By Anko Zuta, Blogger of De Birhan Blogspot
06 June 2011
Since the coming to power of the Meles Zenawi led Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) 20 years ago , one of the most contested and highly criticised sectors of the government was the Education system. I , myself, being a graduate of the old (Dergue’s) education policy , that was fully changed some 10 years ago, have felt highly intimidated and insecure by the overflow of novice graduates that were fruits of the ruling party’s ''new'' education policy. I have seen countless students who, were it in my days, wouldn’t have even passed through the college doors, let alone graduate with degrees,graduate. I said aww aww, this is going wrong.
The failure, as I was capable to spot it then too, is in the education policy that had a quantitative focus than qualitativness. When EPRDF took power in 1991, the Primary education enrolment was 30% after 19 years it had reached 90%. This is an amazing number in fact and this is the figure that the UNMDGs and donors see and say WOW. But what is the use of achieving 100% enrolment rate when almost all of them are morons? Sorry for the offensive term, I meant illiterates.
The government has been mostly argued against, because of:
- 1. An education system that lacked quality and stressed on the quantity of enrolment
- 2. Politically orientated education system i.e ethic federalism that allowed students to study in their own mother tongue than use the national language, Amharic
- 3. A blind attempt of achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)
- 4. The regime is favouring only one region ,Tigray and dimming the rest of the regions and generation
Indeed, the above arguments by stakeholders, oppositions and well-wishers have been justified right. The daily boos of the veterans about the flimsy reading and writing skills of the new generation, have also been demonstrated once again accurate.
A 2010 Icebreaker Study
Some eight months ago in October 2010, RTI International, one of the world's leading research institutes, had published an icebreaker Report “Early Grade Reading Assessment (EGRA)” on grade 2 and 3, students of Ethiopia. The EGRA was done in collaboration of the Ministry of Education (MOE), RTI International, and other stakeholders and was funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID)/Washington and USAID/Ethiopia.
The study tested about 13,000 students at the end of grades second and third, in 338 public primary schools in eight regions(Amhara,Tigray,Oromia,Somalia,Harari,BeniShangul-Gumz,SNNPR(Sidama),and Addis Abeba) and 6 languages in Ethiopia, such that Grade 2 and Grade 3 students were assessed in Tigrinya, Afan Oromo, Amharic, Somali, Sidaamu Afoo, and Hararigna.
The study, assessed the students’ oral reading fluency, reading comprehension abilities and literacy as defined here:
1. Connected text oral reading fluency: ability to read a passage, about 60 words long. It is timed to 1 minute. The passages were targeted at the early Grade 2 level in vocabulary and complexity.
2. Comprehension in connected text: ability to answer several comprehension questions based on the passage read. Each assessment had 5 or 6 questions, and the scores presented are percentage-correct.
Then What is ‘Agape’ about the findings?
- · One ‘good’ thing that the Report cited was that most of the assessed students who studied in their mother tongue spoke their mother tongue as well – here is the ethnic federalism thing but its evilness comes later
- · A significant percentage of children in Grade 2 read zero words correctly. In Sidama the percentage of non-readers was 69.2%, and in Oromiya it was 41.2%. Only Harari (17.9%) and Addis Ababa (10.1%) have percentages of zero scores less than 20%, with the largest regions (SNNP, Oromiya, Tigray, and Amhara) all having Grade 2 zero scores above 25%.
- · Even in Grade 3, significant percentages of children remained nonreaders. For Somali (21.4%), Amhara (17.0%), Sidama (54.0%), and Oromiya (20.6), it is striking that after 3 years of school, such large proportions of children remained completely illiterate in their mother tongue.
- · In each of the 8 regions, at least 80% of children—and in the case of Sidama, 100%—were not reading at the expected oral reading fluency rate.
- · In Sidama (72.8%), Tigray (56.9%) and Benishangul-Gumuz (54.0%), more than half of the region’s children in Grade 2, did not understand a story at all meaning zero comprehension.
- · 94.5% of Tigray’s children had text book, but only 42.8% of Somali children and 59.3% of Benishangul-Gumuz children had it.And 70.4% in Amhara region.
The outgoing World Bank Director for Ethiopia Ken Ohashi wrote an article yesterday on Addis Fortune Newspaper that also touched the above issue. He said,
“This is truly a shocking figure. One cannot learn much in school without being able to read. This figure does decline after grade third, but it was still 20pc. These children have little hope of completing the primary first cycle (grades one to four) with a decent basic education. They are at great risk of dropping out, and giving up on learning. ”
Teaching reading comes to be the main cause of the problem according the Assessment.The language was also the other major reason , thanks to their ethno-federalism.
It is an alarming finding truly. My few friends who went into the field of teaching have been telling me that they receive a thin instruction from the Ministry of Education that they shouldn’t let primary students fail or repeat a class however dumb the student might be. And at the tertiary level similarly, the government’s affirmative policy permits all girls who sit for leaving cert to join universities. And in universities girls must be supported to pass not fail actually all college students. It boils down to one thing: increasing figures. Showing the world that in the Ethiopian education reports statistics, this government achieved in enrolling 100% elementary and university students and graduating 100% of university entrants and constructed hundreds of universities. But all this for what? To flood the nation with millions of degree holders who have a rock cranium?
You can read the whole Report here: Ethiopia Early Grade Reading Assessment
