SECTION 2. COUNTRY STUDY: ETHIOPIA

PHOTO: EPHREM TAYE/LIGHT FOR THE WORLD

Ethiopia has an estimated population of 105 million, and is ranked 173 out of 189 countries on the Human Development Index.50 It has a federal system of governance, with ten regional states and two city administrations. Regional states have considerable authority and responsibility, underwritten by the constitution, which they exercise through councils at region, zone, woreda and kebele levels. Education is the shared responsibility of these administrative tiers. The school system consists of six years of primary schooling, followed by two years of junior high school and four years of high school.

Ethiopia has made significant progress on access to education over a very short timeframe. Under three million pupils were in primary school in 1995, but by 2018 this figure had increased to 19.4 million.51 Significant inroads have also been made into improving access to secondary school. This progress has taken place despite having one of the fastest growing youth populations in the world.

The 2015 Education for All review highlighted some key measures to improve access, including abolishing school fees, increasing expenditure on school construction and maintenance, and hiring and training thousands of new teachers, administrators and officials. Complementing this was a shift to mother tongue instruction and the gradual decentralisation of the education system to progressively lower administrative levels.

However, quality remains a major concern, and completion and retention (even in primary school) is low, especially for the most marginalised. Ethiopia has responded to this with investments to improve quality and completion through the General Education Quality Improvement Program (GEQIP), with a strong focus on improving teacher training and increasing spending per school.

In 2019, UNESCO noted that Ethiopia is now making the fastest progress towards the 2030 goal for primary completion of all sub-Saharan African countries.52 However, as our own findings reveal, Ethiopia must continue to build on its successes to ensure that the many children with disabilities who are out of school are brought into mainstream education.