Although the Ethiopian education system historically was in a state of crisis for a long time, [1] a major educational setback has been documented by numerous sources since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic and civil conflict in the country. [2] [3] [4]
Like other poor African countries, the education quality of Ethiopia saw a large decline due to the COVID-19 pandemic as well as due to civil war in the country. [5] During the Tigray War, eight thousands schools have been damaged, looted and destroyed since 2021, restricting the right of children to access education. [6] Data from December 2022 indicated that 3.5 million children (50% of which are girls) do not access free education due to war and climate change. Moreover, as many as 2.3 million school-aged children and 1.7 million children[ clarification needed ] are not attending school in Tigray as a result of loss of infrastructure. According to the 2022 UNICEF report, about 3.1 to 3.6 million children are out of school, one of the largest educational crises in the world. [7] [8] [9]
The Ethiopian education has been improving over the past decade, with nearly 30 million students entering primary and secondary education and over 130,000 students entering higher education. [2] Policy experts, researchers and longtime observers[ who? ] believed that the current crisis can lead to problems beyond individual student performance. [10]
Since 2021, the Ethiopian National Exam quality was under the worsened condition, where 97% students failed to pass the grade 12 exams known as "entrance exam". [11] In October 2023, the Minister of Education Berhanu Nega disclosed the catastrophic failure of student in national exam. 43% of students reported that they have failed to pass the grade 12 secondary school exams in the 2022/23 school year and 96% of students scored less than 50%. [12] Only 3.3% of students who took exam in 2022 scored 50% and above, which was the minimum requirement of to enroll in higher education. Similarly, only 3.2% (845,099 students) achieved the score in 2023. [13] [14] [15]
Shire, also known as Shire Inda Selassie, is a city and separate woreda in the Tigray Region of Ethiopia. The city is the administrative center of the Semien Mi'irabawi Zone. It was part of Tahtay Koraro district.
Addis Standard is an Ethiopian monthly social, economic and political news magazine published and distributed by Jakenn Publishing Plc, and was established in February 2011 by Tsedale Lemma, who is also the editor-in-chief of the magazine as of January 2021. The magazine has an independent political stance, and is headquartered in Addis Ababa.
Abiy Ahmed Ali is an Ethiopian politician serving as the third Prime Minister of Ethiopia since 2018, and as a leader of the Prosperity Party since 2019. He was awarded the 2019 Nobel Peace Prize "for his efforts to achieve peace and international cooperation, and in particular for his decisive initiative to resolve the border conflict with neighbouring Eritrea". Abiy served as the third chairman of the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) that governed Ethiopia for 28 years and the first person of Oromo descent to hold that position. Abiy is a member of the Ethiopian parliament, and was a member of the Oromo Democratic Party (ODP), one of the then four coalition parties of the EPRDF, until its rule ceased in 2019 and he formed his own party, the Prosperity Party.
The 2021 Ethiopian general election to elect members of the House of Peoples' Representatives was held on 21 June 2021 and 30 September 2021. Regional elections were also held on those dates.
The Prosperity Party is a political party in Ethiopia that was established on 1 December 2019 as a successor to the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) by incumbent Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed. The merger into a countrywide party is part of Abiy's general policy of distancing the country's politics from ethnic federalism. It ran for the first time in the 2021 general election.
Adanech Abebe is an Ethiopian politician and attorney who is serving as the thirty-second mayor of Addis Ababa since 2021. She has been serving as a deputy mayor from 2020 until 2021. She previously was the Minister of Revenue and Customs Authority from 2018 to 2020, when she became the first female to assume the role of the Federal Attorney General of Ethiopia. She is the first woman to hold the mayorship since it was created in 1910.
The Tigray War was an armed conflict that lasted from 3 November 2020 to 3 November 2022. The war was primarily fought in the Tigray Region of Ethiopia between forces allied to the Ethiopian federal government and Eritrea on one side, and the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF) on the other.
The Coalition of Ethiopian Federalist Forces was a coalition of Ethiopian political parties from 2019 to 2020 that included the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF), the former ruling party that lost power in 2018.
Fano is an ethno-nationalist Amhara youth militia and former protest movement. Fano first emerged in the 2010s and during the 2016-2018 state of emergency as a protest movement against the former Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) government. Although Fano is hailed for being instrumental in bringing about the fall of the EPRDF through both non-violent and violent struggles, their current status and organizational structure are unclear. The territorial integrity of the ethnic Amhara "homeland" has been a key issue for Fano. Protests led by Fano in 2017-2018 were often centered around the issue of Western Tigray and the ethnic Amhara who lived there. As the purported "protectors" of Amhara society, the Fano have engaged in violent conflicts throughout the state in the name of neutralizing perceived threats to the Amhara people and, by extension, Amhara nationalism. Fano has become aligned with –and, in many instances, absorbed — the Amhara Regional Special Forces. Fano militias are primarily involved in armed clashes with the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF), the Oromo Liberation Army (OLA), and the Ethiopian National Defense Force (ENDF). They have also clashed with the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) at the border of Ethiopia and Sudan.
The Tigray Democratic Party is an opposition party in the Tigray Region of Ethiopia.
Beginning with the onset of the Tigray War in November 2020, acute food shortages leading to death and starvation became widespread in northern Ethiopia, and the Tigray, Afar and Amhara Regions in particular. As of August 2022, there are 13 million people facing acute food insecurity, and an estimated 150,000–200,000 had died of starvation by March 2022. In the Tigray Region alone, 89% of people are in need of food aid, with those facing severe hunger reaching up to 47%. In a report published in June 2021, over 350,000 people were already experiencing catastrophic famine conditions. It is the worst famine to happen in East Africa since 2011–2012.
Temesgen Tiruneh is an Ethiopian politician who is the director general of National Intelligence and Security Service of Ethiopia.
In the late hours of 7 January 2022, the Ethiopian Air Force (ETAF) carried out an airstrike on a camp for internally displaced persons set up in Dedebit Elementary School, located in the Tigray Region of Ethiopia. Between 56 and 59 people were killed in the attack, and at least 30 others were left injured.
Abiy Ahmed's tenure as prime minister of Ethiopia began on 2 April 2018 with his swearing-in at the Ethiopian parliament, succeeding Hailemariam Desalegn. Abiy is the first person of Oromo descent to hold the office, and became chair of the ruling Prosperity Party after the dissolution of the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) in November 2019.
Since the 1990s, the Amhara people of Ethiopia have been subject to ethnic violence, including massacres by Tigrayan, Oromo and Gumuz ethnic groups among others, which some have characterized as a genocide. Large-scale killings and grave human rights violations followed the implementation of the ethnic-federalist system in the country. In most of the cases, the mass murders were silent with perpetrators from various ethno-militant groups— from TPLF/TDF, OLF–OLA, and Gumuz armed groups.
Democratic backsliding in Ethiopia is ongoing, most notably under the administration of Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed. Since assumption of power in April 2018, Ahmed has played crucial role of reforms in the Ethiopian politics and reversal of policies implemented by the former ruling party, the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF). Abiy immediately gained public approval and international recognition owing to liberalized policymaking including in media outlets, gender equality, internet freedom and privatization of economy. Furtherly, he was also warmly gained accolades for ending 20-years conflict between Ethiopia and Eritrea, from which he awarded the 2019 Nobel Peace Prize, being the first Ethiopian to earn the title. In 2019, Ethiopia received a score of 19 out of 100 in the Freedom in the World metric, a significant improvement from previous years, although it is still characterized as "Not Free". In December 2019, he formed the Prosperity Party by dissolution of EPRDF and merged all its ethnic based regional parties while the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF) refused to obey, resulting intense face-off with the federal government. He promised to hold free and fair upcoming election; although due to COVID-19 pandemic deterioration and other security and logistics issues, the election was postponed indefinitely in mid-2020. Opponents called this action as backdrop to "reconsolidate dictatorship" and "constitutional crisis". On 9 September 2020, the Tigray Regional election were held as the federal government deemed illegal election. According to the electoral commission, the TPLF won 98.2% of 152 seats were contested. The federal government and the Tigray authority relations aggravated by late 2020, culminating the Tigray War.
The Ethiopian National Educational Assessment and Examination Agency is a government agency responsible for conducting and inspection of national learning process of grade 4th and 8th since 2000, and grade 8th and 12th since 2010. It was established by Council of Ministers under Proclamation No.260/2012. Its office is located in King George VI Street, in Arada district of Addis Ababa.
Events in the year 2023 in Ethiopia.
The persecution of the Ethiopian and Eritrean Orthodox Tewahedo Church has been surging over centuries. The church has encountered significant challenges throughout its history. Historically, notable persecutions attributed during Yodit Gudit era in 980, Ahmad ibn Ibrahim al-Ghazi invasion of Ethiopian Empire during the Ethiopian-Adal War (1529–1542) and the Italian occupation of Ethiopia (1936–1941). Still, the church faces significant persecutions where many Christians are killed by government forces and churches are burnt amidst political crisis. During the tension between Ethiopian Orthodox and the illegal Oromia synod, three people killed after unknown assailants opened fire in Shashamane in Oromia on 2 February 2023. According to witness, the Oromia police was the perpetrator of the attack. It is observed during Axum massacre in the Tigray War where 750 people reportedly killed in Axum Tsion feast day celebrated on 30 November.