Education and Training in Ethiopia An Evaluation of Approaching EFA Goals

The efficiency of the Ethiopian educational system has been undermined by highdropout and repetition rates. In the school year 2001/02, the school life expectancy was 5years (UNESCO, 2004). The coefficient of primary-school efficiency of 39.1 per cent in2002/03 has a rather long way to reach the goal of 50 per cent by 2004/05 (Joint MissionReview Report, 2003).In the light of the Dakar EFA goals, Ethiopia has made progress in access to primaryeducation for all children (EFA goal 2). The primary-school enrolment tripled during the1990s and early 2000s. However, in 2000 Ethiopia was among the countries of the leastenrolment according to NER, i.e. smaller than 60 per cent (EFA Global Monitoring Report,2003/4). Girls’ access to primary education lags significantly behind boys’ access. Femalestudents’ enrolment would have to change drastically to reach the goal of all childrenhaving access to primary education by 2015. The same trend is observed in the goal ofgender parity and equality. EFA goal 5 refers to eliminating gender disparity by 2005 andachieving gender equality by 2015. According to the EFA Global Monitoring Report(2003/4), Ethiopia is at the risk of not reaching the goal of gender parity even by 2015both in primary and secondary education. Improving gender parity is the best predicator ofachieving the EFA goals in general. Quality of education can be measured by severalindicators. Ethiopia has high teacher qualifications only in the first cycle of primary leveleducation. The student teacher ratios are high and increasing. Survival rate is a qualityand efficiency indicator. Only about 60 per cent of students in Ethiopia survive to Grade 5,which does not allow achieving measurable outcomes by all in literacy, numeracy andessential life skills (EFA goal 6).5.5.4 Esteem for TVETThough the ETP stresses developing the educational system as a whole, educational policymeasures are focused on guaranteeing the universal availability of basic education. Theproblem lies in providing young people, both those who have dropped out of primaryschool and those who have completed it, with entry to further studies and/or a place insociety. Education neither shapes nor corresponds to labour force needs or therequirements of industry and trade. On all levels of the educational system, education andtraining has little relevance to practice and context and to preparation for the workforceand employability. The main problems of the current TVET programmes are as follows:• The range of occupational areas, trades, skills and knowledge, in which trainingis offered, is very limited.• Girls and women are underrepresented in the training programmes, which isalso due to the fact that existing offers mainly address typical male skills andoccupations.• Training offers for existing micro and small entrepreneurs and people inemployment are hardly available.The development of public colleges to train TVET teachers and instructors remains apriority of the TVET policy. The regional TVET bodies need to coordinate their efforts with53