And inturn that would increase
chance that students will succeed

“I am writing to express my views about the announcement that Lewiston High School will offer Arabic and Chinese language classes this year. The biggest challenges for Somali parents in Lewiston are language barriers and understanding the school system. Communication between parents and school is very essential for student’s success.

Our Somali community values education more than anything. Every child is advised by their parents to learn, behave well at school and listen to their teacher. The best advice you will hear from every Somali parent is “be respectful to your teachers; teachers are second parents.”

Not many Somali parents had educational opportunities in their homeland. This is one reason why they value education more than anything and want their children to succeed at school. They are grateful for the educational opportunities available in this country. Most have experienced violence and hardship, and in Lewiston they want to live in a quiet and peaceful place to raise their children and get good education for their children.

Language policy and access in the local schools is so important for the success of children of Somali immigrant parents. Children from Somali-speaking families are now nearly a quarter of the population in the Lewiston schools. Language facilitators in each school and the community liaison in the Dingley building help to bridge between the school and parents. But given the number of children from Somali-speaking families,  this is not enough.

What I am hoping to see in Lewiston public schools is to have some bilingual teachers. I would like to see the ELL graduation rate increase and the communication between schools and parents strengthened. I would like to see Somali language offered at Lewiston Public Schools.

Lewiston attracts many immigrants because of the education available, but we still have gaps to fill. Let us be a role model for others. There is great evidence that teaching the foreign home language of children who attend a school helps student success, such as teaching Spanish in communities with a significant Latino population.

Many Somali children are not engaged with their parents because of the language barrier, because their parents speak Somali and children speak English. This huge barrier often leads to family conflicts. In a Somali language course offered in the Lewiston Public schools, students can learn the language and learn to better engage with their parents and succeed academically.

Also, students need to have someone they speak to in their language when English is a barrier for them, especially the newcomers. We are a small city, small community and we need to reflect our local community’s needs.

Another innovation that I would like to see is for our school administrators and educators to have ongoing cultural competency training to help student success at school and to better teacher-parent communication. If you don’t know much about your student, you can’t help them.

Many of immigrant children’s parents have gone through bad experiences in their homeland and in the refugee camps. Even after they arrive in the United States, they may not have access to support systems or community resources. If their children’s teachers have a better understanding of their experiences, then those teachers will be much more effective in working with their children and showing the parents how to support their children in school.

We would like to see more foreign languages taught at our schools, not to replace the existing ones. As a community leader and parent I would like to see every student succeed at school—this is what will make us a stronger community.”

Abdikadir Negeye is human resources director and one of the founders of the of the Maine Immigrant and Refugee Services, formerly the Somali Bantu Youth Association of Maine. He holds a bachelor’s degree in sociology and behavioral science from the University of Southern Maine. He coaches youth soccer in Lewiston.