Ethiopian Journal of Teacher Education and Leadership

Unveiling the Challenges of Corruption and Academic Dishonesty in Ethiopia: An Overview of the Nature, Magnitude, Consequences, and the Way Forward

2025-09-04T07:01:46+00:00

The paper examines the challenges that Ethiopia is facing in systemic corruption and education sector academic dishonesty (cheating), and the links between the two and the deleterious effect on the quality of education and the production of competent human power. Corruption in general and academic dishonesty in particular are spreading in Ethiopia. The objectives of this study are to present the highlights of the findings of a National Corruption Perception Survey conducted in 2021 and the synthesis of nine empirical studies on academic dishonesty in Ethiopia, published in the past ten years. The overwhelming majority of the participants (i.e 80% of 6,627) have indicated that corruption is widely prevalent in all sectors, including the education sector, though land and revenue administration, municipalities, the judiciary, and police are reported to be more corrupted than others. As further corroboration of the situation of corruption in the education sector, focusing on academic dishonesty, the empirical studies reviewed indicate that cheating in examinations, plagiarism, recruitment of weak teachers, falsification of qualifications/documents, favoritism or nepotism in the assessment of students are widely prevalent in high schools and higher education institutions in Ethiopia. Researchers have widely reported that academic dishonesty has a positive relationship with workplace dishonesty.

Effect of Items Position Change on Students’ Achievement in the Ethiopian University Entrance Examinations (EUEEs)

2025-09-04T07:05:13+00:00

To combat exam malpractice in crowded examination rooms, the Ethiopian University Entrance Examinations have been administered in four coded booklets of different reshuffling of item orders. However, research has revealed that systematic item position changes have significant effects in achievement scores. The main purpose of this study was to find out if random item order reshuffling would also have mean achievement score differences depending on which of the exam booklets test-takers were tested with. To address this purpose, the Entrance Examination 5 subjects (English, Mathematics, and 3-sciences) for 6-years for 21 sample public schools (11,376 grade 12 students) was received from National Education Assessment and Examinations Agency. In addition to the usual descriptive statistics, the data was analyzed with Spearman’s rank-order correlation to determine if the item distributions in the four booklets of the same exam significantly differ with each other. Besides, one-way ANOVA was used to determine if there are statistically significant differences in students’ achievement mean scores by booklets. The Spearman’s rank-order analysis shows weak to moderate item position order differences among booklets. In contrast to this, statistically significant mean achievement differences were found in 66.67% of the exams, which put at a serious disadvantage up to 16.64% of test-takers due to which exam booklets they were tested with. Hence, it was recommended that all stakeholders: test developers, exam booklet developers, result publishers and decision makers be aware of the unfairness of the current practice with item reordering and therefore take appropriate compensatory measures.

‘Future Perspectives’ in Ethiopian Secondary School Curriculum and Instruction

2025-09-04T07:10:34+00:00

Evolution of Teacher Education in Ethiopia: A Critical Review of the Historical Roots and Contemporary Perspectives

2025-09-04T07:17:54+00:00

This Article presents a critical analysis of the evolution of teacher education in Ethiopia, tracing its roots from religious-based education to modern pedagogical frameworks. Historically, teacher education in Ethiopia began within the religious institutions of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahido Church, where instruction was closely tied to spiritual teachings. The transition to modern education was marked by Emperor Menelik II's initiatives and further expanded under Emperor Haile Selassie, who established the first formal teacher training institutions. Over the decades, the system has undergone significant changes. The introduction of secular education, the establishment of formal training programs, and the socialist restructuring during the Derg regime - infused with Marxist-Leninist ideologies - were pivotal moments in Ethiopia's educational evolution. In the early 2000s, the Teacher Education System Overhaul (TESO) represented a ground-breaking shift towards modern approaches, focusing on competency-based training and student-centered learning. Despite these advancements, challenges continue to exist. Resource limitations, disparities in quality across regions, and the struggle to retain skilled teachers - especially in rural areas - highlight persistent issues. The Article also examines the socio-political and economic influences shaping teacher education, including the contributions of international organizations like UNESCO and USAID. By weaving together historical and contemporary perspectives, this Article sheds light on Ethiopia’s progress and persistent challenges in teacher education. The Article recommends policy improvements. It also emphasizes the importance of continuous professional development to ensure the system's long-term success and effectiveness.

Economics of Higher Education Financing: Exploring the Interplay between System and Capacity in Ethiopian Public Universities

2025-09-04T07:21:56+00:00

Volume2Number2

2025-09-04T08:34:53+00:00