In the past, due to lack of educational institutions in the country, students had to trek long distance to and from school. They used to walk a long way to school to access the institutions. This is mainly due to the incompatibility between the demand and supply of schooling in the country. Besides, the schools were unevenly distributed throughout the country. The number of private schools in Ethiopia is inadequate. There is limited number of private schools in the rural areas. Addis Ababa is a leading city in terms of number of private schools in the country yet schools are needed in some newly emerging sub-cities.
The document from the Ministry of Education (MoE) reveals that it has set a plan to ensure all girls and boys have access to quality early childhood development, care and pre-primary education by 2030. Asfaw Mekonnen, General Education Inspection directorate at the MoE told that the number of nongovernmental schools is not adequate to satisfy the demand of the society in the country especially in the rural areas. Hence, the schools need to struggle to advance the quality of education they provide, as to him. “Nationally, 44 percent of children are enrolled in pre-primary classes in 2017/18, a decrease on the previous year’s result of 46 percent.
The majority of children enrolled in preprimary education are the appropriate school age for the level of education,” said Asfaw. Transition from primary to secondary education in government schools is low nationally compared to the nongovernmental with notable regional disparities. This is likely due to high number of students joining Technical and Vocational Education and Training(TVET), and other training centers, elaborated the director. Approached by The Ethiopian Herald, Alamirew Aklilu, Senior Data Analyst at MoE told that most of the private schools which were assessed by the ministry are found to be below the quality inspection standard.
Thus, the ministry is urging them to work to meet the requirement, he pointed out. Alamirew stressed that quality educational institutions are the foundations for the ongoing reform by the government. Thus, the ministry is working to establish a fair distribution of the institutions to every corner of the country. Thus, it has set various quality inspection strategies, he explained. As to the analyst, of 2,870 inspected schools, about 2,598 are in first and second levels whereas 316 are in the third and fourth levels. Thus, level one and two schools need to advance their quality of education. They should work to be in the third and fourth levels.
Yet there are schools which have exhibited improvement in the year 2017/18. Abebe Wondmu, Communication Director at Addis Ababa Education Bureau, uncovered that the bureau is working to escalate the quantity as well as quality of private schools in the city. The existing number of schools would not deadly satisfy the societal need for education, said the Director. Abebe added that the bureau is working aggressively to satisfy the need for education. The bureau is carrying out a series of inspections in the schools and is urging the schools to advance the quality of education they provide. It is providing trainings to teachers since it is crucial to improve the quality of education, he said. The director added that schools are built near residences of new settlements in order to satisfy the societal need for education.
Private schools are the best means of addressing the need. The number of schools in the city is not enough to fully satisfy the need. There is inadequacy of schools in some parts of the city. Thus, the bureau is working to increase the number of private schools, as to him. Besides increasing their number, the bureau is working to improve the quality of education provided by the school. The bureau is assessing the quality of education provided by the schools based on its standard of inspection. It is ranking the schools based on their achievement, said Wondmu.
Approached by The Ethiopian Herald Fikirte Abera, General Educational Institutions’ Licensing and Renewal Director, uncovered that private schools are being opened based on the requirements set by the inspection authority. The authority provides license after assessing the necessary educational and supportive materials that needs to be provided by the applicant, she said. BY GETAHUN LEGESSE The Director added that the schools must provide the necessary library materials, physical fitness centers, quality classes and wide fields for sport activities.
They should provide quality human and material infrastructure to the learners, as to her. Zemene Abiyu, General Education Inspection Director, explained that the bureau has been assessing the quality of education since its establishment. It has been evaluating the schools based on their standard of evaluation. The schools were urged to improve their drawbacks in order to improve the learners’ academics and personality, as to her. Zemene added that the General Education Quality Regulatory Agency has been carrying out a series of inspections at pre-school, elementary school, high-school and preparatory school levels.
The inspections made by the agency has played a paramount role in scaling up the quality of education, but still needs to work on improving the quality as well as quantity of the educational institutions, as to him. The inspection has revealed that a good number of educational institutions have shown improvement following the inspection. There are institutions that have exhibited radical change of rank. However, there are institutions that have moved downward as well. These schools need to be evaluated in the future, pointed out Zemene.
The Ethiopian Herald May 11/2019
BY GETAHUN LEGESSE