ETHIOPIA'S EDUCATIONAL POLICY REFORM AND THE TRENDS IN HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT

Abstract

Education and training policy issued in 1994 deals with most of the important issues
(problems) of the sec/or. However, it only hints about some and is vaglle about other
issues Primary alld secondary education, curriculum. teachers. access to e(llicatiol/;
problems of quality and equilty. lIatiollal examinations. alld vocatiollalftechnical trail/ing
are dealt with, non-formal education, languages of illsmictiofl. management of
education and the required resources for education are inadequately dealt with. Issues
of national goals alUl vailles. the /ink between education and rural development.
guilallce of sludellfs. early childhood edllcalioll. the /inks helween education and
employement (work) , co-ordinalioll at various administrative levels. and priority skills
needed for national developmemt are handly touched upon.
Though there are some challges alld improvements. such as in enrolments since Ille
issuance of Ihe policy. the rural areas alld the peripheries like Ihe sowh alld ellS/ of the
country are underserved, the participation rate of girls is low and the quality of
education is still questionable. The (Jisparity between regions. urban and rural areas,
boyes and girls seem 10 be getting willer rather than narrower. as claimed by the policy.
In addition, the rale of educational wastage  (dropollts, repetition) does 1I0t show trends
of reduction. Fllnhermore. the quality of education does not indicate improvements as
reflected by the etistillg low quality of teachers. large class sizes.  amount of resources
commited. lack of good alld adequare leaching materials. hasty implementaion of the
usage  of nationalities languages for instruction and the large pool of unemployed high
school graduates .