Education in Ethiopia - Current System

Current System

The Higher Education Institutions Board reviews and adapts the plans and budgets of each institution. The universities have senates, which fall in between the boards and the academic commissions in their powers and duties. Each of these administrative bodies creates various committees to assist their duties. The academic commission (AC) of each college faculty deliberates on and submits proposals about programs, plans, courses, certification, promotions, and students' status. The department councils are composed of all full-time academic staff and chaired by the department heads. The council prepares and submits recommendations to the AC concerning programs of study, curricula, courses, staff promotion, research projects, teaching materials, and examinations.

Higher education institutions recruit their own staff based on certain criteria. Once employed, the teachers are assessed at the end of every semester (twice a year) by their students, colleagues, and the department head. The teacher must receive an above average rating to continue their employment. Contracts are renewed every 2 years. Those teachers whose performance falls below average for 2 consecutive semesters will not have their contracts renewed. In the past 5 years, a few contracts have been terminated due to low evaluations by students at the AAU.

Salaries of faculty are based on their ranks. There are six salary scales and after two years of service a teacher will go up to the next rank. Previously all were paid the same and there was no incentive. Thus the new plan was every two years teachers receive a pay increase. A good teacher can be promoted every 2 or 3 years and has pay increments every year. As a consequence teachers are now highly motivated, although many instructors still complain that their salaries are too low.

As of 2008, there are 16,161,528 children enrolled in grades 1 through 12 in Ethiopia; 13,476,104 are in government schools and 2,685,424 in non-government schools, while are 8,760.958 are boys and 7,380,570 are girls. These were taught by 267,191 teachers in 23,516 schools, which had a total of over 161,796 classrooms.

There were 2,228 teachers in higher education institutions in 1989-99. The professors and associate professors were only 2.29% and 6.78% respectively. Over 66% of the instructors had a master's or a PhD degree, with the rest hold a bachelor's or the equivalent. There were 5,169 support staff working in higher education institutions in Ethiopia in 1998-99. In 1999, 48.36% of the supportive staff were females. The academic staff of Ethiopian higher education institutions spend 75% of their time in teaching and 25% in research activities. Those working in research institutes spend 25% in teaching and 75% in research work.

The Institute of Ethiopian Studies (IES), the first research unit in the country, was established in 1963. In 1999, there were six well-established research units within HEIs; the IES, the Debre Zeit Agricultural Research Center (under the Alemaya University of Agriculture), Geophysical Observatory, Institute of Development Research, Institute of Educational Research, and Institute of Pathobiology. The scientific and professional journals published by research institutes, professional associations, or colleges include: Bulletin of Chemistry, Ethiopian Journal of Agriculture, Ethiopian Journal of Development Research, Ethiopian Journal of Education, Ethiopian Journal of Health Development, Ethiopian Medical Journal, Ethiopian Pharmaceutical Journal, Journal of Ethiopian Law, Journal of Ethiopian Studies, SINET: Ethiopian Journal of Science, and ZEDE: Journal of the Association of Ethiopian Engineers and Architects.

The journals associated with the AAU are assessed every 2–3 years by a committee composed of 7 members from various disciplines. The funds for the research work come from the government budget and donors. Higher education in Ethiopia has been financed mainly by the government. The funds for the capital and recurrent expenses are provided to institutions through the Ministry of Finance. About 12% of the education budget is set aside for higher education. Out of the recurrent budget, about 50% is allocated for salaries. Ethiopian tuition fees have been increasing over the years. The fees for foreign students are about double. The admission rate for women has been only about 15% for the past several years up to 1999. Some efforts have been made to improve the rate of admission by lowering the admission cut-off grade point by 0.2 (for example, admitting boys with 3.0 and girls with 2.8 GPA to the same program). This affirmative action has improved women's admission rate, but has not resulted in significant changes; the attrition rate of this group is higher than average.

Most women are also enrolled in social and pedagogical sciences and in diploma programs. Out of the total of 864 graduate students, only 62 (7.18%) were women. Engineering, agriculture, and pharmacy had the least female enrollment. In the past several years, new private colleges have been accredited by the Ministry of Education. There are various officially recognized colleges including: Unity University in Addis Ababa, St. Mary's University College, Alpha University College, Admas University College, People to People College in Harar, and Awassa Adventist College, and others. The total government budget for education has increased by 84%. In attempt to provide education for all, huge expansion of education through the construction of new schools was initiated close to the communities they serve. After regionalisation was introduced in 1993, almost all Ethiopians had the right to education in their own languages, texts, although vetted by the Ministry of Education, are devised by the educational bureaus in regional states in order to ensure their appropriateness to the diverse cultures of Ethiopia. Social awareness programs to teach that education is vital was set up to combat cultural and historical barriers. Regional government has had a role to play in reviewing and reinvigorating education in the primary and secondary sectors, but higher education remains the responsibility of central government. The government set up a new plan to establish one new university per regional state and one education college, one technology college and one medical college. The number of girls enrolled has doubled from 1996 to 2000. Most still do not have equal status with boys, but there are measures such as "positive discrimination," which are helping to right this imbalance. In 2004 UNESCO Institute for Statistics showed percentage of female teachers in primary education reaching 44.6 percent and primary gross enrollment rate to 93.4 percent. There are a growing number of private and public Universities and colleges in Ethiopia. As of 2007, the University Capacity Building Program (UCBP) to build 13 new universities is undergoing nationwide.