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Ethiopia Education
Education in Ethiopia was oriented toward religious
learning until after World War II, when the government began
to emphasize secular learning as a means to achieve social
mobility and national development. By 1974, despite efforts
by the government to improve the situation, less than 10
percent of the total population was literate. There were
several reasons for this lack of progress. According to
Teshome G. Wagaw, a former educator at Haile Selassie I
University, the primary failure of the education system was
its inability to "satisfy the aspirations of the majority of
the people and to prepare in any adequate way those passing
through its ranks." Teshome described the system as elitist,
inflexible, and unresponsive to local needs. He was equally
critical of the distribution of educational opportunity,
which favored a few administrative regions and urban centers
at the expense of a predominantly illiterate rural
population. The education system also suffered from
inadequate financing.
In the early 1990s, the problems Ethiopians faced in making
their education system responsive to national needs remained
formidable. Social and political change had affected many
traditional elements of national life, but it was too soon
to predict what effect the changes would have on the
progress of education.
Data as of 1991
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