Challenges
There have been impressive successes scored in the education sector since the devastation of the civil war. Enormous challenges, however, still remain and cannot be all addressed in a paper of this nature. Among the challenges are the following:

a. Access
Access to education is one of the biggest challenges for the Somali society due to the limited number of available service providers and lack of affordability that resulted from the economic and security situations. Even with the limited available educational institutions unbalanced distribution persists in urban vs. rural, general vs. technical education, and gender disparities in education.

b. Quality:
Another challenge is the quality of the two types of resources used in education: tangibles; buildings, equipment, teaching and learning materials, and curriculum documents, and intangibles; human resource development, policies, regulations, and practices.

c. Ownership
Determining ownership of education is another import challenge. Is it community owned as in the traditional or pre-colonial era or owned by the state as in the military rule? A partnership should be established between the state and the community to share educational responsibilities and roles.

d. Relevance
Another big challenge is the relevance of education to the personal aspirations of the pupils, and the national goals and the fundamental relation of education to earning a livelihood. Different learning experiences must exposed to pupils living in a different geographic areas with relevant skills such as coastal, pastoral or agricultural.

National goals such as nationalism, the peaceful coexistence among members of society, tolerance, respect of Islamic norms and values, the democratic principles, and human rights must be emphasized in all curriculum's.

Recommendations
Involve the Somali people in discussing publicly what type of educational system will be adopted in post-conflict Somalia. During the transition, the public can be engaged by organizing and providing space for public debates, nation-wide dialogue on education, or may be even a national conference on education.

Make education an essential component of the national agenda. Enduring peace, reconciliation and development cannot be achieved without setting a proper system of education that can transform the Somali people into responsible citizens.

Base the new educational system on the existing initiatives and institutions that has been set up during the civil war. A concerted effort should be made to benefit from existing resources and expertise.

Address the issue of ownership by forging genuine partnership between the state and existing community owned education.

Prepare planned and balanced intervention to address the issue of access to education, in order to bring about a sustainable and substantial enrolment rate for primary education.

Expedite deliberate and planned intervention to train teachers and administrators to fill the wide gap of shortage of teachers created by obsolescence and aging.

Initiate special programs to meets the needes of disadvantaged groups in the society, specially the disabled, adult and women.