security. After considering the strong need for a quality education for Somaliland's' children, SOS Children’s Villages International entered into a bilateral agreement with the Somaliland government in order to revive the renowned Sheikh Secondary School. It took two years of hard work and a large amount of resources to finish the task of renovating the school. The result has been dramatic. The school has been operational since 2003. The ministry's role is somewhat limited, however, and the current academic standards exceed that of the sixties.
The school consists of ten classrooms, science laboratories, a library, assembly and lecture halls, four boys' dormitories, a girls' hostel, a fully equipped kitchen and dining hall and a clinic.
 

Admission

The first 53 students (8 girls and 45 boys) admitted to the school were selected purely on merit. They were amongst the students who scored the highest marks in a tough and competitive examination. The admission process was closely coordinated with the Ministry of Education and has been repeated over and over again since 2003. The ministry’s role is somewhat limited, providing the list of the top one hundred students throughout the country, whereas the school organizes the entrance exams. The yearly intake used to be 50, but because of the strong need for quality education, that number has been raised to 60 over the last three years.

Unique in Somaliland

The HG Secondary School is considered unique in Somaliland for the following reasons: 

• The school operates on an equal opportunity basis for both genders. It is the first boarding school of its type in Somaliland; boys and girls are learning and living in the same compound, although they obviously have separate quarters. This idea of girls boarding with boys was at first frowned upon by some segments of the society. The school has however, successfully allayed the parents' fears and created an environment safe for girls and for the protection of their honour.

• The school follows a dual curriculum: the IGCSE and the Somaliland curricula, the students study for both the IGCSE (an internationally recognized British qualification) in the usual academic subjects and the Somaliland national examination. So far four batches have successfully graduated from the SOS HG Sheikh Secondary School. They have scored excellent grades in Edexcel exams and are categorized as being among the top ten in East Africa. These HG Sheikh graduates are rightly considered overqualified in Somaliland national examinations. In 2008, the Ministry of Education awarded a certificate of honor to the school, recognizing the outstanding achievement the school brought to Somaliland.

• In addition to the above two exams, the school last year introduced a third one on advanced computer courses, a programme which is administered from India. Exams are conducted yearly in June. The convergence of these three highly competitive exams has brought a great ideal of prestige to the school. It is an unsurpassed honour in the Somaliland educational system for one to know that he or she is a graduate of this school.