Health in Ethiopia - Educational Status

Educational Status

The intimate linkage between health and education has been firmly established in a number of studies which could potentially reinforce each other towards a rapid socio-economic development of a country, especially in developing economies. Education is one of the most critical variables in epidemiological and health service research in Ethiopia and illiteracy is usually associated with high risk and low health seeking behavior. In addition to a wide range of disease and child mortality associated with illiteracy or under education, unfortunately HIV/AIDS infection is disproportionately high in out of school youth. The general level of education in a country becomes a marker significantly influencing the spread of disease, shaping the health seeking behavior of individuals and communities including the utilization of modern health care service. Despite major progresses in Education, the literacy status of the population of Ethiopia is still low. The total adult literacy rate (whose age is above 15 who can read and write) is 36% (62% for male and 39% for female). According to MOE 2010 Progress Report, there has been an increase in the gross enrollment ratio from 2.2% in 2004/05 to 4.2% in 2008/09. The gross enrollment ratio in primary school has risen from 32% in 1990/91 to over 91% in 2006/07, giving a male to female proportion of 55.9% and 44.1%, respectively. This indicates that the gap between school boys and girls has continued to decline although still exist regional disparities in the primary GER. During the period 2004/05 to 2008/09, the overall enrollments as well as the intake capacity of the higher education institutions have significantly increased from 138,199 to 304,371, resulting in a higher education GER increase from 3.6% in 2004/05 to 4.6% in 2008/09. This figure puts Ethiopia achieving close to the African average in GER of 6% in 2007/08.