BY MENGISTEAB TESHOME
Ensuring inclusive and quality education for all and promoting lifelong learning is a foundation to any nation’s overall development as it helps to break the chain of poverty, promote prosperity and improve the lives of citizens.
As the experiences of developed countries prove, education enables nations to grow upward and ensure socioeconomic mobility and is a key to combat poverty. Through quality education; countries can reduce the level of inequalities and to achieve gender equality. It is also crucial to fostering tolerance among diverse communities and creating more peaceful societies.
A nation that is committed to promote education to its citizens and invest to ensuring quality education, unquestionably, can make a difference in their socioeconomic move, improve the lives of their people and enable them to have a healthy lifestyle. Best delivered education spurs innovative minds; and well-educated masses can tolerate the resilience of the communities and become a part of a peaceful democratic society.
Not only that, education also certainly determines the quality of an individual’s life. It improves one’s knowledge, professional skills and develops personality and attitude. Most noteworthy, education affects the chances of employment for people. A highly educated individual is probably very likely to get a good job; and his professional capacity allows him to consider/select job opportunities that may lie before him.
That is why it is said that education is the backbone of a nation; and it matters most.
Ethiopia, acknowledging that ensuring quality education for all is decisive to achieving nation’s development goals is working unwaveringly to achieving its vision.
According to reports, over the past two decades, major progresses have been made towards expanding and increasing access to education even though issues related to quality, efficiency and learning outcomes remain fundamental challenges of the sector.
The country’s Education Sector Development Plan 2020-2025 has been designed to address these challenges with the vision to transform society through harnessing the full potential of learners to become productive citizens.
As to the plan document, it aims to enhance education and training through establishing an effective educational management and administration system with sector-wide accountability.
Developing ethical, civic, and moral values in learners, improving the quality of general education, upgrading equitable access and internal efficiency from pre-primary to secondary education, building a learning society linked to a lifelong learning opportunity that meets the diverse learning needs of young people and adults are the other targets of the plan.
What is more, it envisions building an effective and efficient education system using digital technology and putting in place a rigorous, systematic and objective quality assurance system to monitor schools, colleges of teachers’ education, and adult and non-formal education centers’ performance.
Likewise, building an effective and efficient education system by applying digital technology, putting in place a rigorous, systematic, and objective quality assurance system to monitor schools, teachers’ education and adult and non-formal education centers’ performance are the other matters incorporated in the plan.
To this effect, the Ministry of Education is exerting efforts to achieving the overall goal of education quality set at the national level. In view of this, recently, a new secondary boarding school was inaugurated in Ambo Town, Oromia State.
The secondary special boarding school, ‘Ifa Boru Secondary Special Boarding School’ was built with an outlay of over 275 million Birr.
Currently 240 students are attending their education at the boarding school, it was said.
Speaking at the inaugural ceremony, Education State Minister Samuel Kifle said that expansion of special boarding school in the State will provide an opportunity to achieve the overall goal of quality education in the short term.
The expansion of boarding schools is underway in line with the plan set by the Ministry of Education to construct special boarding schools in all parts of the country. Such projects cannot be realized by one a single body or by the Ministry alone. Rather, it needs the concerted efforts of all actors. Thus, the Ministry of Education strongly urges all states to build such schools, as to the State Minister.
Thanking Oromia State for its efforts and determination to provide quality education to students in order to support the nation building efforts, and stressing the need to work industriously for the future generations, he added that only a well-educated generation can live together in peace and love.
“If we want our country to be successful in the future, we must work hard with regard to provision of improved education for the generation,” he remarked.
President of Oromia State, Shimelis Abdisa on his part said that the State has already embarked on activities targeting to produce a generation who is scientifically and technologically advanced and innovative; that is capable of resolving the problems of the country and beyond.
He said in less than a year, the State has completed the construction of 100 secondary schools and seven special boarding schools across the State.
If the existing initiative is strengthened further attention is paid to the sector; the special boarding school will not only be a place where the best students are selected and taught, but also a place where they compete with; which is of course vital to enhance education quality, Shimelis stressed.
“We must work harder and change the lives of our people through education,” he added.
It was indicated that the schools also provide instructions in French, Arabic and Chinese languages; in addition to English.
The State government has also built 100 secondary schools during the just ended Ethiopian budget year with a four billion Birr budget.
Each of the schools have a capacity to enroll 2,000 students, it was learned.
It was indicated that currently seven special boarding schools have become operational in Oromia State, out of the nine under construction with a cost of close to two billion Birr.
The schools began instruction in the just ended Ethiopian academic year by enrolling over 1,500 students who scored the highest grade in their previous academic achievements.
The Special Boarding School is said equipped with the necessary school facilities and services including students’ feeding center, teachers’ dormitory, internet service, a dairy farming for the production of milk for students, a dormitory and an internet service.
The inauguration ceremony was attended by high federal and states government officials, invited guests, elders, school’s community and the surrounding community.
THE ETHIOPIAN HERALD THURSDAY 14 JULY 2022
