Devolution rhetoric and practice of curriculum policymaking in Ethiopian primary education

Abstract

This paper sketches the rhetoric and practices of curricular devolution since the publication of education and training policy. By exploring curriculum, management guidelines and other relevant policy documents, this paper argues that within a decentralized federal system of governance primary curriculum provisions still suffer from a centralized control. The Ministry dominates curriculum policy decision environment in the name of ‘setting & maintaining of standards', ‘provisions of assistance' and ‘ensures whether the curriculum developed at all levels was free from gender, cultural and political bias'. Capitalizing these discretions, the Ministry goes beyond its jurisdiction in developing primary curriculum. As a result, this paper recommends that regional states balance the power struggle over primary curriculum decision environment, untie themselves to some extent, exercise their policy right and play effectively as genuine stakeholders in the provisions of meaningful and localized curriculum for the only forms of education available to the majority of their constituencies.