A, B, C, D, Education I don’t want to be here. School is boring. This is useless. Complaints like these are constantly being spoken throughout school, whether it's from failing a math test to having to go through a boring 45 minutes of history class. Students are constantly taking the gift of learning for granted, while others around the world are in desperate need of having the accessibility to a good education. Ethiopia has never been colonized before, and it has always been politically, environmentally, and economically unstable (WENR).
Because their government isn’t very steady, they don’t have much funding to invest into schools, leading the population to increasingly become more illiterate due to the current state of poor education. Currently, the adult literacy rate is 39%, leaving more than half of the country unable to read and write (Flee). Because of high tuition and familial duties, it is very difficult for children to attend school. However, even the children in school are not attaining information that will aid them in the real world.
Along with school supplies and uniforms, schools in Ethiopia are expensive. There are two cycles of primary school, consisting from grades 1-4 and 5-8 (Prentis). Because it is free, 90% of children over the age of seven enter the first cycle of primary school (Prentis). However, as students progress to higher grades, the amount of children enrolled drastically decreases because of the increase in tuition (Fleet). Families force their children to drop out because they either need help at home or because the price is too expensive. By high school, only ¼ of the population that originally began is still enrolled. Even the students that stay enrolled in school are graduating with little knowledge. In each grade, students are only learning 40% of the content they are supposed to master (Gardner). This is because the teachers in Ethiopian schools weren’t educated well either, which makes it difficult for them to properly teach and connect with their own students. While the most intelligent students of their class graduated to become engineers and doctors, the lowest performing students were selected to become teachers (Gardner) As a result, it is impossible for them to properly instruct their students when they unable to understand the material themselves. Additionally, classes range from fifty to sixty students.
These large class sizes lead to a lack of desks and basic supplies for students to use, provoking lower scores on national assessments (Prentis). If it continues at this rate, this educational system will progressively spread to each generation. Governments can strive to change the definition of a “classroom,” by making them more interpersonal and less populated (Flee). They can also gain help from locals to supply classrooms with a bigger abundance of school supplies, so that they don’t have to provide it for themselves. Ethiopia will have to find a way to enter more students into a long-term education system so that they can become literate. They need to educate themselves so they can progress to develop their country and economy. Until then, the perpetual cycle of illiteracy in Ethiopia will continue.
Because their government isn’t very steady, they don’t have much funding to invest into schools, leading the population to increasingly become more illiterate due to the current state of poor education. Currently, the adult literacy rate is 39%, leaving more than half of the country unable to read and write (Flee). Because of high tuition and familial duties, it is very difficult for children to attend school. However, even the children in school are not attaining information that will aid them in the real world.
Along with school supplies and uniforms, schools in Ethiopia are expensive. There are two cycles of primary school, consisting from grades 1-4 and 5-8 (Prentis). Because it is free, 90% of children over the age of seven enter the first cycle of primary school (Prentis). However, as students progress to higher grades, the amount of children enrolled drastically decreases because of the increase in tuition (Fleet). Families force their children to drop out because they either need help at home or because the price is too expensive. By high school, only ¼ of the population that originally began is still enrolled. Even the students that stay enrolled in school are graduating with little knowledge. In each grade, students are only learning 40% of the content they are supposed to master (Gardner). This is because the teachers in Ethiopian schools weren’t educated well either, which makes it difficult for them to properly teach and connect with their own students. While the most intelligent students of their class graduated to become engineers and doctors, the lowest performing students were selected to become teachers (Gardner) As a result, it is impossible for them to properly instruct their students when they unable to understand the material themselves. Additionally, classes range from fifty to sixty students.
These large class sizes lead to a lack of desks and basic supplies for students to use, provoking lower scores on national assessments (Prentis). If it continues at this rate, this educational system will progressively spread to each generation. Governments can strive to change the definition of a “classroom,” by making them more interpersonal and less populated (Flee). They can also gain help from locals to supply classrooms with a bigger abundance of school supplies, so that they don’t have to provide it for themselves. Ethiopia will have to find a way to enter more students into a long-term education system so that they can become literate. They need to educate themselves so they can progress to develop their country and economy. Until then, the perpetual cycle of illiteracy in Ethiopia will continue.
Fleet, Justin van. “Africa's Education Crisis: In School But Not Learning.” Brookings, Brookings, 6 Dec. 2017,
“Gender and Education in South Africa.” Penn GSE,
www.gse.upenn.edu/gender-and-education-in-south-africa
Prentis, Dave. "A Bridge too far." Spectator, 5 May 2018, p. 24. Global Issues in Context
Gardner, Tom. “Ethiopia's Remarkable Education Statistics Mask a System in Crisis.” Quartz Africa, Quartz, 1 Jan. 2018,
“Education in Ethiopia.” WENR, 19 Mar. 2019, wenr.wes.org/2018/11/education-in-ethiopia.
Great article! I really enjoyed reading many of the issues that were happening in Ethiopia considering I did my own article on education in Niger. It was very eye opening to see the similarities and differences in the educational sector of these two countries. Your writing is also very profound and I now can see the importance of this issue even more. One question I would ask is what is the government of Ethiopia doing about this issue?
ReplyDeleteGood job with this article! I learned a lot about the education system in Niger that I didn't know before. I like how you made your introduction into something that a lot of people could relate to :)
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