Profiting from Pupils: How Somaliland's Ministry of Education Turned National Exam Results into a Corporate Windfall
- A Gallaydh Editorial
- Aug 26
- 3 min read
The Ministry of Education and Science of Somaliland, in coordination with the National Examinations Office, recently announced the official results for middle schools, high schools, and vocational institutions. With over 42,500 students sitting for the exams this year, the cycle marked the largest cohort of test-takers in Somaliland’s history. However, the national anticipation and joy of graduation were quickly overshadowed by a highly controversial monetization scheme. Students and parents found themselves forced to cross a financial paywall simply to access their own hard-earned grades.
The Economic Burden and a Corporate Windfall
Traditionally, the pursuit of education in Somaliland places a heavy financial burden on families. From examination registration fees and mandatory identification cards to textbooks, daily transport, and graduation certificates, the costs compound relentlessly for the average household. This year, the Ministry introduced an unprecedented hurdle: a mandatory $0.40 fee (equivalent to roughly 20,000 Somaliland Shillings) to check exam results, processed exclusively through the private telecommunications giant, Telesom.
The sheer scale of this operation reveals a staggering corporate profit. Official statistics indicate that 16,119 students graduated from high schools, 26,116 from middle schools, and 860 from vocational institutions. When these figures are multiplied by the new service fee, it becomes clear that Telesom generated an estimated $17,238 in a single day, entirely off the backs of students checking their scores.
Previously, the Ministry of Education shared result data with telecom companies to facilitate access, but the companies were never permitted to charge the students. This sudden policy shift acts as a regressive hidden tax, directly targeting struggling parents who are already navigating a harsh economic climate.
A Blatant Cash Grab Exposing Technological Incompetence
Technology and data analysts have been quick to point out that the services provided by Telesom in no way justify this public cost. The Ministry of Education handed over a fully compiled, comprehensive national database to the private corporation. Telesom's role was reduced to rudimentary data entry and basic database management to facilitate SMS queries. In the modern digital era, managing, hosting, and querying this type of structured data is a remarkably simple and inexpensive task that should never require third-party outsourcing.
Furthermore, with modern advancements in Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Optical Character Recognition (OCR), thousands of physical exam papers can be digitized, read, and inputted into a database in mere minutes at a fraction of the historical cost. The Ministry's reliance on a private telecom for basic data retrieval exposes a severe lack of internal technological capacity, modern know-how, and visionary leadership. To the public, this arrangement appears to be a blatant cash grab orchestrated by the company and facilitated by government ineptitude.
An Abdication of State Responsibility
This procedural misstep highlights a profound abdication of governmental responsibility. In both developed and developing nations, national exam results are treated as public goods. They are published on official, secure government web portals where families can access them freely.
By transferring highly sensitive national data to a private entity and allowing it to be paywalled, the Ministry has severely compromised its institutional independence. Instead of acting as the guardian of student welfare and academic integrity, the Ministry functioned as a mere data broker feeding a telecom monopoly. The absence of a designated, free-to-use government website or official social media publication for these results is a glaring failure in public administration.
A Blueprint for Future Reform
To rectify this systemic failure, safeguard citizen data, and rebuild a transparent governance model, the Ministry of Education must immediately implement the following strategic reforms:
Establish an Independent National Portal: The government must develop and launch a dedicated, secure database portal owned entirely by the National Examinations Office. This platform would allow every student to access their results and verify their certificates for free using their unique examination roll numbers.
Build Internal IT Capacity: The National Examinations Office must hire and train competent in-house technology experts capable of managing, storing, and securing student data. This will eliminate the reliance on external corporations and prevent unwarranted commercial interference.
Ban the Monetization of Basic Services: The executive branch must issue a strict directive prohibiting telecommunications companies from placing paywalls in front of essential government data. Public records and educational results are national assets owned by the public, not commodities for corporate extraction.
Embrace Modern Technological Solutions: The Ministry must modernize its internal operations by adopting AI and data digitization tools. Automating the grading and data-entry processes will drastically lower administrative costs, speed up result times, and improve overall accuracy.
Ultimately, the right to access one's own educational records is a fundamental civil entitlement. It must never be reduced to a commercial product that exploits the nation's most economically vulnerable students.
