Education In Ethiopia

Prospects, Challenges and policy options of Ethiopian Educational System towards the Achievement of EFA Goals Introduction Human resources development constitutes the foundation upon which material development can occur, and education represents a major form of human resources development. Besides, it is widely believed that the expansion of educational opportunities is a keystone to the nation’s accelerated socio-economic development. Education provides a fundamental base for all further human development and its availability and quality are central to the human resource development of any society. The aim of extending a basic level of education to all children, young people and adults around the world has captured the imagination of all nations. It was a major outcome of the World Conference on Education for All, held in Jomtien in 1990, and was reconfirmed in a series of summits throughout the following decade. The World Education Forum (2000) agreed on six EFA goals, which were considered to be essential, attainable and affordable given that strong commitment are given to them by specific governments and by international communities, The Dakar Framework for Action declared that by 2015, all children of primary-school age would participate in free schooling of acceptable quality and that gender disparities in schooling would be eliminated. Levels of adult illiteracy would be halved, early childhood care and education and learning opportunities for youth and adults would be greatly increased, and all aspects of education quality would be improved. In the same year, the Millennium Development Goals were agreed, two of which –universal primary education (UPE) and the elimination of gender disparities in primary and secondary education – were defined as critical to the elimination of extreme poverty.

The goals of EFA are of enormous significance. Without constant and steady progress towards them, development cannot be judged to be happening. At the Dakar Forum, the resolution made plain that all parties should be accountable for their record in meeting the commitments they had made. National governments agreed to dedicate themselves to securing the goals, while international agencies pledged that no country thus committed would be prevented from achieving them by a lack of resources. The Ethiopian Government has long recognized that the realization of basic education is both a necessity and a fundamental human right. It was the signatory of all the regional and global proclamations and approaches to provide basic education for all during the latter part of the 20th century. It was the signatory of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, adopted by the United Nations in 1948, which, asserted that ‘everyone has a right to education’, and which is re-affirmed by subsequent international conferences and normative texts and sought to be achieved. It took part in al the Regional UNESCO conferences in the early 1960s; held at Addis Ababa, Karachi, Santiago and Tripoli; the Udaipur Conference on literacy and its subsequent charter in 1983; the World Summit for Children and the Convention on the Rights of Children in 1989; the 1990 Jomtien Declaration on Education for All and the 1999 Sub-Saharan Conference on Education for African Renaissance and the 2000 Dakar Declaration which are all efforts that bear witnesses in the realization of education as a basic human right world-wide. 1

The Dakar goals covered the attainment of Universal Primary Education (UPE) and gender equality, improving literacy and educational quality, and were to be achieved within 15 years. However, the gender goal was judged to be particularly urgent – requiring the achievement of parity in enrolments for girls at primary and secondary levels by 2005, and of full equality throughout education by 2015. According to the EFA declaration, the gender parity goal is to be achieved this year (2005) Universal access to basic education remains an unfulfilled pledge in Ethiopia. The hopes and aspirations to universalize basic primary education remains a matter of great concern at the dawn of the 21st century. Millions of children in Ethiopia still fail to gain access to schooling, and even larger numbers among those who do enroll leave prematurely, dropping out before the skills of literacy and numeracy have been properly gained. A majority of such children are girls. As a result, the scourge of illiteracy still affects more than 60% of adults, the majority of whom are women. Although commendable effort has been made to improve the quality, equity and efficiency of the system at all levels, there are indicators that they are further worsened. Thus it is high time to critically analyze how near or far Ethiopia is in achieving EFA goals by trying to answer the following leading questions: 1) How near or far Ethiopia is from the achievement of EFA goals 2) Is the current education policy framework adequate for achieving EFA goals 3) What are the efforts so far made by the Ethiopian Government towards the achievement of EFA Goals 4) What are the major problems encountered in achieving the goals 5) What policy options can facilitate the achievement of EFA goals The primary purpose of this study is to critically analyze the extent to which EFA goals are being addressed and in Ethiopia and there by to recommend policy options for achieving the goals. The paper summarizes recent progresses and the remaining challenges in the education sector and presents policy options for improvement. The study is largely based on document analysis. Among the six EFA goals, emphasis is given to achieving UPE, eliminating gender discrimination and improving education quality and efficiency until 2015. The remaining two EFA goals -,(1) Levels of adult illiteracy would be halved, and (2) early childhood care and education and learning opportunities for youth and adults would be greatly increased- are not purposefully included in the study for they can not be by any means achieved in the target year. The Ethiopian literacy rate is currently below 30% and the GER for pre-school is only 2.2%. The

focus is mainly on Policy framework, educational decentralization, access, equity, quality and efficiency. The paper stats with a brief overview of the history of educational development in Ethiopia to offer a better understanding of the developments and challenges of education in Ethiopia, 1. Historical Overview of the Ethiopian Education A detailed analysis of the origin and development of Ethiopian education may not serve our purpose here. However, a brief glance at its general features can serve as a

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background information to the problems of quantitative expansion and qualitative improvement of education in Ethiopia. 1.1. Indigenous Education Ethiopia has a long and rich history of educational traditions. Indigenous education was offered by all ethnic and linguistic groups and remains an important transmitter of cultural identity from one generation to the next. It aims at instilling in children the attitudes and skills appropriate for male and female social roles, emphasizing the duties and privileges derived from cultural values. Imparted through language and example at home as well as informal lessons and ritual outside the home, indigenous education responds to the concrete problems of local communities. It prepares political leaders and ordinary farmers in the community. Under the present situation, because still many school age children and the majority of adults in the rural areas of Ethiopia have little access to modern education, indigenous education plays and continues to play an important role in preparing the young generation for their future role. 1.2 Religious Education Ethiopia’s early Christian heritage represents a second important element of Education in the country. Especially in the northern, North-western and central Ethiopia, Christianity has thrived for more than 1500 years. In about the 4th century, the Ethiopian Christian church established a comprehensive system of education that provided Ethiopian cultural, spiritual, literary, scientific, and artistic life (World Bank, 1988, p. 11). The church in Ethiopia was able to provide a sophisticated and peculiar type of education that takes as many as 30 years to complete. Like church education in other parts of Christendom, the primary purpose of the Ethiopian church education was to prepare young men for the service of the church as deacons and priests. Moreover, in its long history of existence, church education has served as the main source of civil servants such as judges, governors, scribes, treasures and general administrators (Teshome Wagaw 1979, p.11) In spite of its long literary heritage, which could have been used as a basis on which to build an educational sphere unparalleled in Africa, church education in Ethiopia has played a limited role in the development of the society in general and the offering of education in particular. Unlike church education in many other regions, its access in Ethiopia was limited to only a few people and the country basically remained “the land of the thumb print (the national literacy campaign co-ordinating committee, 1984,p.3) Besides, this limited church education was unevenly distributed. It flourished only in the north and north eastern part of Ethiopian (Ayalew Shibeshi , 1989,p.31). Moreover the Ethiopian church, which up to the end of the 19th century had a virtual monopoly on education, strongly opposed the introduction of modern public education in the country. The Ethiopian church feared the undermining potential of a state school system by European teachers (Tekeste negash, 1990,p.1). The first attempt to open schools of a European type made by missionaries in the 16th century and in the 17th century were collapsed by a tremendous opposition from the Ethiopian church circle who feared the attempt made to convert the country to Catholicism. All attempts repeatedly

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made after those too were of no avail. Generally, until the end of the ninetieth century, education was totally left in the hands of the church. Islamic Education in Ethiopia A third major element of Education in Ethiopia was the influence of the Islam in Ethiopia. Arab culture and faith were adapted in much of the southern and South-eastern Ethiopia. Non-formal school system was established to teach the ethics and theology of Islam. Designed to impart skills and knowledge within the religious realm, the Islamic education system emphasised reading and recitation in Arabic. Like the church, the mosques in the Moslem areas had a parallel function in running chronic schools starting from the 7th century in Ethiopia. But unlike the church schools, the koranic schools were maintained by the local committees themselves and received no state assistance of any kind (Markokis, 1994). The lack of assistance from the state and the opposition from the church limited the operation of such schools only to the centres of Islamic faith where community support was available (Ayalew Shibeshi, 1989.p.31) 2. The Introduction of Modern Education to Ethiopia The introduction of modern education to Ethiopian was not an accidental happening. Rather it was the outcome of the objective conditions in the country. The establishment of a central state authority and permanent urban seat of power, the arrival of foreign embassies, the development of modern economic sector and other conditions were some of the objective conditions that called for modern education in Ethiopia. Particularly around the end of the 19th century the practice of sending young Ethiopian abroad for higher education, become more intensified in two directions. On the one hand, the foreign Missionaries were convinced that young Ethiopian who were educated aboard and had imbibed western culture would be effective instrument for spreading their religious faith in Ethiopia. The young Ethiopian who were sent aboard by the religious institutions were expected to speared the faith upon their return to the country . On the other hand Emperor Menelik had a very strong desire to establish a strong government in the country. Thus having learned of the advantages of modern education from those young Ethiopians who were sent to abroad by the missionaries for the religious purpose and who had returned home, Menelik decided to send a considerable number of Ethiopians to Various European countries. The Ethiopians sent aboard by the government were trained in military science, agriculture, engineering and other similar professions (Ethiopian observer, 1962,pp.250-260). Some of the young Ethiopians who were sent aboard by both the government and the religious institution come back with the desire of modernizing their country. They used the knowledge they had gained in the course of their modern education and tried to implement it particularly for the progress and prosperity of their country. Thus, the beginning of modern education in Ethiopia is directly related to the advent of foreign missionaries in the country. These missionaries opened schools and instituted modern education alongside their religious institutions in all the places where they were accepted or come into agreement with the feudal class.

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Nevertheless, the establishment of modern schools was speeded up beginning with the turn of the 20th century owing to the efforts of Emperor Menelik and Ethiopian intellectuals who had returned from abroad. A proclamation encouraging the people to give greater emphasis for modern education had also been issued in 1898 (Blaten Geta Mahteme Selassie Wolde Meskel, 1962. Pp.600), which laid down the foundation for the spread of modern education in the country. Modern education officially commenced in 1908 with the opening of Menelik II School in Addis Ababa, marking a significant step in the history of education in Ethiopia. Soon after, Menelik himself opened three more schools one each in Harar, Dessie and Ankober. Following his examples, the regional governors also opened schools in Yirgalem, Gore and Harar. Mainly because of the opposition of the clergy, progress was very slow. During Italian Occupation During the second World War in 1936, when Italia invaded the land, there were only 21 government schools and few other mission school with a total enrolment of 4200 students (Teshome Wagaw, 1979). The Italian occupation (1936-1941) seriously disrupted the educational system that had just begun to emerge. Government schools were either closed down or were used for military purposes. To the extent that they were engaged in education, the Italians did much to disrupt the education system they inherited by their lack of interest and by their systematic elimination of educated Ethiopians (Richard Pankhurst, 1972 pp. 361-396). The few pre-war educated youngsters were purposely and systematically massacred and the educational system had to start from a scratch when the country was liberated in 1941. Post-war Educational Expansion The government of Ethiopia began to lay down the educational foundation virtually from the scratch. The first post-war schools were opened in 1942, and there was extreme shortage of teachers and textbooks, although some British staff from the British Council was available to the government. The main emphasis at this stage was the creation of an educational system that could provide for small corps of clerical, technical and administrative personnel to run the government machinery (G.A.Lipsby, 1962). To meet this need reconstruction began with the re-establishment of the Ministry of Education in 1942. To enhance expansion, a Board of Education was established in each region and an educational tax was also introduced to partly finance education. To supplement government efforts, private and voluntary organizations were encouraged to open schools. With decree No. 3 of 1944, made to regulate their activities, the missionaries were also, for the first time, officially invited to participate in providing educational services (Ayalew Shibeshi, 1989, p.33). From 1942 until 1955, the Ethiopian Government was engaged in the expansion of the education system. The Ethiopian Government continued to believe that education held the key to Ethiopia’s development. The high expenditure on education in relation to total expenditure, as well as the geometric growth of student enrolment remains strong witness to the interest and commitment of the Ethiopian government to the expansion of education. According to edward Jandy (1948, p.115) the second highest item in the national budget was education.

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Expenditure on education rose from just over half a million Birr in 1942 to over 19 million Birr by 1958/59. By 1959/60, enrolment in government schools had reached nearly a quarter of a million pupils (Ethiopian observer, 5:1, 1961, p.16). Ethiopian Education During the communist Regime By 1974, when the revolution erupted only 15.3 percent of the age cohort were attending primary schools. Kenya and Tanzania had reached a stage of universal primary education in the mid 1970’s. The other neighbouring countries, Somalia, the Sudan, Zimbabwe and Zambia had 50%, 51%, 72% and 95%, respectively, of their primary school aged children enrolled at school (UNESCO, 1981). Thus, the participation rate in Ethiopia before the Revolution of 1974 was very low even by African standards (Ayalew Shibeshi: 1989, p.35). Following the change of social values, faith, and philosophy, the educational infrastructure was also changed drastically. The structure and organization of educational activities were changed alongside the objectives of the communist government. In the National Democratic Revolution Program of the Ethiopian Government (April, 1976), Educational Guideline was issued, which states “There will be an educational program that will provide free education, step by step, to the broad masses. In the program, it was stated that education will intensify the struggle against feudalism, imperialism, and bureaucratic capitalism. Under this new socialist state, Ethiopia's educational system was changed dramatically. One of the changes that occurred was the governments aims of education in Ethiopia. The government's newly stated goals for education were now (1) education for production, (2) education for scientific consciousness, and (3) education for political consciousness These educational reforms were influenced mostly by the Soviet Union which had similar systems in their country(Britanica,1996,71). Soviet educational advisors entered Ethiopia soon after the revolution to make more reforms. Poly-technical education familiarized children with the important branches of production; including the manufacturing of machinery or food, and acquainting them with first-hand practical experience, was one of the Soviet's reforms in Ethiopia. Along with this Soviet influence, many Ethiopians were taken to the Soviet Union or Eastern-bloc countries for higher education. Major Achievements and Challenges during the Current Government 1) Policy Framework When the current government came into power, the Ethiopian education system was suffering from multifaceted problems. The main problems were related to the issues of relevance, quality, equity and access. As a result of previous neglect, Ethiopia’ education sector was characterized at all levels by extremely low overall participation rates (30% at primary, 13% at secondary and less than 1% at tertiary levels). Its gross enrolment rate of 30% at primary was one of the lowest in the world and even less than half of the average for Sub-Saharan African countries. Girls’ participation rates were much lower than those of boys, especially in rural areas. In addition, there were severe regional differences in access to education, ranging from 7% in Afar region to 87% in Addis Ababa City

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Administrative region. The quality of education was poor with inadequately trained and poorly motivated teachers and lack of instructional materials. The system was inefficient and one third of students drop out of school in the first year. Physical facilities were disrepair because of war damage and absence of preventive maintenance; and the education sector was seriously underfinanced. In the light of these educational problems, it has become imperative for the current Ethiopian Government to design an appropriate education and training policy that gives insight for the overall educational development and reflect the international declarations on educational issues. The Ethiopian Federal Democratic Republic constitution has declared that education is one of the fundamental human right and thus .is free of any political and religious ideology. As stated in the sections pertaining to education and human right issues of the constitution, every nation and nationality has the right to learn in its own language, at least at the basic education and general primary level. The constitution has ascertained that no tuition fee of any kind will be charged in the general education system of Grades 1-10 Responding to the challenges of the education system of the late 1980s and early 1990s and based on the declarations of the constitution, the government designed the Education and Training Policy of 1994, which intends to systematically and gradually alleviate these educational problems. Within the framework stated in the Education and Training Policy and Strategy (ETPS), the government designed the Education Sector Development Program (ESDP), which is a long range-rolling Plan with a focus on the comprehensive development of education over a twenty-year period. The ESDP translates the policy statement into action. The main thrust of ESDP is to improve educational quality and expand access to education with special emphasis on primary education in rural and undeserved areas, as well as the promotion of girls’ education. The program was launched in 1997/98 with government’s funding and support from ongoing donor assistance. The final goal of the ESDP for the primary education is universal primary enrolment by the year 2015 and at the same time improving quality, equity and efficiency of the system at all levels. 2) Organization and Management Decentralization in Progress Since 1994, the government of Ethiopia has embarked on a decentralization process. Decentralization has opened the way for regional and local governments, and through them, them local communities to take greater responsibility, financial and otherwise, for managing their own affairs, including the delivery of social services such as education. The decentralization process in Ethiopia has a four-tier system of government. Below the federal government, are Regional Governments. At the regional level, the country is divided into nine states and two city administrations. These regional administrations are divided into zone (66), which is divided into woredas (556). The woredas are considered to be the key local units of government. Below this level, communities are further subdivided into smaller electoral units, known as Kebeles, to further enhance community grassroots participation in the formulation and administration of policy decisions. Federal Government

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The functions assigned to the Federal Government, are national in scope --- monetary policy, foreign relations, defense, etc.--- as well as designs national policies which in turn, provide guidance to the lower levels of government. In addition to implementing policies with nation wide benefits, central ministries are expected to support their regional counter parts by undertaking research, collecting data, and providing technical assistance and advice. Regional Government A series of proclamations made by the Federal Government, culminating in the 1994 Constitution, lays the basis for devolution of decision-making power and responsibilities to the nine regional governments and two City administrations. The constitution assigns extensive powers to the regions. Each region can establish an administration that advances self-government and democratic rule in accordance with the Federal Constitution, enacts the state constitution and other laws, formulates and executes economic, social, and development policies, strategies, and plans, administer land and other natural resources found in its territories, levies and collects certain taxes not reserved for the Federal Government, designs standards for state civil service conditions and pay, and maintains state level security forces. The Regional Council, elected by the citizens of the region, makes region-specific legislation and approves budget and development strategy. All regions have sector bureaus. Zonal Administration Zones, the level of government just below the region, are mentioned in the constitution as structure to be used for administrative convenience. The Zonal Administration consists of a set of counterparts to the Regional Bureau. Their main task is to aggregate the information coming from the smaller communities, which is represented by Woredas. In most regions, zonal administration is appointed by the regional government. In the SNNPR, however, the zonal administration is an elected body. The zonal administration usually serves as conduits for implementing the budgets that are planned at the regional level. The current re-structuring of zones and strengthening of the capacity of the woredas is a further step in decentralization, directed at strengthening service delivery and people’s participation in local level development. The Zonal level will be made much smaller and responsible only for supervisory functions. Specific information on which line ministries would be affected by the restructuring of the zones, and how, is not yet a public information. But discussion with regional and zonal Government officials consistently referred to the future of the zones as a coordinating body, and that service delivery would be strengthened at wereda level. Discussion with the government officials also made it clear that only six department level offices will be maintained at the zonal level, which include (1) Capacity Building Branch office (consisting Education, Health and Civil Service as a desk), (2), Administration main Office, (3) Rural Development Branch Office (consisting desks of Agriculture, Water, Mineral and Food security as required), (4) Trade, Industry, and Urban Development Main Office (with desks of Road and Transport and Town Development), (5) Youth, Culture and Sport Branch office, and Bureau of Finance and Economic Development.

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Woreda Administrations Constitutionally, Woredas, the lowest level of elected, full-time government are the most important unit of sub-national government. They consist of elected council and a set of sectoral offices, which serve as implementing agencies and contact points with the communities. Recently, the Ethiopian government has embarked on a decentralization process, which will bring decision-making power to wereda level. Accordingly, the woreda level will be reinforced and the staff will be increased. Of the government budget, 85% will be directly allocated to the woreda level. Ongoing efforts which are already well underway include the decentralization of responsibilities to woredas, the assignment of expenditure and revenue responsibilities, the transfer of regional and zonal staff to woredas, as well as plans for optimizing local revenues. Kebele Administration Within woredas, communities organize themselves into kebeles, peasant associations, and other community groups. Kebeles usually have an elected leader and a small council, but these officers are not part of the paid, full-time government structure and usually have shorter term than higher-level officials. 3) The Structure of the Current Educational System The structure of the Ethiopian education system encompasses formal and non-formal education. Non-formal education covers wide areas of training both for the primary school age children as well as adults who have either dropped out and/or beginners. For this reason, it is viewed as open-ended in terms of training programme, and, to some extent, in terms of institutional arrangement. Though the Ministry of Education is expected to play a leading role, other ministries also get involved depending on the field of training and target of trainees. (PMO: 1994: 18) The formal programme has further been divided into kindergarten, general, technical-vocational and tertiary education programmes. Prior to the Education Reform of 1994, general education was divided into primary (1-6), junior secondary (7-8) and senior secondary (9-12) with national examinations given on completion of each level. The current curriculum is offering 10 years of general education consisting of 8 years of primary education and 2 years of general secondary education (9-10) with the second cycle of secondary education (11-12) which prepares students for continuing to higher education. Primary education is divided into two cycles comprising grades 1 through 4 of basic education and second cycle of grades 5 through 8 of general primary education. According to the New Education and training policy of 1994, there will also be a system of technical vocational training which will be offered to the graduates of each cycle.

4) Access to all Levels of Education Improved There has been dramatic growth in enrolments throughout the education system in recent years. Aggregate enrolments in Grades 1-12 rose at a steady pace of about 9% a year between 1994/95 and 2003/04, and in grades 1-4, which is the first cycle of primary schooling , it grew even faster at an average of 15% a year. By 2003/04, the number of

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primary school pupils was 9.5 million and more than 685,976 were attended general secondary schools (9-10). Enrolment in Technical and vocational training and education grew from less than3,000 students in 1995/96 to 87,158 students in 2003/04. In postsecondary education, enrolment has also ballooned, from around 18,000 in 1990/91 to more than 172,111 students. These trends are remarkable achievements given the pattern of stagnation, reversal and an even growth in the past. The growth in enrolments has in turn increased the Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER), a common indicator for measuring coverage, at all levels in the system. The increase in primary enrolment has been particularly remarkable. GER for complete primary level (18) is increasing every year. In 2003/04, the primary school-age population of Ethiopia was estimated to be 13,950,688, among which 9,542,638 children were enrolled in both program (regular and evening programs) of primary school As can be seen from the table below, in the past 10 years GER has been increasing at alarming rate in both sexes. The GER for the primary schools increased from 30.00% in 1994//95 to 68.4% in 2003/04. In 1994/95, among school age children, 70% were out of school. However, in 2003/04, this is reduced to only 31.6%, which is an encouraging achievement. Table 1: Gross Enrollment Ratio of Primary Schools by Cycle and from 199/00 to 2003/04 Year 1994/95 1199/00 2000/01 2001/02 2002/03 2003/04 Source:

Primary 1st Cycle (1-$) Male Female Total

Primary 2nd Cycle (5-8) Male Female Total

Both cycles (1-8) Male Female Total 34.0 88.6 61.0 75.0 31.9 19.3 25.7 60.9 40.7 51.0 95.3 70.2 83.0 38.3 22.9 30.8 67.3 47.0 57.4 96.2 73.3 84.9 45.4 27.4 36.5 71.7 51.2 61.6 94.6 73.5 84.2 52.5 31.9 42.4 74.6 53.8 64.4 95.2 78.3 86.9 57.0 36.9 47.1 77.4 59.1 68.4 Education Management Information System, (EMIS), Ministry of Education. 2005, Addis Ababa

Although it is clearly observable that the GER for primary education, which was only 30% in 1994/95, is nearly more than double (68.4%) in 2003/04, it is also quite clear that many children (22.6% of male and 41.9% of female) are still out of school. The increment for females is also encouraging. GER for female students was below 20% 1994/95 and this was raised to 59.1% in 2003/04. There is significant increase of gross Enrolment for girls at the first cycle primary schools, which is increased from below 20% in 1994/95 to 78.3% in 2003/04. As indicated in the table, for the last five years (1999/00-2003/04), the Gross enrolment Ratio (GER) for the first cycle primary schools (1-4) has increased by 11.9%, while the second cycle ( grades 5-8) has increased by 21.4%. Overall the GER for the whole primary level (1-8) has increased by 17.4 %. Although this is an encouraging sign towards the achievement of the universal primary education by the 2015, GER is not good indicator of primary school coverage for it 10

includes the over- and under-aged children. One of the key criteria for UPE is the achievement of Net Enrollment Ratio (NER) close to 100%. NER is the best way of measuring school coverage and refined indicator of access. Only countries with high intake levels of official school age will achieve the goal in these terms. Table 2: Net Enrollment at primary level (1-8) in percentage Year Male Female Total 1994/95 1199/00 51.2 36.6 44.0 2000/01 55.7 41.7 48.8 2001/02 59.0 45.2 52.2 2002/03 60.6 47.2 54.0 2003/04 62.9 51.8 57.4 Source: Education Management Information System, (EMIS), Ministry of Education. 2005, Addis Ababa

Analysis of NET data in Ethiopia shows that Ethiopia low chance of achieving UPE in 2015. According to the EFA Global Monitoring Report (UNESCO 2002), only those countries whose NER is 80% and above currently can achieve UPE in 20015. In this respect Ethiopia face a great challenge with 57.4 NER in 2003/04. If the Net Enrolment Ratio (NER) is considered, the number of out of school age children is very high (42.6%). It is even worse for girls. Nearly 50% of the school-age girls are out of school in the year 2003/04 Table 3: Gross and Net Enrollment Ratios of primary schools by Regions in 2003/04

Addis Ababa Gambella Harari Ben-Gumuz Dire Dawa Tigray SNNPR Oromia Amhara Somalia Afar Notational

Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER) 142.6 106.6 100.5 100.5 83.2 80.6 74.2 72.7 61.8 15.1 14.8 68.4

Net Enrolment Ratio (NET) Male Female Total 90.3 97.6 94.0 89.6 54.2 75.2 91.7 72.9 82.5 86.3 65.2 76.0 67.6 52.8 60.4 63.6 68.7 66.1 74.2 52.6 63.5 70.7 52.4 61.6 54.6 53.1 53.9 14.8 7.8 11.6 12.6 9.0 11.0 62.9 51.8 57.4

Source: Education Management Information System, (EMIS),Ministry of Education. 2005, Addis Ababa

The situation is more disturbing when one looks at the disparity or inequality of educational opportunities across regional, states The regional comparison in table three clearly shows that how some regions such as Afar and Somalia are far from the national (Ethiopia) level. Even the GER of these two regional Stats, which is only 15.1% for

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Somalia and 14.8 for Afar is disturbing, when one thinks about the achievement of universal primary education in 2015, which is one of the millennium development goals. Their NER (Afar 11.0% and Somalia 11.6%) shows clearly the regional disparity of educational provision in Ethiopia. Only two city administration- Addis Ababa and Hararri have NER above 80%. Secondary and Tertiary Education: A Narrowed Pyramid Enrollment level at secondary school level vary greatly across the world. Developed countries have already achieved universal secondary education, while it the Arab States and Latin American countries tend to have enrollment ratio of above 70%, it is 30% for Su-Saharan African countries. Demand for secondary education is increased in Ethiopia too, as more pupils graduate from primary schools. In 2003/04, 685,976 students were enrolled in the general secondary education level (9-10 grades), among which 242,197 (35.3%) were girls. This makes the GER for the level 22.1. It was increased from 11.2% in 1999/00 to 22.1% in 2003/04. As to be observed from table 4, the GER of this cycle was increasing during the last five years by 13.8% and 4.7% for boys and girls respectively. It showed a total increase of 9.3%. However, the NER has increased only by 3% (from 6.8 in 1999/00 to 9.8 in 2003/04). Table 4: General Secondary School Gross and Net Enrolment Ratios from 1999/002003/04 in Percentage Year

1994/95 1199/00 2000/01 2001/02 2002/03 2003/04

Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER) Male Female Total

Net Enrollment Ratio (NER) Male Female Total

14.4 16.1 20.4 24.0 28.2

7.0 7.1 8.6 10.1 12.0

11.2 12.1 13.7 14.3 15.9

12.8 14.1 17.1 19.3 22.1

6.6 6.1 6.2 6.7 7.5

6.8 6.6 7.4 8.4 9.8

Source: Education Management Information System, (EMIS),Ministry of Education. 2005, Addis Ababa

Although, the increment at secondary level, has also been found to be encouraging compared to the base year, it is very low by World and African standard. Secondary education is currently becoming universal in the developed countries and the GER is more than 70% for other, more than 30% for Sub-Saharan African Countries. The gap is more pronounced at tertiary level, with the median GER at 55% among developed countries and 11% among developing ones. and around 2.0% in Ethiopia. Between 12002/03 and 2003/04, GER grew by more 16.3 percentage points. Currently, while employment which is based on new production methods, the improvement of mature technologies and the wide spread diffusion of information and communication

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technologies increasingly demands workers with more than basic education, the emphasis in Ethiopia is yet limited to the expansion of basic education. . 5) Equity Equity, refers to the state, ideal, or quality of being just, impartial, and fair. In an educational setting, equity can be expanded to indicate a state in which all children-minorities and non-minorities, males and females, successful students and those who have fallen behind, and students who have been denied access in the past--have equal opportunities to learn, to participate in challenging programs, and to have equal access to the services they need in order to benefit from that education. However, this paper tries to address the equity issue in terms of gender disparity (male/female) and location that is among the different regional states. 5.1. Gender Disparity Gender equality is a more complex notion that is also more difficult to measure. Full gender equality would imply that girls and boys are offered the same chances to go to school and that they enjoy teaching methods and curricula free of stereotypes and academic orientation and counseling unaffected by gender bias. It also implies equality of outcomes in terms of length of schooling, learning achievement and academic qualifications and, more broadly, equal job opportunities and earnings for similar qualifications and experience (UNESCO EFA Report 2004). Although many countries around the world have made significant progress towards gender parity at primary and secondary levels over the past decade, large gaps remain, particularly in the Arab States, sub-Saharan Africa and South and West Asia. Girls accounted for 57% of the out-of-school children of primary school age worldwide in 2001 and for more than 60% in the Arab States and in South and West Asia. Girls’ participation remains substantially lower than boys’ (a gender parity index below 0.97) in seventy-one out of 175 countries at primary level. Gender disparities become more extreme at secondary level and in higher education. Of eighty-three developing countries with data, half have achieved gender parity at primary level, less than one-fifth at secondary and only four at tertiary. Almost two-thirds of the world’s adult illiterates (64%) are women. UNESCO EFA Report 2005) Women’s access to education has been recognized as a fundamental right, and increasing their access to education is among the educational goals of Ethiopia. In recent years, women’s’ issues have come into the agenda of the country. Cognizant of the important role women have to play, the Government of Ethiopia has put into place a variety of strategies designed to increase female participation rates in education and consequently in the overall development process. There is a consensus of opinion that the development targets in the country cannot be achieved with the continued marginalization of women as a group. In the last few years much effort, time and money was spent in fully apprehending the big picture of disadvantage of women in the country.

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As a result, the female primary school participation rate has grown at the rate of 16.4% over the last 5 years. When this is seen in terms of rural and urban area, the participation of females in the primary education has increased at the rate of 24.8% in the rural and at a rate of 7.7% in the urban communities indicating that the issue of equity is being well addressed. There is significant increase of Gross Enrolment Ratio for girls at the first cycle primary schools, which is increased from below 20% in 1994/95 to 78.3% in 2003/04. At the complete primary school GER for female students was below 20% 1994/95 and this was raised to 59.1% in 2003/04. Despite these achievements, according to the current data, females' participation and academic performance at all levels of education in Ethiopia is lower than that of male because of gender stereotypes prevalent in society which perceive males as dominant and women as subordinate in any public sphere. The year 2005 is the target for achieving Gender Parity Index of one in primary and secondary education Parity is a purely numerical concept: reaching gender parity implies that the same proportion of boys and girls – relative to their respective age groups – enter the education system and participate in the full primary and secondary cycles. It is measured by the ratio between the female and male values for any given indicator, with parity being equal to one. This is the Gender Parity Index (GPI). Despite significant shift towards greater gender parity, Ethiopia is far form achieving GPI of one in 2005. Girls in Ethiopia continue to face sharp discrimination in access to schooling. The Gender Parity Index at the national level in 2003/04 is 0.8 indicating that girls’ participation is by 20% lower than boys. This is true for all regions except for Addis Ababa and Tigray whose GPI is close to one. Currently (2003/04.) 40.9% of the school-age girls are out of school When the Net Enrolment Ratio (NER) is considered, the number of out of school age girls is very high (48.2%). This indicates that nearly 50% of the school-age girls are out of school. The situation is more disturbing when one looks at the gender disparity across regional, states The NET of girls in Somalia and Afar regional states are only 7.8% and 9.0%. (Table 3) 6) Quality issues in Ethiopian Education The World Declaration on Education for All (1990) and the Dakar Framework for Action (2000) – the two most recent United Nations conference declarations focusing on education – recognize quality as a prime condition for achieving Education for All. The Dakar Framework affirms that quality is ‘at the heart of education’. Goal 2 commits nations to providing primary education ‘of good quality’. Goal 6 includes commitments to improving ‘all aspects of the quality of education and ensuring excellence of all so that recognized and measurable learning outcomes are achieved by all, especially in literacy, numeracy and essential life skills’.

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Complicating the problem of Ethiopian education is the recent erosion of educational quality. While one may appreciate the attempts made to expand access, and improve equity, the progress so far made to improve quality is limited. Quality in education is relative and not easy to measure. Many educators measure the quality of education in terms of input, process and output. Although process and output are equally important, they are not good measures in very poor countries like Ethiopia where the minimum amount of input are not available. Thus, this section tries to assess quality in terms of input which is believed to be strongly determined by the material and human resource. Inputs: This category includes material resources (textbooks, learning materials, classrooms, libraries, school facilities) and human resources (managers, supervisors, inspectors and, most importantly, teachers). The indicators most widely used to measure these inputs are pupil/teacher ratios, teacher qualification and salaries, public current expenditure per pupil and proportion of GDP spent on education. Human Resources Teachers The role of teachers in overhauling the educational system and improving the quality and standard of education in is very crucial. Teachers being one of the major quality input, the efforts so far made to increase the number of qualified teachers and improve their professional capacity is commendable. Existing teachers of the primary levels have been re-trained using short and long-term approaches such as orientation programmes, residential and distance learning programmes. Thus, the proportion of teachers qualified for the first cycle primary reached 96.5% in 2003/04, though their proportion at the second cycle primary and secondary is still very low, (32.1% and 44.5% respectively) Achieving UPE alone calls for more and better-trained teachers. Available data suggest that large proportions of primary school teachers lack adequate academic qualifications, training and mastery of content. National standards for qualification as a primary school teacher ranged from certificate (10+1) for teachers teaching at the first cycle (1-4) and diploma (10+3) for the second cycle (5-8). According to the national standard, secondary school teachers should be university graduates in their respective field of specialization and should posses adequate pedagogical skills. At the national level, in 2003/04 96.5% of the first cycle primary school (grades 1-4) of the teaching force met the national minimum standard, whereas only 32.1% of teachers teaching at the second cycle (5-8) meet the specified standard. As regards teachers’ mastery of the curriculum, a recent study found out that some primary school teachers do not possessed adequate knowledge on the requirements of the curriculum (Derebssa 2001) The table below shows the proportion of certified teachers of all levels regionally and at the national level. At the national level, in 2003/04, 96.5%, of the first cycle primary school teachers were certified for teaching in the level according to the standard, while only 32.1% and 44.5% were certified to teach the second cycle primary and secondary schools respectively.

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Table 5: Percentage of Certified School Teachers by cycle and Regions in 2003/04 Regions First cycle primary Second cycle General Secondary school(1-4) primary (5-8) (9-10) Addis Ababa 96.9 85.6 80.2 Gambella 90.8 53.6 27.3 Harari 83.7 34.6 63.7 Ben-Gumuz 99.5 68.5 25.3 Dire Dawa 91.8 60.7 56.6 Tigray 93.2 50.5 20.9 SNNPR 99.4 29.7 32.6 Oromia 96.5 20.2 26.5 Amhara 97.0 35.6 38.9 Somalia 91.8 3.5 33.1 Afar 83.6 52.6 52.8 Notational 96.5 32.1 44.5 Furthermore, the distribution of teachers is unequal within the regional states, with disadvantaged regions typically receiving unqualified teachers particularly at the second cycle primary and secondary schools. While the proportion of qualified teachers in Addis Ababa is more than 80% at both the second cycle primary and secondary schools, , it below 30% in some regions. For example, the proportion of qualified teachers of the second cycle primary school in Somalia is only 3.5%. Although the data is not available, the HIV/AIDS pandemic is severely undermining the provision of quality education and contributing to teacher absenteeism and attrition. HIV/AIDS has impaired the effectiveness of the education sector by increasing the rate of teachers’ deaths and attrition over the past decade. Teachers Salary Countries that have achieved high learning standards have invested steadily in the teaching profession. But in Ethiopia, teachers’ salaries relative to those of other professions is too low to provide a reasonable standard of living. Student Teachers Ratio The number of students per teacher is a frequently used quality signal. Though their impact on learning outcomes remains a subject of debate in the developed countries, the very large class sizes observed in the Ethiopian primary schools (e.g. one teacher for 60 or 70 pupils) are not conducive to adequate learning. In the countries with the highest pupil/teacher ratios, barely one-third of students who start primary reach grade 5. In Ethiopia the standard set for the pupil-teacher ratio is 50 and 40 for the primary and secondary levels respectively. The primary pupil teacher ration over the last ten years has shown increasing trend at national level from 37 in 1995/96 to 56 in 1999/2000 and further increased to 65 (71 for the first cycle and 55 for the second cycle) in 2003/04. It was also increased from 45 in 2002/03 to 48 in 2003/04 at the secondary level.

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Table 6: Pupil teacher ration at primary schools by level and region Regions Addis Ababa Gambella Harari Ben-Gumuz Dire Dawa Tigray SNNPR Oromia Amhara Somalia Afar Notational

First cycle primary school(1-4) 39 48 24 43 40 55 74 83 72 63 34 71

Second cycle primary (5-8) 39 48 24 86 42 54 54 56 69 31 27 55

The national data covers the reality at regional and regional levels. As indicated in table 6, there are regions with PTR more than 80 (Oromia) and the situation at school level worse PTR reaching 120 in some cases. Teacher numbers thus remain a problem in Ethiopia that most need to significantly increase its primary school systems’ coverage. Material Resources Learning materials. The quality and availability of learning materials strongly affect what teachers can do. To achieve UPE, unprecedented refurbishing and building of classrooms is needed in many countries. Clean water, sanitation and access for disabled students are vital. The other quality factor – availability of student textbook in the school- has also been given attention. The result is that the student-book ration which stood at 1:5 and in some cases 1:7 have been improved achieving a 1:2 and 1:3 student – book ratio. Although this encouraging trend at the national level there is acute lack of textbooks at school level due to an inefficient distribution system ,and malpractice. 7) Educational Efficiency Keeping children in school is a major problem in many developing countries where high rates of repetition and dropout lead to inefficiency and wastage of scarce resources. While many countries make high investment in education, investment on its own does not guarantee desirable results. If the benefits of investment in the education sector are to be optimized wastage would have to be avoided or at least minimized. The Ethiopian government aims to attain UPE by the year 2015. If this goal is to be attained, wastage has to be minimized and various steps have been taken to that end. Despite the interventions, however, wastage has remained a critical problem.

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The repetition rate in the country has moved down from 12% in 1998/99 to 6.7% in 2002/03 and further dropped to 4.0% in 2003/04. This is attributed to the extensive discussion held with the teachers throughout the country in the summer of 2001/02 and the continuous follow up and assessment of students there after. Table 6: Repetition Rate by Region in 2002/03 and 2003/04 Regions Repetition Rate 2002/03 Repetition Rate in 2003/04 Male Female Total Male Female Total Tigray 6.8 5.0 5.9 2.6 3.4 3.0 Afar 10.0 6.1 7.5 5.5 9.6 6.9 Amhara 7.8 5.5 6.6 1.1 1.4 1.3 Oromiya 6.0 4.6 5.1 4.5 4.7 4.6 Somale 2.2 2.6 2.5 2.6 2.2 2.5 Benishangual G 8.5 7.3 7.8 12.3 13.7 12.9 SNNPR 10.4 8.3 9.1 4.9 5.9 5.3 Gambella 11.3 7.4 8.8 8.1 14.4 10.2 Harari 15.0 14.6 14.8 7.9 7.7 7.8 Addis Ababa 9.9 9.1 9.6 6.2 6.5 6.3 Diredawa 5.0 3.9 4.3 3.5 4.5 3.9 National 7.7 5.9 6.7 3.9 4.2 4.0 Source: MOE/EMIS(2003) and 2005, Education Statistics Annual Abstract 2002-03, Addis Ababa, EMIS p.14 and 16 respectively

Table 6 shows the primary repetition rates by region for the academic year 2002/2003 and 2003/04. It ranges from only 2.5% in Somali to 14.6% in Harari in 2002/04 and 1.3 for Amhara .to 12.9% for Benshangul in 2003/04. All most all regions showed a decreasing tendency of repetition rates in 2003/04, except Somalia , where the repetition rate remained the same(2.5) in both years and Benshangul G. where it increased from 7.8 to 12.9, In Amhara region dramatic decrease is observed between 2002/03 and 2003/04 from 6.6% in 2002/03 to 1.3% in 2003/04. Another interesting point the table reveals is that in all the regions, with the exception of Somali, the repetition rate was lower for girls in 2002/03. The situation however is reversed dramatically in 2003/04 where the repetition rates of girls is higher than boys in all regions except again Somalia and Hararri regions. These both situations need further study. Table 7: Dropout Rate by Region in 2001-02 and 2002/03 Dropout Rate in 2001/02 Dropout Rate in 2002/03 Regions Male Female Total Male Female Total Tigray 17.2 17.1 17.1 9.5 10.7 10.1 Afar 19.8 19.1 19.5 30.0 30.6 30.2 Amhara 13.8 15.8 14.7 18.9 18.7 18.8 Oromiye 17.3 18.6 17.8 19.0 17.8 18.6 Somale 12.4 28.9 17.8 27.0 33.5 28.9 Benshangul G 19.7 21.6 20.4 27.2 22.7 25.5 SNNPR 21.6 23.7 22.4 25.8 25.2 25.6 Gambella 5.9 12.8 8.4 30.2 48.3 36.7

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Harari 7.0 12.1 9.1 12.7 9.5 11.4 Addis Ababa 1.4 2.3 2.1 2.0 2.5 2.3 Dire Dawa 8.3 8.3 8.3 8.5 8.2 8.4 16.7 17.8 17.2 19.8 18.5 19.2 Total Source: MOE/EMIS(2003)Education Statistics Annual Abstract 2002/03 Addis Ababa, Emis p.16 As Table 7 shows, Addis Ababa had the lowest dropout rate(2.1% in 2001/02 and 2.3% in 2002/03), while Gambela (36.7%) and Afar (30.2%) had the highest rate . Unlike the repetition rate, in almost all regions the dropout rates are increased except in Tigray. The national Dropout rate has also increased from 17.2% to 19.2. A closer look at Tables five and six reveals that not only do the regions vary in the repetition and dropout rates, but also their respective performance in the two rates is different. The regions with repetition rates lower than the national average are Somali, Dire Dawa, Oromia, Tigari and Amhara. With regard to dropout rates, Addis Ababa, Dire Dawa, Gambella, Harari, Amhara and Tigrary are lower than the national averages. Thus, the regions with lower rates in both repetition and dropout are only DireDawa, Amhara and Tigray.

Conclusion and Policy Options Ethiopia has a long and rich history of educational traditions. Indigenous education was and is being offered by all ethnic and linguistic groups and will remain an important transmitter of cultural identity for those out of school children. Ethiopia’s early Christian heritage represents a second important element of Education in the country. In about the 4th century, the Ethiopian Christian church established a comprehensive system of education and was able to provide a sophisticated and peculiar type of education that takes as many as 30 years to complete. The beginning of modern education in Ethiopia is directly related to the advent of foreign missionaries in the 19th century and latter a llimited secular education was introduced into Ethiopia by Emperor Menelik on the eve of the 20th c (1908). During Haile Selassie and the communist governments, this was extended to respond to meet the needs of a modern bureaucracy.

When the current government came power, the Ethiopian education system was suffering from multifaceted problems, and this made it imperative for the Government to design an appropriate education and training policy. Remarkable progress has been achieved in all aspects of education (access, equity, efficiency and quality has improved dramatically) since the implementation of the policy. Since 1994, the government of Ethiopia has embarked on a decentralization process. Decentralization has opened the way for regional and local governments, and through them, local communities to take greater responsibility, financial and otherwise, for managing their own affairs, including the delivery of social services such as education. More than a decade after launching the 1994 New Education and Training policy, the Government can look back with justifiable pride on the progress so far achieved. The very rapid growth of primary education reflects a genuine commitment to transform the country’s historically elitist system into one that serves all of Ethiopian children. There is a dramatic growth in enrollment throughout the education system in recent years.

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Aggregate enrolment in primary and secondary rose at a steady pace of about 10% a year between 1994/95 to 2003/04, and in the first cycle of primary schooling (1-4), they grew even faster at an average of more than 15% a year. By 2003/04, the education system had grown to about 9.5 million students in primary school, and more than 700,000 in secondary schools. In post secondary education, enrollment have also ballooned, from around 18,00 in 1990/91 to more than 170,000 in 2003/04. These trends are remarkable achievement, given the patters of stagnation and uneven growth of education in the past. Ethiopia has also made significant progress towards gender parity at primary and secondary levels over the past decade. There is significant increase of Gross Enrolment Ratio for girls at the first cycle primary schools, which is increased from below 20% in 1994/95 to 78.3% in 2003/04. At the complete primary school GER for female students was below 20% 1994/95 and this was raised to 59.1% in 2003/04. Considerable effort has also been made the address the quality and efficiency issues. However, although considerable efforts were made to provide basic education to all school-age children, millions of school age children (4.5 m in 2005) are still out of school. The goal of basic education for all children is far from being achieved in 2015. Although commendable effort has been made to improve the quality, equity and efficiency of the system at all levels, there are still indicators that the situation is further worsening. On top of this, wastage in the form of drop-outs, absence of relevant and adequate educational materials, the poor learning environment, shortage of qualified educational personnel, coupled with acute financial constraints have paralyzed quality improvement in the overall education system of the country. Thus, in addition to continuing registering progress in the sector, aggressively seeking and strengthening a vital and viable policy option to address these challenges and meet the Millennium Development Goal need to be a priority. In the light of these constraints, the following policy options are recommended: 1. Re-considering the restructuring of Primary and secondary schooling The current curriculum is offering 10 years of general education consisting of 8 years of primary education and 2 years of general secondary education (9-10). However, as shown by this study, given the current starting point, universalizing eight years of primary schooling is financially and practically not viable. To achieve the goal of universal primary completion, primary education up to grade 8 will require a bigger share of budget than it receives currently, which the government can’t afford to allocate more than the current education budget. Therefore, because five years of primary schooling are generally considered as a minimum for a person to become permanently literate and numerate, and thus, many countries made the commitment in the United Nations 2000 Declaration on the Millennium Development Goals, to ensure that all children would be able to complete at least five years of primary schooling by 2015, Ethiopia need to consider the level of primary schooling in order to achieve universal primary education by 2015.. In this context, instead of extending primary schooling to eight years of schooling, the Ethiopian Government need to put the emphasis on universalizing six years of primary education,

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thereby changing the school structure to six years of primary education followed by two years of junior and two years of senior secondary schooling (6-2-2). 2. Different time-bound Goal Setting for different Areas Because the current conditions differ so widely across regional states (GER at primary school for Afar and Somalia is below 15% in 2003/04 while it is around 70% for some regions), setting different time-bound targets for these regions is a practical necessity. While, the goal of universalizing six years of primary schooling is well within reach in most regions and urban areas by 2015, it is a more demanding goal in some regions and rural areas. This calls for different time setting for the achievement of universal primary schooling in 2015. 3. Introduction of Cost Sharing Schemes to Post-primary Education Accomplishing the EFA Goals by 2015 will likely require more spending on education than the sector currently receives. However, the magnitude of increasing public spending on the education sector will inevitably be constrained by the competition from other sectors for the government’s limited resources. Because of such financial constraint, household contribution in the form of cost sharing scheme for the post-primary education may need to be introduced. This will enable the government to prioritize primary education and spend more on quality issue too. In this case, the responsibility of the government will be expanding primary education and training teachers in quality and quantity for all levels. 4. Bringing Decentralization nearer to schools Decentralization has appeared on the political agenda for almost the last decade and has become evident in Ethiopia. Ethiopia is currently undergoing a far-reaching decentralization of Education, Where accountability and responsibility are transferred to lower administrative levels. However, decentralization of education to sub-national governments does not in itself empower schools to responsible for their actions. Further decentralization should reach schools and local communities so they will be empowered to their performance.

Reserve Inadequate facilities, insufficient training of teachers, shortage of books and other teaching materials indicate the low quality of education provided. With regard to access, towards the end years of the communist government period, enrolment was decreasing which is attributed to the prolonged effect of war and instability.

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