Education in Ethiopia

Education in Ethiopia has been dominated by the Ethiopian Orthodox Church for many centuries until secular education was adopted in the early 1900s. Prior to 1974, Ethiopia had an estimated illiteracy rate well above 90% and compared poorly with the rest of Africa in the provision of schools and universities. After 1974 revolution, emphasis was placed on increasing literacy in rural areas. Practical subjects were stressed, as was the teaching of socialism. Education received roughly 13% of the national budget in 1992. By 1995 the rate of illiteracy had dropped substantially to 64.5%. Projected adult illiteracy rates for the year 2003 even lower at 61.3% (males, 56.1%; females, 66.6%). As of 1999, public expenditure on education was estimated at 4.3% of GDP.The current system follows very similar school expansion schemes to the rural areas as the previous 1980s system with an addition of deeper renationalisation giving rural education in their own languages starting at the elementary level. The sequence of general education in Ethiopia is eight years of primary school, two years of lower secondary school and two years of higher secondary school.

Pre-1900 history

Although the existence of inscriptions prove that literacy preceded the adoption of Christianity as the recognized religion in Ethiopia, by the time of the earliest surviving records formal education was controlled by the church. Educational opportunities were seen as the preserve of Ethiopia's ruling Amhara class. However, these efforts provided educational opportunities to only a few; Samuel Gobat estimated that "where Amharic is spoken, about one-fifth of the male population can read a little, and in Tigre about one twelfth."

According to Richard Pankhurst, the traditional education provided by the church

began with the learning of the alphabet, or more properly, syllabary, made up of 26 base characters, each with seven forms, indicating the various vowels. The student's second stage comprised the memorization of the first chapter of the first Epistle General of St. John in Geez. The study of writing would probably also begin at this time, and particularly in more modern times some arithmetic might be added. In the third stage the Acts of the Apostles were studied, while certain prayers were also learnt, and writing and arithmetic continued. The children, who also studied signing would now be able to serve as choristers. The fourth stage began with the study of the Psalms of David and was considered an important landmark in a child's education, being celebrated by the parents by a feast in which the teacher, father confessor, relatives and neighbors were invited. A boy who had reached this stage would moreover usually be able to write, and might act as a letter writer. ... Other work in this stage included the study of Praises to God, and the Virgin Mary, the Song of Solomon and the Songs of the Prophets. Many people have learned the song of Solomon.

The higher education the Ethiopian Church provided involved Church music (divided into digua, zemare and mawaset, and qidasse), poetry, mathematics, history, philosophy and manuscript writing. Another field of study was aquaquam or the religious dance performed as part of church services.

1900s history

Until the early 1900s, formal education was confined to a system of religious instruction organized and presented under the aegis of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church. Church schools prepared individuals for the clergy and for other religious duties and positions. In the process, these schools also provided religious education to the children of the nobility and to the sons of limited numbers of tenant farmers and servants associated with elite families. Such schools mainly served the Amhara and Tigray inhabitants of the Ethiopian highlands. Misguided policies caused very few children to receive an education. As a result Ethiopia did not meet the Educational standards of other African countries in the early 1900s.

Toward the end of the nineteenth century Menelik II had also permitted the establishment of European missionary schools. At the same time, Islamic schools provided some education for a small part of the Muslim population. At the beginning of the twentieth century, the education system's failure to meet the needs of people involved in statecraft, diplomacy, commerce, and industry led to the introduction of government-sponsored secular education. The first public school to provide a western style education was the Ecole Imperiale Menelik II, which was opened in October 1908 under the guidance of Hanna Salib and a number of Copt teachers. By 1924, Pankhurst notes that "no fewer than 3,000 students had passed through the school", and states that in 1935 the school had 150 pupils. That same year, Emperor Menelik II established a primary school in Harar.

In 1925 the government adopted a plan to expand secular education, but ten years later there were only 8,000 students enrolled in twenty public schools. A few students also studied abroad on government scholarships; Pankhurst provides minimum numbers for several countries: at least 20 studied in Lebanon, 19 in Egypt, 12 in Sudan, 63 in France, 25 in England, 8 in the United States, 10 in Switzerland, 10 in Italy, and smaller numbers in Germany, Belgium and Spain.

After their conquest of Ethiopia, the Italians acted quickly to reorganize the educational system in Ethiopia. An ordinance issued 24 July 1936 reiterated the principle that the newly conquered country, as in the older colonies, would have two different types of educational institutions, namely "Italian type schools" and schools for "colonial subjects." The existing Tafari Makonnen School was converted into two "Italian type" schools, the Liceo-Ginnasio Vittorio Emanuele III and the Istituto Tecnico Benito Mussolini, both reserved for European children, while the prewar Empress Menen School for girls was converted into the Regina Elena military hospital. Many other existing schools were converted to Italian-only schools, while new schools created for the native population, in the words of Patrick Roberts, were "not schools in reality, but have been established for propaganda purposes." Although the Italian government boasted in 1939 that there were thirteen primary schools in the province of Shewa staffed by over sixty teachers and having an enrollment of 1481, actual attendance fluctuated greatly, as the official statement admitted that many students were said to be absent from class in order to follow Italian lorries, or to spend their time "idly in their tukuls."

Following the Italian defeat, the country started to build up the sector, but the system faced shortages of teachers, textbooks, and facilities. The government recruited foreign teachers for primary and secondary schools to offset the teacher shortage. By 1952 a total of 60,000 students were enrolled in 400 primary schools, eleven secondary schools, and three institutions offering college-level courses. In the 1960s, 310 mission and privately operated schools with an enrollment of 52,000 supplemented the country's public school system. While reforms have been made in the aims of education, the actual structure of the Ethiopian school system has remained unchanged from that established in the 1950s.

In May 1961, Ethiopia hosted the United Nations-sponsored Conference of African States on the Development of Education. Among other things, the conference highlighted Ethiopia's educational deficiencies. The Ethiopian education system, especially in primary and secondary education, was ranked the bottom among African nations. There were school and teacher shortages, a high dropout rate, and low overall attendance rates; especially among females, non-Christians and rural children. Embarrassed by this record, the Ministry of Education developed a new education policy, which was in effect until 1974. Designed in conjunction with the objectives of the government's second and third five-year development plans, extending from 1962 to 1973, the policy gave precedence to the establishment of technical training schools, although academic education also was expanded. Curriculum revisions introduced a mix of academic and nonacademic subjects. But Amharic became the language of instruction for the entire primary cycle, which handicapped any child who had a different primary language.

There were two institutions of higher education: Haile Selassie I University in Addis Ababa, formed by imperial charter in 1961, and the private University of Asmara, founded by a Roman Catholic religious order based in Italy. The government expanded the public school system and in 1971 there were 1,300 primary and secondary schools and 13,000 teachers. But the system suffered from a shortage of qualified personnel, a lack of funds, and overcrowded facilities. Often financed with foreign aid, school construction usually proceeded faster than the training and certification of teachers. In addition, most schools were in the major towns. Crowded and understaffed, those schools in small towns and rural areas provided a poor education. The inadequacies of public education before the mid-1970s resulted partly from the school financing system. To finance primary education, the government levied a special tax on agricultural land. Local boards of education supervised the disbursement of tax receipts. The system's inequities fostered the expansion of primary education in wealthier regions rather than in poorer ones. Moreover, urban inhabitants, who did not have to pay the tax but who were predominantly represented in the schools, sent their children at the expense of the taxpaying rural landowners and poor peasants. The government attempted to rectify this imbalance in 1970 by imposing an education tax on urban landowners and a 2 percent tax on the personal income of urban residents. But the Ministry of Finance treated the funds collected as part of the general revenue and never spent the money for its intended purpose. Expenditure on education was only 1.4 to 3 percent of the gross national product (GNP) between 1968 and 1974, compared with 2.5 to 6 percent for other African countries during the same period. Under the pressure of growing public dissatisfaction and mounting student activism in the university and secondary schools, the imperial government initiated a comprehensive study of the education system. Completed in July 1972, the Education Sector Review (ESR) recommended attaining universal primary education as quickly and inexpensively as possible, ruralizing the curricula through the inclusion of informal training, equalizing educational opportunities, and relating the entire system to the national development process.

The ESR criticized the education system's focus on preparing students for the next level of academic study and on the completion of rigid qualifying examinations. Also criticized was the government's lack of concern for the young people who dropped out before learning marketable skills, a situation that contributed to unemployment. The report stated that, by contrast, "The recommended system would provide a self-contained program at each level that would be terminal for most students." The report was not published until February 1974, which gave time for rumors to generate opposition among students, parents, and the teachers' union to the ESR recommendations. Most resented what they considered the removal of education from its elite position. Many teachers also feared salary reductions. Strikes and widespread disturbances ensued, and the education crisis became a contributing factor in the imperial regime's fall later that year.

With the beginning of the Ethiopian Revolution in 1974, the name of the university was changed to Addis Ababa University (AAU). By 1974, despite efforts by the government to improve the situation, less than 10 percent of the total population was literate. The national literacy campaign began in early 1975 when the government mobilized more than 60,000 students and teachers, sending them all over the country for two-year terms of service. Most critics however saw this as the government's way to silence rising opposition while at the same time creating a network of government spys in the rural areas. Generally the campaign to increase literacy remained illusive even though government reports showed improvements.

Current system

Educational structure

There is some pre-primary education for children aged 4 to 6 years but provision is patchy. Primary school education has two cycles from age 7 to 10 years (grades 1 to 4) and from age 11 to 14 years (grades 5 to 8). Regional exams are taken at the end of grade 8 (Primary school certificate exam). Secondary education has two cycles from age 15 to 16 years (grades 9 and 10) and from age 17 to 18 years (grades 11 to 12) leading up to the national exams. The Ethiopian General Secondary Education Certificate Examination (EGSECE) is taken at the end of grade 10 and requires a pass in at least 5 subjects to pass to the next level. The Ethiopian Higher Education Entrance Examination (EHEEE) is taken at the end of grade 12. Students passing the EHEEE are eligible for university if their grades are sufficiently high.

Alternative basic education (ABE) provides flexible, community based first cycle primary schooling for out of school children.

Students leaving at the end of grade 10 can go to technical and vocational education and training (TVET) institutions or colleges of teacher training (CTT). TVETs provide an alternative route to university. Universities offer 3,4, and 5 year programs for bachelor degrees, doctor of medicine and doctor of vetinary medicine. Students who have a bachelor degree may take a specialized post graduate program for a masters degree or Ph.D.

Adult and non-formal education provides primary education to adults over age 14 years and is run by both government and non-government organizations.

Primary and secondary schools

Statistics

The Ministry of Education (MoE) provides some indication of achievements in the five years from 2008/9 to 2012/13 although statistics do depend upon the accuracy of data collected. Primary school enrolment has increased substantially but only about half of those enrolled manage to complete both cycles. There are a large number of over-age children enrolling for grade 1 although this has been declining. This is shown by the difference between gross intake rate (GIR) and net intake rate (NIR). GIR is the percentage of children enrolled for grade 1, regardless of age, out of the population of the appropriate age of 7 years. NIR is the percentage of children of appropriate age out of the population of that age.

In 2008/09, GIR was 162.5% (boys = 169.4%; girls = 144.1%) and NIR was 82.2% (boys = 84.3; girls = 80.1%).

In 2012/13, GIR was 144.1% (boys = 150.2%; girls = 137.8%) and NIR was 95.5% (boys = 97.9%; girls = 93.0%).

Problems are indicated by repetition rates, drop out rates and low completion rates. Repetition rates remained much the same but drop out rates increased.

In 2007/08, repetition rates for grades 1 to 8 were 6.7% (boys = 7.0%; girls = 6.3%) and in 2012/13, they were 7.9% (boys = 8.1%; girls = 7.7%). In 2012/13, repetition rates were highest for grades 1, 5 and 8.

In 2007/08, drop out rates from grades 1 to 8 were 14.6% (boys = 15.9%; girls = 13.2%) and in 2012/13, they were 16.1% (boys = 16.2%; girls = 16.0%).

In 2007/08, the survival rate to grade 5 was 49.2% (boys = 45.8%; girls = 53.3%) and in 2012/13, it was 50.7% (boys = 49.6%; girls = 39.1%).

Completion rates for grade 5 varied around 70% and 80% but completion rates for grade 8 have improved from 43.6% to 52.8% with near parity between boys and girls. There were regional differences in grade 8 completion rates.

In 2012/13, lowest completion rates were in Afar (16.4%) and Somali (15.9%) followed by Oromiya (43.5%). About 80% of children sitting the grade 8 exam passed to grade 9.

Most children are not going to secondary school and differences between gross enrolment ration (GER) and net enrolment ratio (NER) indicate that many of these children are over-age. GER is the percentage of children enrolled out of the population of appropriate age. NER is the percentage of children of appropriate age out of the population of that age.

In 2008/09, GER was 38.1% (boys =43.7%; girls = 32.4%) and NER was 13.5% (boys = 15.0%; girls = 11.9%).

In 2012/13, GER was 38.4% (boys = 39.9%; girls = 36.9%) and NER was 19.4% (boys = 18.8%; girls = 20.1%).

From all children registered for the grade 10 exam, the percentage scoring the pass mark of 2 or more increased from 42.6% in 2008/09 to 70.1% in 2012/13 with girls increasing from 32.2% to 61.9%.

A very small proportion of children attend the second cycle of secondary school. Between 2008/09 and 2012/13, GER increased from 6.0% to 9.5% with girls increasing from 3.5% to 8.5%. From all children registered for the grade 12 exam in 2012/13, 91.7% attained the pass mark of 201 or more but only 1.7% attained 501 or more.

Access and demand

There have been improvements in access to primary schools while alternative basic education and innovations such as mobile schools are helping to reach disadvantaged groups and remote rural areas. Between 2008/09 and 2012/13,the number of primary schools increased from 25,212 to 30,534. More primary schools need to be built to reach the government target, especially in Somali, the Southern Nations, Nationalities and People's Region (SNNRP), Oromiya, Gambella region and Benishangul Gumuz. Between 2008/09 and 2012/13, the number of secondary schools increased from 1,197 to 1,912 but Harari, Afar and Dire Dawa have very few. The small number of secondary schools means that many children who do complete primary school have no access to secondary schools.

Not all parents can afford to send their children to school. Parents may need to pay for clothes, books, transport and school fees. In 1994, school fees for grades 1 to 10 were officially abolished but hidden costs remained. Other costs include loss of children's wages or unpaid labour for agriculture, tending livestock or housework. Whether children work depends on relative household wealth. Labour intensive assets such as farms can hire labour if they generate sufficient profit but poorer households may need their children to help with these assets. This can relate to family size, with larger families sending their younger children to school because older children can help their parents. Attendance is reduced when children have to travel long distances to school since this increases personal risk and transport costs. There are also cultural attitudes against educating girls since education will only benefit her husband's household.

Curriculum

The first cycle of primary education concentrates on functional literacy while the second cycle is preparation for secondary education. In principle, the curriculum aims to link theory with practice in real life and to use a problem solving approach. Primary education includes: Languages (mother tongue, Amharic), English, Mathematics, Environmental science, Natural science (Physics, Chemistry and Biology in grades 7 and 8), Social science (grades 5 to 8) and Aesthetic education. Secondary school (grades 9 to 10) continues subjects taken in primary school: English and a national language, Mathematics, Natural Sciences (Physics, Chemistry and Biology), Social sciences (Civic education, Geography and History) and Physical education.

Secondary school second cycle (grades 11 and 12) continues the Natural Science and Social science streams. Common subjects are English, Mathematics, Economics and Physical education while electives are a national language and foreign language (other than English) and a science course for the Social science stream.

Universities used to have a freshman year to prepare students for a degree but now schools are expected to prepare students. This has had a knock-on effect of moving the freshman programs down to grades 11 and 12 and programs for grades 11 to 12 down to grades 9 and 10. The grade 9 to 10 curriculum is now equivalent to grades 11 and 12 in many other countries. and it covers more subjects than most other countries require for university.

The World Bank considers that the curriculum should change from its focus on a few high levels achievers to education for all. Curriculum content differentiation should start in grades 9 and 10 and undergo further differentiation in grades 11 ad 12 to provide alternatives to university. There should be continued expansion and improvement of quality in both primary and secondary education to prepare students for different career options in the growing economy. This should take priority over expanding university education. Primary and secondary education should be laying the foundation for life-long learning by promoting metacognitive skills such as reading meaningfully, learning how to learn, group learning, real understanding, cognitive restructuring and information retrieval.

Quality of teaching

Teaching is undervalued and underpaid as a profession and this was not helped by the selection procedure. Prior to 2010, students with lower achievement at grade 10 could go to a Teacher Training Institute (TTI) or a College of Teacher's Education (CTE) for a certificate or diploma. If students passed the EHEEE, education faculties took students with lower GPAs than other faculties. Teaching is hard work with high mean pupil/teacher ratios in primary schools and many operating a double shift. Many teachers lack motivation and 60% would move to another job if given the opportunity.

Teacher pay starts at about the same level as other civil service jobs but after two years teachers earn less than their civil service counterparts. There are seven salary rungs from beginner to senior lead after 17 years of service. In 2012, the salary scale for primary school teachers went from 1,172 Birr to 3,499 Birr. In 2012, 100 Birr was worth about £3.50 or $5.50. Somali region pays 30% of the salary as an allowance for working in remote areas and Addis Ababa pays up to 10% for a housing allowance. There are no incentives for good performance.

The Regional Educational Bureau (REB) allocated teachers to Woredas which then assigned them to schools. School directors played no part in teacher selection. New teachers were often sent to remote areas where they were isolated and women teachers were vulnerable to harmful local traditions such as abduction for marriage, sexual assault and rape. Teachers complained about poor management which was often authoritarian rather than democratic. School director appointments were not seen to be based on merit and, in some cases, were clearly political. Political appointees were more involved in politics than the school and were often absent on political duties.

Between 2006/7 and 2010/11, national learning assessments (NLA) showed some improvement in percentages of children obtaining basic level proficiency in grades 4 and 8. Grade 4 increased from 41%2 to 43% and grade 8 increased from 37% to 44%. In 2008/09, 63.7% of grade 10 and 55.2% of grade 12 were performing below basic level. By 2011/12, poor performance showed some decrease, although percentages varied between subjects. In 2010, an early grade reading assessment for mother tongue found regional differences between 10% and 70% of grade 2 children unable to read and 90% of grade 3 children below the expected oral reading fluency rate. Low reading ability related to accessibility of a language textbook or other reading material.

The government aimed to provide each pupil with a textbook but the reality was a severe shortage of textbooks and other teaching materials. Consequently, teaching was usually "talk and chalk" with rote learning. Secondary schools may have a plasma television to receive the national curriculum in 60% of subjects but its success has been limited since it depends on electricity supply, good teacher facilitation and supply of textbooks. School libraries tend to be under-stocked or stocked with inappropriate books from international donations. Plasma lessons are broadcast in English for 35 minutes from Addis Ababa. Standard lesson time is 45 minutes, leaving teachers with 10 minutes for an introduction and post-discussion. Transmission was too fast for many pupils to keep up with the English and there were no facilities to record and repeat the lesson so many failed to understand the lesson. Hence, only children from rich families, who had television at home and private tutors to supplement the lessons, could benefit from lessons delivered by plasma television. The remaining 90% were disadvantaged by plasma television lessons. This could be remedied by distributing plasma lessons on CDs/DVDs to be used as teaching aids for teacher/pupil discussion.

Part of the government general education quality improvement program (GEQIP), launched in 2009, has been to up-grade teacher qualifications. Primary school teachers for grades 1 to 4 now need a diploma instead of certificate. As a result, MoE statistics show a drop in qualified primary school teachers, for grades 1 to 4, from 84.9% in 2008/09 to 15.4% in 2009/10. This percentage has increased to 43.8% in 2012/13 suggesting that grade 1 to 4 primary school teachers are up-grading their qualifications. The percentage of qualified grade 5 to 8 primary school teachers has increased from 71.6% in 2008/9 to 92% in 2012/13. Degrees among secondary school teachers increased from 77.4% in 2009/10.ě to 91.5% in 2012/13.

Pupil/teacher ratios have been improving. Mean primary school pupil/teacher ratios decreased from 53.8 in 2008/09 to 49.4 in 2012/13, although there are wide variations between regions. Mean secondary school pupil/teacher decreased from 41 in 2008/09 to 28.7 in 2012/13. Large school size also reduces educational quality. In 2012/13, mean secondary school size was 994 with variation between regions from 1,511 in Amhara to 454 in Afar.

Corruption

The World Bank survey of 80 teachers found that 80% reported general dissatisfaction with procedures for up-grading with 50% considering it was influenced by political connections and 27% by relationships to committee members. Bribery was mentioned by 9%. Application of rules and regulations could be at the discretion of key decision makers and favouritism was unchallenged. Teachers' absenteeism was tolerated to allow private tutoring which was reported by 40% of school officials. Promotion was seen as unrelated to merit and could involve forged documentation, possibly supported by officials who failed to notice forgeries. In some Woredas, teacher recruitment was based on paid up membership of the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF). These political influences started during selection for training. There were some reports of corruption in student assessment such as staff changing marks, favouring their relatives and selectively leaking questions. Fraudulent practices in examinations included forged admission cards, to allow students to pay others to take their exam, and collusion in cheating between students and school officials. In one case, regional officials were alleged to have over-turned a disqualification. Teachers might also accept bribes from students or parents to over-score the examination. Falsification of documents was widespread with most occurring for completion of the primary or secondary school cycle. There could be corruption in the building of new educational facilities, particularly in remote areas which were difficult to supervise. Corruption was indicated when a building collapsed but no one was held to account and there was no investigation. Bribery was regarded as worse than favouritism or document falsification. Expressing gratitude with a small gift was not considered corrupt. Malpractice tended not to be reported for fear of reprisals. Parent teacher associations (PTAs) and general knowledge of pupil entitlement helped to reduce some sources of potential corruption.

Language issues

Mother tongue

Amharic has traditionally been the Ethiopian lingua franca but there are about 90 different Ethiopian languages or dialects. Primary schools taught children in Amharic until 1994, when the government promoted use of ethnic languages as the medium of instruction. Children whose mother tongue is not Amharic are still disadvantaged since they also have to learn Amharic. Amharic shares the Ge'ez script with other Semitic languages such as Tigrinya (Tegrigna), the Gurage languages and related Harari . Oromigna (Oromo) is the mother-tongue of about a third of Ethiopians and it, together with Wolaytta, Afar, Sidama and Somali use a Latin script. This can cause interference with learning English because the sounds represented differ from those used in English.

There are particular difficulties in trying to introduce mother-tongue teaching when the mother-tongue is only spoken by a small minority. In North Omo, there are eleven main ethnic groups with their own languages as well as non-tribal people speaking Amharic. Local languages do share common features but, since language is a marker of identity, no one language could be chosen. Attempts to introduce hybrid languages caused language riots, so the four main ethnic groups were allowed to use their own languages, but at that time, textbooks and teaching materials were only available in Wolaytta and a hybrid language. Some children were still disadvantaged if their mother-tongue differed from the local language because they were left with no language that could be used beyond the local area. Children whose mother-tongue was insufficiently developed for use in instruction could be taught in Amharic. Parents and children could dislike mother-tongue teaching because the mother-tongue could be learned at home while Amharic and English provided work opportunities and access to higher education.

Practical difficulties included recruiting teachers by ethnic group rather than language ability. Consequently, some teachers were expected to teach their ethnic language even if their ability was poor while other teachers, who could speak the ethnic language, were not recruited. Teachers who could speak the local language had no training in its structure or written form. Local languages could lack standardization and their vocabularies might be too limited to cover the curriculum. Lack of dictionaries and grammar books meant that teachers had no guide to the proper use of language and textbooks were the only written material to help students with reading. One solution to these problems has been to allow bilingual instruction and Amharic sections in some schools.

In 2010, an EGRA for grades 2 to 3 in six mother tongues (Afan Oromo, Amharic, Harari, Sidama, Somali and Tegrigna). found that only about 5% of children had a reading fluency above the benchmark of 60 words per minute. In a sub-test of reading comprehension, the percentage of grade 2 children scoring "0" ranged from 69.2% in Sidama to 10.1% in Addis Ababa. By grade 3, this percentage had dropped to 54% and 3.8% respectively. It was poor reading comprehension that accounted for poor results in other tests. Overall, boys scored higher than girls but this was due to girls' low scores in rural areas. Girls scored higher than boys in urban areas.

English

English is the medium of instruction for later years in some primary schools, all secondary schools and in higher education. Politically, some Ethiopians regard English medium instruction, with English textbooks, as replacing Ethiopian culture with Western values and loss of identity. The failure of Ethiopia to modernize was because modernization was based on Western values rather than renewal within the Ethiopian tradition. Educational systems foster national unity by inculcating social, cultural and political ideas and these need to become Ethiopian by replacing English instruction with instruction in Ethiopian languages. Amharic or Oromo are spoken by more than 60% of Ethiopians, so Oromo, as well as Amharic, should be taught to all Ethiopians. Ethiopians should be taught English so they can connect to the outside world but there is no need for the present extensive use of English as the medium of instruction.

Currently, English medium instruction is having a detrimental effect on Ethiopian educational attainment. English is a foreign language in Ethiopia with little support from the media outside educational establishments. A study of English instruction in primary schools of the Gedeo and Sidama zones (SNNPR) found that grade 5 students' English was so poor that they were unable to learn. Their teachers' English was too poor to teach their students and there was lack of English teaching materials.

The Ethiopian teach English for life (TELL) program aims to improve English teaching in primary schools. New textbooks in English, Amharic and other mother tongues have been printed and are being distributed to primary schools. TELL is instigating a nationwide in-service teacher training program and an EGRA. Between 2009 and 2011, TELL began by training a group of master trainers in improved instruction techniques with new English textbooks and teacher guides. Master trainers trained trainers of teachers in each region. Trainers of teachers provided a 4 day in-service training to primary school teachers. Teaching techniques for grades 1 and 2 teachers focused on teaching children to speak and listen to English, to read and write English and on vocabulary and story telling. Seventeen different techniques were taught to grades 3 and 4 teachers which continued the focus on reading, writing, vocabulary and story telling. In a follow-up three months later, some of the teachers were using the new techniques. Teachers for grades 1 and 2 had most difficulty with using unfamiliar techniques that required children to think and talk aloud independently. Teachers for grades 3 and 4 seldom used double entry. This is a technique that requires interaction with peers to categorize information from a text. Constraints for all teachers included large class sizes, children at different ability levels, lack of time and lack of new textbooks. This type of one-shot training is not enough. There needed to be further follow-ups and collective participation involving the headmaster and other teachers to encourage problem solving and reflection.

Poor English continued to be a problem at university. Instructors at Addis Ababa University (AAU) found students' English so poor that they confined assessments to written tasks rather than alternatives such as presentations or debates. Students with the lowest competence in English were placed in the College of Education for training as teachers and would thus be the most ill equipped for English medium instruction.

Communicative language teaching (CLT) was tried at Arba Minch and Hawassa universities. Teachers, department heads, and vice-presidents agreed that teachers needed support to implement CLT but in-service training had little effect on teaching. This was probably because in-service CLT training consisted of short courses without supporting follow-up. Managers said they supported professional development but, in practice, this was given low priority in the face of crowded timetables and budget cuts.

Technical and vocational education (TVET)

The Federal TVET agency delegates regional TVET agencies or regional education bureaus to implement their decisions, procedures and guidelines, including accrediting providers and issuing Certificates of Competence (CoC). TVETs can prepare their own curricular to meet local conditions. TVETs aim to provide marketable and entrepreneurial skills and previously provided one or two year certificates and a three year diploma for students who had passed grade 10 exams. Now students may enter the TVET system at levels 1 to 4 depending on their grade 10 results. Students entering at level 1 can progress to higher levels if they pass the outcome based occupational assessment taken at the end of each level. Students who have passed through the TVET system and worked for two years can apply to a public university. TVETs have expanded to train students without formal qualifications and these courses can last from a few days to a year or more.

Occupational standards define the expected outcome of students' training. The national qualifications framework has five CoC levels which industries accept as effective for performance at work. CoC levels 1 and 2 provide entry to an industry or occupation. Coc level 3 is a trade level and CoC levels 4 and 5 are for supervisors, middle management or people with special technical skills. A CoC can be awarded to anyone passing the occupational assessment for each level, regardless of the way the skill was obtained. This includes both formal training and informal training at work or in the family.

There is prejudice against attending TVETs since they are regarded as catering for those unable to pass the grade 12 exams and some trades have traditionally been associated with despised "castes" regarded as polluting. Despite this prejudice, there has been substantial increase in TVET enrolment in the five years between 2006/07 and 2010/11 although training for males and females remains gender stereotyped.

Government TVETs are particularly concerned with occupations requiring investment in machinery and equipment and with increasing provision in remote areas. Workshop provision varies in quality. Some TVETs have good provision but many others have a shortage of workshops or old dilapidated workshops that lack safety features, basic sanitary facilities and essential equipment. Classrooms, stores and libraries may be in poor condition or non-existent. Instructors may lack competence since, in 2012, only 53% of those assessed met the assessment criteria. Even when TVETs have machinery and equipment, there are too many students for the few resources available. Students cannot meet the 70% to 80% requirement for practice and training remains theory based. Consequently, students have difficulty in meeting the assessment criteria with only 23% of students being found competent in 2012. Students who do graduate may still find it hard to get work. The Amhara TVET promotion bureau found only about 40% of TVET graduates managed to obtain employment.

Both public and private TVETs have failed to link education and training to the skills and quality of skills required by the labour market and have failed to monitor graduates' subsequent employment. Once TVETs have labour market information, they should provide vocational guidance to match skills to job opportunities. Private TVETs, accounting for 51% of TVET provision in 2010/11, are concentrated in urban areas and have largely been concerned with making a profit rather than their graduates' employment opportunities. They do tend to have better resources and more practically skilled instructors than public TVETs but they have been reluctant to allow their workshops to be used for co-operative training and occupational assessment.

Teacher training

Teachers are trained in 34 colleges of teacher education (CTE) and 10 universities. Previously, kindergarten and primary schools, grades 1 to 4, required a one or two year teaching certificate while grades 4 to 8 needed a three year diploma. Recently, certificates have been replaced by a three year diploma for all new primary school teachers. Selection requirements for primary school teaching include a minimum of 2 in the grade 10 exam (EGSECE), no "F" grades in mathematics or English and a minimum of "C" in specialist subjects. Student teachers take an entrance exam and are given an interview to assess interpersonal skills and motivation. Primary school teachers' cluster training prepares teachers for grades 1 to 4 and linear training prepares teachers for grades 5 to 8. All students have the same professional training but differ in that cluster training has composite subject matter while linear training includes three specialist subjects. These are three year programs for a diploma. A policy revision is expected to up-grade teacher qualifications to a degree for grades 7 and 8.

Secondary school teachers needed a B.Ed. until 2010. Since 2011, they have to have a B.Sc. or BA related to secondary school subjects plus a one year post-graduate diploma in teaching (PGDT) which includes a practicum accounting for 30% of the credit hours. Student teachers also take an entrance examination and have an interview for PGDT enrolment.

Studies of the practicum in educational faculties at Jimma and Bahir Dar universities recommend: a) more co-operation between universities and schools to support students, b) training school supervisors to work collaboratively with students to educate them, rather than be experts who evaluate them, c) providing school supervisors with role definition and d) public recognition, in the form of a title with university affiliation, to enhance co-operation. Students needed improved financial and material support.

Primary school teacher educators are expected to have a first degree in a relevant subject and are being encouraged to take a second degree. They are expected to develop professionalism by earning a higher diploma, participating in research and by having primary school teaching experience. Secondary school teacher educators are expected to have post-graduate degrees in education and at least three years teaching experience in secondary schools or five years teaching experience in teacher colleges.

In 2012/13, enrolment in CTEs for regular, evening and summer classes increased from 81,091 (39% female) in 2008/09 to 175,142 ((40.2% female) in 2012/13. Combining the cluster and linear modalities, the number of graduates has increased from 16,129 (38.8% female) in 2008/09 to 43,890 (43.1% female) in 2012/13. CTE staff have increased from 774 (12.1% female) in 2008/09 to 2044 (8.4% female) in 2012/13.

Higher education

Addis Ababa university (AAU) was the first university established in 1950 followed by Hamamaya university in 1954. By 2007, there were 7 existing universities which were expanding and 13 new public universities had started construction. By 2012, the number of public universities had risen to 34, 31 owned by the MoE plus the Ethiopian civil service university, Defense university college and Kotebe college of teacher education. There were 64 accredited non-government universities or colleges awarding degrees.

Between 2008/09 and 2012/13, undergraduate enrolment for regular, evening, summer and distance programs had increased in both government (86%) and non-government universities from 310,702 to 553,484. First degree graduates increased from 56,109 to 79,073. The percentage of females remained much the same with a range from 23.5% in 2009/10 to 29.9% in 2008/09.

Between 2008/09 and 2012/13, masters' enrolment in government and non-government universities increased from 9,800 (11.4% female) to 28,139 (20.4% female). Doctorate enrolment increased from 325 (8% female) to 3,165 (11.2% female). Masters' graduates increased from 3,574 (11.8% female) to 6,353 (14.9% female) and doctorate graduates increased from 15 (0% female) to 71 (9.9% female). Academic staff increased from 11,028 (9.8% female) to 23,905 (10.5% female).

In 2012/13, the undergraduate intake ratio of science and technology to social and humanities sciences for government regular programs was 74.26 and for all programs it was 67.33.

Quality assurance

The Ethiopian government established the Higher Education and Relevance Quality Agency (HERQA) to monitor the quality of education provided in higher education institutions. The government appoints HERQA's director and the chairman of the board is an MoE representative. Western consultants helped develop HERQA guidelines and provided initial training for quality assurance.HERQA's responsibility is limited to providing reports and recommendations to the institutions involved and the MoE. HERQA accredits private institutions but only conducts an institutional audit for public institutions. Public institutions do not need to act on HERQA recommendations.

HERQA recommended that university staff should be about 30% Ph.Ds, 50% Masters and less than 20% first degree holders.Excluding medical and vetinary degrees, in 2012/13, qualifications for all government universities were 13% Ph.Ds, 54.7% Masters and 32.2% first degrees. AAU was approaching the recommendation with 27.6% Ph.Ds, 55.3% Masters and 17.1% first degrees.

There was some doubt about HERQA's competence to fulfill its mission since the majority of members were from agriculture and would thus not be able to insure quality and relevance throughout the higher education sector.

Business process re-engineering has recently been introduced across the public sector to improve effectiveness and efficiency from "scratch" but this has received only limited support from universities. HERQA has recently changed its name to Education Training Quality Assurance Agency (ETQAA)

Government responsibilities and directives

The Federal government provides a block grant to universities based on student enrolment but unrelated to performance and lacking in accountability.When university education was first introduced, students were given free room and board but, since 2003, there has been cost sharing whereby the student pays full cost for room and board and a minimum of 15% of tuition fees. The government provides a loan which must be repaid, starting one year after completing the degree. Certain programs are chosen for exemption whereby students can re-pay in kind. In the case of secondary school teacher training, students can serve as teachers for a specific number of years.

The MoE has the power to grant university status to an institution if it has the potential to reach university status in an "acceptable time", which is not specified. New universities thus struggle to meet the criteria upon which they were awarded university status in advance.

The MoE ordered curriculum reforms but over-rode proposals from academics so all universities had the same mission and academics thought they had no right to make curriculum revisions. Universities could not initiate new programs without MoE permission but the MoE could choose a university and order a new program without proper curriculum development or adequate facilities and equipment. Consequently, curriculum reforms to graduate programs became unstable and this instability spread to Masters' programs. AAU was ordered to change to modular programs for all Masters' degrees. The MoE's directives effectively prevented universities from carrying out their mission.

The government requires universities to have 70% of students in engineering and natural science and 30% in humanities and social sciences. Students can state a preference but only those with high marks in the grade 12 exam are likely to be selected for their chosen course.

Governance

Ethiopian universities used to have collegial governance. There were three governing bodies: a) the executive body of president and department heads which implemented decisions passed by the senate, b) the senate which included professors, faculty and student representatives and was responsible for academic matters and c) the supervisory body of assemblies which provided advice to the executive. The president was the chief executive officer directing the university. The university board had overall supervision and was independent of the MoE. It selected candidates for president based on merit and made recommendations to the government.

In 2008, there was a change from the collegial model to management model with the introduction of outcomes based BPR. AAU expanded administrative posts to create a Reform office and five vice-presidents. Previous faculties and schools were combined into seven colleges headed by directors reporting to the president. Faculty or school deans reported to vice-presidents. Colleges had greater autonomy from the central administration in terms of using their budgets and organizing activities. However, this did not reduce the high ratio of support staff (60%) to academic staff (40%).

Research on governance and teaching quality was conducted between 2009 and 2010 at AAU, Mekelle university (MU) and Jigjiga university (JU). MU is a young, medium sized university upgraded from a college in 2000 and JU is one of the twelve new small recently established universities. At AAU, long serving academics considered that governance had changed from democratic to autocratic. Previously, the three university bodies were strong and provided quality assurance but now the president had all the power with assemblies reduced to meetings and only a skeleton senate remaining. There were rules and regulations but they were ignored. Leaders were quarreling among themselves and preventing any attempt at change. University leaders used to be selected on merit, from those who had come up through the system, but now they were appointed by the government and their ability was questionable. There was no control from the university board since they were government officials with their own work and little interest in the university. Increasing numbers of academic staff were failing to attend their classes and there was no one to check their attendance, research or student learning. The introduction of BPR had only produced another layer in the bureaucratic hierarchy, contrary to BPR recommendations to reduce hierarchy.

MU had implemented BPR to the extent of having policies and a one man quality assurance office that lacked resources or support from top management. They had introduced self-evaluation but this made no difference to practice. Staff and management thought leadership lacked commitment and they noted corruption, lack of transparency, networking and inadequate evaluation of employees. The board lacked commitment and the president maintained his position by pleasing the board.

JU's governance was hampered by inexperienced staff throughout the hierarchy although top management did support their lower level staff. Quality assurance was impossible without minimal staff and facilities.

In 2012, AAU announced extensive reforms to their governance. The president would remain the chief executive officer. The post of college director would be removed and the duties undertaken by the college dean who would be chief executive officer of the college. The chain of command would be reduced from six or more layers to two layers below vice-president. The new structure would be: a) governing board, b) president with inputs from senate, managing council and university council, c) four vice-presidents, an executive director for the college of health sciences, institutes of technology and institute of peace and security studies would report to the president, d) colleges/institutes would report to the president, and e) departments/schools/centers would report colleges/institutes. Research units which had become teaching units would revert to 75% research and 25% teaching.

Academic staff, resources and students

In 2010, all academic staff were poorly paid and there were no incentives for good work or penalties for poor practice. At AAU, academic staff could increase their income with additional work outside the university. This was not stopped because it would result in loss of experienced teachers. There was resentment that Indian professors were paid more than twice as much as Ethiopian professors. MU had the potential for improvement but, given low pay and possible opportunities for work in new private colleges, they could soon resemble AAU. JU, being in a remote area, had no opportunities for outside work, so staff were fully engaged with their work but they would leave if given the opportunity. Staff thought teaching was not up-to-date or based on practice because research was not being done. Staff were relying on foreign teaching materials and textbooks which might not relate to the Ethiopian situation. Class sizes and resource shortages meant that laboratory work, practical work, field work, essays and projects were gradually being phased out. Courses were reduced to theory without practice thus encouraging rote learning to pass exams.

All three universities suffered from poor resource. JU resource shortages were most severe with basic facilities still under construction. Students had to go to nearby Haramaya university. In 2007/08, MU only had 5 academic staff with Ph.Ds while JU had one Ph.D. AAU staff were advising MU students and JU students depended on Haramaya staff. All Ethiopian universities suffer from poor library facilities, large class sizes, and lack of equipment. The internet has the potential to access world knowledge but there is only one internet provider which is run by the government. All ICT suffers from poor connectivity and a shortage of technicians.

The MoE were selecting students inadequately prepared for university since 56.3% of students in 2008/09 and 50.6% of students in 2009/10 had not attained the required 50% minimum pass mark for university entrance.Students focused on obtaining diplomas and degrees since this was what society required. Student non-completion for those entering in 2007/08 were highest at AAU (33%), particularly for Physics (77%) and Economics (57%), followed by MU (29%) and JU (24%).

Corruption

All universities suffered from lack of resources but some of this was due to corruption. In 2009/10, AAU staff thought nepotism, patronage and abuse of resources was widespread. They noted that the number of administrators driving expensive cars around campus had increased. Inadequate planning from both government and universities allowed resource abuse to occur. Corruption was encouraged by social recognition for wealth and power rather than academic excellence. Some professors were opening private colleges and advising their students to attend them. Teachers were often absent from class and moonlighting to make up for poor pay. Teachers might award marks based on favoritism or ethnic and religious relationships. In on case, a female student reported an administrator for demanding sexual favors in exchange for passing her grade to the registrar. The administration could change a fail to a pass at the student's request. Corruption and lack of transparency were also observed at MU.

Mismatch between higher education and the employment market

The Ethiopian government concentrated on expanding higher education without due attention to the employment market. In 2013, there were 9,185 new engineering graduates but their training did not meet employer requirements. A HERQA survey in 2010 found that employers considered graduates in engineering, medicine and management were not sufficiently qualified for the work required. Graduates' only advantage was that they could be hired cheap. Higher education institutes were not responding to employer needs and there appeared to be no channel of communication between them.Furthermore, employers were overlooking recent graduates and only employing those with five years of work experience. In 2012 alone, 50,000 new graduates were released onto the job market which is too large a number to be absorbed by private or state institutions. Graduates from AAU were told to become self-employed if they could not find an employer. The African development bank sees this situation as a cause of discontent across North African countries.

It is possible to improve the match between graduate training and employer requirements when relevant organizations interact with university faculty and manage to obtain money for laboratories and equipment. The competence of medical laboratory technicians was improved in five Ethiopian universities. In-service training was too disruptive to normal services which already suffered from staff shortages. The Centre for Disease Control Ethiopia and the American Society for Clinical Pathology (ASCP) together with university faculty assessed medical laboratory education. The curriculum was revised and standardized to include practical training which formed part of the final assessment. Faculty staff were trained in grant writing and quality management systems. The United States President's fund for AIDS relief provided money for equipment, including an uninterrupted power supply and consumables. Lecturers were trained to use the new curriculum, improve their teaching skills and up-date their knowledge through website resources supplied by ASCP consultants. The result was graduate laboratory technicians who were confident, competent and skilled.

Research and journals

Addis Ababa University (AAU) publishes 15 journals. They are:

Journal of Ethiopian Law. Bulletin of the Chemical society of Ethiopia. SINET. Ethiopian Journal of Science. Journal of Education for Development. The Ethiopian Journal of Higher Education. The Ethiopian Journal of Education. Ethiopian Journal of Development Research. Ethiopian Journal of the Social Sciences and Humanities. The Ethiopian Journal of Health Development. Zede. Ethiopian Pharmaceutical Journal. Ethiopian Medical Journal. IER FLAMBEAU. Journal of Ethiopian Studies. Journal of the Biological Society of Ethiopia.

Foreign students

There are education facilities for foreign residents, though foreign nationals are not accepted in the public schools of Ethiopia. However, there are quite a few private schools in Addis Ababa specifically for the children of foreign residents. Among them are Swedish Community School, Indian Community School, Bingham Academy, International Community School and others.

Core problems

Ethiopia faces many historical, cultural, social and political obstacles that have restricted progress in education for many centuries. According to UNESCO reviews, most people in Ethiopia feel that work is more important than education, so they start at a very early age with little to no education. Children in rural areas are less likely to go to school than children in urban areas. Though gradually improving, most rural families cannot afford to send their children to school because parents believe that while their children are in school they cannot contribute to the household chores and income. Social awareness that education is important is something that Ethiopia lacks but has improved gradually. There is a need to change the importance of education in the country's social structure, and children should be encouraged and required to attend school and become educated. The society of Ethiopia expects teachers and parents to use corporal punishment to maintain order and discipline. Most believe that through punishing children for bad habits they in turn learn good ones. Also since the mid-1970s there was a drastic loss of professionals who left the country, mostly for economical reasons. Many educated Ethiopians sought higher salaries in foreign countries thus many of those who managed to finish higher education emigrated from Ethiopia creating an endless shortage of qualified professionals in every sector of the country. As of 2006, there were more Ethiopia-trained doctors living in Chicago than in the entire country. Now the custom of sending academics abroad with the risk of a brain drain is being replaced by expansion of masters and doctoral programs to up-grade academic staff. Instead, foreigners have been funding programs for leadership, management and pedagogic skills or sending staff to help strengthen teaching and management practices.

See also

• Category:Universities and colleges in Ethiopia
• List of universities and colleges in Ethiopia

References

Ethiopian Federal Ministry of Education. Education Statistics. Annual Abstract. November 2005 EC (2012/13 GC)

External links

• Ethiopia-Ed.net
• The African Children's Educational Trust
• U.S. Trade & Aid Monitor, July 20, 2011: "USAID to Launch Five-Year Ethiopian Education Endeavor"
• U.S. Trade & Aid Monitor, August 8, 2012: "USAID Providing Millions of Textbooks to Ethiopia"