School in Semien Mountains

Although the Ethiopian education system historically was in a state of crisis for a long time,[1] a major educational setback has been documented by numerous sources since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic and civil conflict in the country.[2][3][4]

Educational failure

Like other poor African countries, the education quality of Ethiopia saw a large decline due to the COVID-19 pandemic as well as due to civil war in the country.[5] During the Tigray War, eight thousands schools have been damaged, looted and destroyed since 2021, restricting the right of children to access education.[6] Data from December 2022 indicated that 3.5 million children (50% of which are girls) do not access free education due to war and climate change. Moreover, as many as 2.3 million school-aged children and 1.7 million children are not attending school in Tigray as a result of loss of infrastructure. According to the 2022 UNICEF report, about 3.1 to 3.6 million children are out of school, one of the largest educational crises in the world.[7][8][9]

The Ethiopian education has been improving over the past decade, with nearly 30 million students entering primary and secondary education and over 130,000 students entering higher education.[2] Policy experts, researchers and longtime observers believed that the current crisis can lead to problems beyond individual student performance.[10]

National exam failure

Since 2021, the Ethiopian National Exam quality was under the worsened condition, where 97% students failed to pass the grade 12 exams known as "entrance exam".[11] In October 2023, the Minister of Education Berhanu Nega disclosed the catastrophic failure of student in national exam. 43% of students reported that they have failed to pass the grade 12 secondary school exams in the 2022/23 school year and 96% of students scored less than 50%.[12] Only 3.3% of students who took exam in 2022 scored 50% and above, which was the minimum requirement of to enroll in higher education. Similarly, only 3.2% (845,099 students) achieved the score in 2023.[13][14][15]

References

  1. ↑ Admin (2018-08-31). "The Root Cause of Poor Quality of Education in Ethiopia: an Elephant in the Room". Borkena Ethiopian News. Retrieved 2023-12-20.
  2. 1 2 "In-depth: Is Ethiopia's education system under a serious threat?". Addis Standard. 19 December 2023.
  3. ↑ "Impacts of COVID-19 on the Ethiopian Education System" (PDF). 20 December 2023.
  4. ↑ "Tigray's Conflict Has Forced Schools to Close. Here's What That Means for Ethiopia's Children". Global Citizen. 2021-10-20. Retrieved 2023-12-20.
  5. ↑ Tiruneh, Dawit Tibebu; Molla, Tebeje (2023-11-23). "Ethiopia's education system is in crisis – now's the time to fix it". The Conversation. Retrieved 2023-12-15.
  6. ↑ "Education and Youth | Ethiopia". U.S. Agency for International Development. 2023-04-27. Retrieved 2023-12-19.
  7. ↑ "Increasing Number of Children Pushed Out of Education in Ethiopia Due to Severe Drought, Conflict and Forced Displacement - Ethiopia | ReliefWeb". reliefweb.int. 2022-12-07. Retrieved 2023-12-19.
  8. ↑ "Increasing Number of Children Pushed Out of Education in Ethiopia Due to Severe Drought, Conflict and Forced Displacement". Education Cannot Wait. Retrieved 2023-12-19.
  9. ↑ "Ethiopia Education Cluster Quarterly Newsletter #4 | Jan 2023 - Ethiopia | ReliefWeb". reliefweb.int. 2023-02-01. Retrieved 2023-12-19.
  10. ↑ Tiruneh, Dawit Tibebu; Molla, Tebeje (2023-11-23). "Ethiopia's education system is in crisis – now's the time to fix it". The Conversation. Retrieved 2023-12-20.
  11. ↑ Magool, Abdinasir (2023-10-11). "UNYIELDING THE CHALLENGES: Why did 97% of Ethiopian students fail in Grade 12th exams?". Medium. Retrieved 2023-12-19.
  12. ↑ Tiruneh, Dawit Tibebu; Molla, Tebeje (2023-11-23). "Ethiopia's education system is in crisis – now's the time to fix it". The Conversation. Retrieved 2023-12-19.
  13. ↑ Standard, Addis (2023-11-04). "Commentary: Cracks in the system: Unearthing part of the mysteries behind Ethiopia's national exam catastrophe". Addis Standard. Retrieved 2023-12-19.
  14. ↑ "Mass failure in national exam calls for urgent intervention". University World News. Retrieved 2023-12-19.
  15. ↑ Account (2023-01-30). "Ethiopia's Education Disaster revealed in University entrance exam". Borkena Ethiopian News. Retrieved 2023-12-30.
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