A bird’s eye view on the education sector
May 6, 2008
By Eskinder Seyoum
Education is an instrument to produce citizens endowed with comprehensive knowledge and skill. It is also a vehicle to facilitate a rapid socio-economic progress in the country. The modern way of life and a high living standard today witnessed in developed nations is the outcome of education and training.
According to the Ministry of Education (MoE), as the education sector was utterly left aside for religious institutions (Orthodox and Muslim) till the onset of 19th century, the government did not exerted much effort to expand the provision of education and thus making it a vehicle towards ensuring the socio-economic progress.
But, after the victory of Adwa, 1896, some European countries showed interest in forging diplomatic ties and concluding cooperation agreements with Ethiopia. For this and owing to the advent of modern service rendering institutions such as telecommunications, transport, bank, railway, etc. and unprecedented demand for modern education to produce skilled manpower became the clarion call of the time.
“After Emperor Menlik II had formulated the first education proclamation in 1906, Menlik II School which has a special place in the history of modern education in Ethiopia, opened in 1908. This marks the beginning of time for the introduction of modern education.”
The School initially admitted 100 students selected from the dukes and noblemen. Education at that time aimed at producing workers for government bureaucracies.
In general, the progress achieved in the sector before 1935 was greatly hindered by the Italian invasion. However, around 1950s nearly 540 educational institutions (primary, secondary, technical and vocational, teacher training and agricultural institutions) were enrolling over 60,000 students.
At the same time, i.e, in 1950 Haile Selassie I University, the first higher learning institution in the country, was opened. Besides, colleges of Technology, Health Science and Agriculture were launched. At the end of the monarchical regime in 1973, the number of elementary and secondary schools reached 2,754 and 112 respectively.
When the military junta assumed power forcefully in 1974, it pledged loft promises to the public to expand the sector. However, students were made to accept socialist philosophy and communist ideology under coercion through teaching curriculum directly copied from socialist countries.
Even if additional schools were opened by the growing demand of the community, the principal educational objectives during this time was to propagate socialist philosophy. Hence, it could not go the desired distance towards contributing for national development.
Right after the demise of Derg, 1991, wide-ranging activities have been executed towards making education an instrument to combat poverty and improve the lives of citizens. For instance, kindergarten education was considered as luxury and most people used to think that only affluent families could afford sending their children to these institutions. However, the scenario has currently been completely changed. Especially in urban parts of the country most families do send their children to these institutions.
Annual abstract of Educational Statistics published by the Ministry of Education in February 2007 also attests this fact. The gross enrollment rate of kindergarten education here in Addis Ababa has reached 40.3 percent. However, much remains ahead to expand the coverage in rural parts or at least in major towns in the country as the overall gross enrollment rate for this level of education throughout the country in 2005/06 was just 2.7 percent. Of course the growth to this level from almost nil by itself is a great stride.
As far as primary education is concerned, the outcomes achieved in this level are remarkable. It has been made possible over the past a decade and half years to tremendously expand the coverage of primary education and make nations and nationalities deprived off their rights to education, enjoy the benefits of education. Hence, primary education has reportedly being provided in 24 nations, nationalities and 95 percent of primary school students are receiving education in their vernacular languages.
As we all know the government has designed a rural development policy so as to bring about rapid and sustainable development in the rural parts of the country which makes up some 85 percent of the country’s population. And education is a principal vehicle to bring about social transformation and change the livelihood of the rural population. Accordingly, the government has been striving aggressively to expand primary education especially in the rural parts of the country so as to create access to all school-age children and thereby producing educated farmers and other personnel capable of making use of new agricultural technologies.
As a result of the efforts unleashed to bring about tangible change in the sector, satisfactory results have been attained. The gross enrollment rate which was only 20 percent in 1991 at national level has grown to 91.6 percent in 2006/07. The participation in Addis Ababa, Gambella, Benshangul Gumz, Hararri and Tigray states has reached well over 100 percent. That of Amhara, Oromia and Southern Nations, Nationalities and Peoples State (SNNP) has grown to over 90 percent. The lowest is that of Somali and Afar which is 29.7 and 25.4 percent, respectively.
Besides, the number of primary schools which were some 8,256 in 1991 has grown to 21,043 in 2006/07. The enrollment of female students has also shown a marked increase. For instance, in Addis Ababa it has reached 161.3 percent in 2005/06.
A tremendous progress has also been registered in the secondary level that the total gross enrollment rate of secondary education which was only 6.6 percent in 1991. It has grown to 37.2 percent in 2006/07. When we look at the progress in each level, the total gross enrollment rate at first cycle and at the preparatory program has reached 33.2 and 33.7 percent respectively. Besides, the number of high schools which was 275 in 1991 has grown to 974 in 2006/07.
Although much progress has been achieved at both levels and an increase in the number of student population is observed, the growth of female students is much more less than male students. Hence this indicates much remains ahead to bring more girls to this education level which is a gateway to higher education.
In the new education policy those students unfortunate to join preparatory programs would be assigned to Technical, Vocational Education and Training (TVET). The country has put in place a comprehensive human resource development program aimed at strengthening its capacity through TVET.
Consequently, a leap forward has been attained in raising the number of trainees and training felids have been diversified. The number of TVET institutions which were only 17 in 1991 has grown to 119 in 2006/07. In addition, some 156 non-governmental institutions are training students in various vocational disciplines in 2005/06. The student population has also grown from just 2,500 to 172,000 year.
A few years before technical and vocational felids in their country were almost utterly left to males. There was a wrongly held misconception that women are not physically as strong as males. However, this misconception has reportedly been entirely shattered. Nowadays females are even outnumbering their male counterparts. For instance, out of the total 123,557 TVET students attending their training in 2005/06, some 62,142 were females and the remaining 61,415 males.
Likewise, there are also some 25 governmental TVET centers run by the Ministry of Agriculture enrolling around 37,029 students. These institutions are providing training in Animal Science, Plant Science, Natural Resource, Animal Health, Cooperatives, Accounting and Auditing and Cooperatives Organization Management and Marketing.
Splendid outcomes have also been achieved in the expansion of higher learning institutions. The only two universities in 1991 have grown to 21. The enrollment has also increased from 3, 070 to 56,421. Besides, private higher learning institutions are contributing their share towards producing skilled human power along with the government institutions.
Some years back only a few female students had the chance to join higher learning institutions. However, nowadays it has become common to see female students even joining some fields like engineering and medicine believed menial in the olden days. Hence, the enrollment of female students has reportedly reached 24.8 percent.
The total number of students enrolled in the postgraduate program (Masters and Ph.D) has also increased from 1,347 in 2001/02 to 6,385 in 2005/06. Even though the majority of students in the postgraduate program are males, the number of females in the program has shown a remarkable increase from 99 to 639 during this period.
Apart from building new educational facilities and beefing up the participation of students at each level, wide-ranging efforts have been unleashed to bolster the education sector. Accordingly, efforts were made to narrow the gender gap, urban-rural education coverage disparity, training of qualified teachers at each level, improve teacher-student and student-textbook ratio as well as minimize dropout and repetition. And encouraging results have been attained in this regard.
The budget set aside for the sector could also be a visible manifestation of the government’s commitment and profound desire for the provision of better education and boost the sector. The total expenditure which was 2.17 billion birr in 2001/02 has grown to 4.64 billion birr in 2004/05 which is a remarkable increase.
All in all, countless outcomes have been achieved in the education sector over the past a decade and half years especially following the implementation of the new education and training policy. The education coverage at each level has been raised; new educational institutions have been built, competent teachers have been trained, among others. If such endeavors are maintained with the same momentum, the country could meet the target set to create access to quality primary education by 2015.(END)
