The Somalia Education Cluster has three primary objectives:

1. Increase access to education for children, youth and adults in humanitarian emergencies;
    
2. Improve the quality of education, integrating essential services and life-saving messages into formal and non-formal education;
    
3. Support the establishment and strengthening of education systems, structures and policies in emergency-affected areas.

Somalia’s protracted crisis has had a devastating effect on education. Only an estimated 20 percent of the population is literate (13 percent for women). The worst affected areas are the south and central zones of Somalia, where an estimated 1.8 million school aged children are not in school.

Due to the constant insecurity in much of the country, the national cluster operates from Nairobi The cluster has managed to set up sub-national clusters within some parts of Somalia, though funding constraints among members are a perpetual challenge.