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.

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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 sub-
divided 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 post-
secondary 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 (1-
8) 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 Primary 1st Cycle (1-$) Primary 2nd Cycle (5-8) Both cycles (1-8)
Male Female Total Male Female Total Male Female Total
1994/95 34.0
1199/00 88.6 61.0 75.0 31.9 19.3 25.7 60.9 40.7 51.0
2000/01 95.3 70.2 83.0 38.3 22.9 30.8 67.3 47.0 57.4
2001/02 96.2 73.3 84.9 45.4 27.4 36.5 71.7 51.2 61.6
2002/03 94.6 73.5 84.2 52.5 31.9 42.4 74.6 53.8 64.4
2003/04 95.2 78.3 86.9 57.0 36.9 47.1 77.4 59.1 68.4
Source: 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

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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

Gross Enrolment Net Enrolment Ratio (NET)

Ratio (GER) Male Female Total
Addis Ababa 142.6 90.3 97.6 94.0
Gambella 106.6 89.6 54.2 75.2
Harari 100.5 91.7 72.9 82.5
Ben-Gumuz 100.5 86.3 65.2 76.0
Dire Dawa 83.2 67.6 52.8 60.4
Tigray 80.6 63.6 68.7 66.1
SNNPR 74.2 74.2 52.6 63.5
Oromia 72.7 70.7 52.4 61.6
Amhara 61.8 54.6 53.1 53.9
Somalia 15.1 14.8 7.8 11.6
Afar 14.8 12.6 9.0 11.0
Notational 68.4 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 1999/00-
2003/04 in Percentage

Year Gross Enrolment Ratio Net Enrollment Ratio

(GER) (NER)
Male Female Total Male Female Total
1994/95
1199/00 14.4 11.2 12.8 7.0 6.6 6.8
2000/01 16.1 12.1 14.1 7.1 6.1 6.6
2001/02 20.4 13.7 17.1 8.6 6.2 7.4
2002/03 24.0 14.3 19.3 10.1 6.7 8.4
2003/04 28.2 15.9 22.1 12.0 7.5 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

12
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.

13
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’.

14
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.

15
 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.

16
 Table 6: Pupil teacher ration at primary schools by level and region

Regions First cycle primary Second cycle

school(1-4) primary (5-8)
Addis Ababa 39 39
Gambella 48 48
Harari 24 24
Ben-Gumuz 43 86
Dire Dawa 40 42
Tigray 55 54
SNNPR 74 54
Oromia 83 56
Amhara 72 69
Somalia 63 31
Afar 34 27
Notational 71 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.

17
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

Regions Dropout Rate in 2001/02 Dropout Rate in 2002/03
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

18
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
Total 16.7 17.8 17.2 19.8 18.5 19.2
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.

19
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,

20
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.

21