Qur'an schools (dugsi) and religious learning in Somalia

The first school for almost everyone

A UN Peacebuilding Fund project document says Somalis "almost universally voluntarily attend traditional Quranic schools for at least a few years during their early childhood, usually from the age of 3 or 4 years old". It calls this "a common reference point" that "all Somalis uniquely share", across income, region and clan (UN Peacebuilding Fund, Building Peace Through Religious Education in Somalia).

Somalia's Ministry of Education estimates about 50,000 Qur'an schools teaching over 4 million children. A December 2024 study by the Ministry of Endowments and Islamic Affairs and UNICEF sampled more than 2,000 schools in towns of Banadir, Jubaland, South West, Hirshabelle and Galmudug, with more than 150,000 children (same document). See schools and learning in numbers.

How a dugsi works

A writer for Geeska describes the countryside malcaamad (Abdihakim Mohamed, "The Somali Quran school", Geeska, 25 April 2025):

• Where: under a big tree (waab), in a hut of wood and mud (dergad) or, more rarely, a tin shack (jiingad). No outside aid is needed to start one.
• The board: each child writes on a flat wooden board (loox), often cut from kidi wood, instead of a book.
• Pen and ink: a pen carved from an ergeeg stick, and ink of ground charcoal and water, thickened with sugar or aloe sap (sab).
• The teacher: a macallin, often a travelling teacher who settles with the community.
• Steps: first children learn to spell the Qur'an's words, taught in Somali; then they read and memorise. Finishing each of the 30 parts (juz) is marked with a small celebration called bunayn.
• Fees: a small joining fee (fadhiisin) and about one US dollar a month per child. When a student finishes the whole Qur'an, the teacher is traditionally given a grown she-camel (qaalin).

The Library of Congress study adds that some teachers walked from place to place with their students, living on what people gave them, and also led prayers, blessed people and herds, settled disputes and performed marriages (Library of Congress, Somalia: A Country Study, 1992).

Girls and boys

Both girls and boys attend in the early years, generally from about 3 to 7. The UN document says girls attend at a lower rate than boys, but those who stay often continue until an older age (UN Peacebuilding Fund). The Geeska writer notes that in the past teachers preferred boys, because women had fewer chances to become scholars (Geeska).

Through war and drought

The UN document says Qur'an schools have been "the cornerstone of education in Somalia for over 800 years". In the 1960s there were efforts to bring them into the national system; in the 1970s they were set aside; in the 1980s the Arab League tried again. When state schools shut after 1991, "dugsis remained functional", through drought, conflict and displacement (UN Peacebuilding Fund).

Beyond the dugsi

Religious learning has three levels in Somalia today (UN Peacebuilding Fund):

1. Traditional Qur'an schools (dugsi): reading, recitation (tajwiid) and memorising (xifdi).
2. Integrated Qur'an schools: early-childhood classes that add Somali, Arabic and maths, under a curriculum from the education ministry, which now has a Department for Quranic Education.
3. Islamic Sharia institutes (macaahid): formal primary and secondary schools teaching law (fiqh), hadith, Arabic and theology alongside normal subjects.

After the early years, a smaller number of children keep studying with the same teacher or with the imam of a local mosque (UN Peacebuilding Fund). The US State Department notes that private schools are now the main source of primary education and most teach Islam, and that "externally funded madrassahs" give cheap basic education, many teaching Salafi ideas (US State Department, International Religious Freedom Report 2023, via ecoi.net).

Abroad. Since the 1300s Somali students have gone to al-Azhar in Cairo, where students from Zeila had their own hostel, the Riwaq al-Zayla'i (Al-Zayla'i, Wikipedia; Abyssinia at al-Azhar, AfricArXiv). In the 1950s and 1960s many Somali teachers trained in Cairo (Library of Congress, 1992). See universities in Somalia.

Who runs them now

Qur'an schools have been under the Ministry of Endowments and Religious Affairs, run by communities and paid for mostly by parents, with some outside funding (US State Department, 2023). On 10 December 2025 the ministry began a national count of Qur'an schools to learn how many exist, their condition and what training and money they need. The minister said the schools had no dedicated federal budget (Eastleigh Voice). The government has since announced that Qur'an schools will come under the Ministry of Education for the first time, with a digital register (Eastleigh Voice).

Concerns the reports raise

The UN document lists problems: no common curriculum or regulation, memorising the Arabic text without learning its meaning, corporal punishment, few female teachers, and the risk that armed groups such as al-Shabaab use religious schooling to reach adolescents. It notes that no systematic study of recruitment in Somali schools has been done (UN Peacebuilding Fund). The Geeska writer describes caning for mistakes, which parents accepted "on the condition that no bones were broken" (Geeska).

Read further

• Islam in Somalia and why almost every Somali is Muslim.
• How Islam reached the Somalis.