Scholars have repeatedly insisted on the need to adopt Western education on the basis of Ethiopia’s traditional system by using constructive values and cultures to address the country’s developmental needs at the turn of the last century. Although the cornerstones for modern education in Ethiopia were laid down under emperor Menelik, real progress in that direction could only materialize under the long rule of Emperor Haile Sellassie. In his modernizing zeal, the last emperor sought the assistance of Western educationists and scholars to be actively involved in the process. To this end he invited British, and American educationists and teachers who were believed to promote and implement his vision of creating a new educated generation that would serve in the then budding bureaucracy and in other state apparatuses and institutions.
According to critics and academic gurus who have written a great deal about Ethiopia’s modern educational system seem to be agreeing on the fact that the educational system has always been in trouble because of the basic principles underlying its development. According to some critics, the educational system was built by bypassing the traditional educational assets that the country had accumulated for centuries. The modern educational system was a kind of short cut towards modernization by adopting Western educational ethos developed thousands of years ago by the Greeks and then adopted by the Western world.
Thus, Ethiopia’s school curriculums were shaped according to Western ones and imitated their principles and philosophies while ignoring the knowledge and wisdom the traditional system had accumulated in the process of its religious as well as secular developments over the centuries. Instead of taking constructive precepts and ideas from the traditional, basically religious school system, and combine it with the newly discovered Western education, the new approach ignored what could have accelerated modernization and chose to spend precious time and energy in the largely unproductive endeavors to adopt alien philosophies that proved not only dysfunctional but also counterproductive and disappointing.
The crisis in Ethiopia’s so-called modern educational system reached its zenith in 1974 when students and teachers revolted against the then proposed Educational Sector Review they believed further exacerbated the problems instead of producing effective solutions to bring the system out of the impasse it has been put in over the previous twenty or thirty years after its introduction. The Educational Sector Review was rightly or wrongly perceived as an attempt by the then educational authorities to appease the revolting teachers and students to buy time for the monarchical regime that was tittering on the brink.
The last almost half a century after the 1974 revolution witnessed no significant reforms in the educational system. On the contrary, the Westernization or the process of copying from foreign educational models continued unabated. The revolution had not only facilitated the search for an autonomous educational philosophy, but also adopted a model worse than the Western one that was dominating the system during the previous decades. The adoption of a Soviet-style educational system on Ethiopian societies not only failed to address the accumulated problems but also added more problems than it created solutions. The so-called socialist educational system was completely unsuited to Ethiopian realities.
To take only one instance, the Marxist-Leninist philosophy that underlined the educational system was based on the denial of traditional and religious values as it rejected the basic principle underlying faith or the very existence of a supreme creator from whom all wisdom moral or otherwise emanated. The attempt to impose a Soviet-style educational system with Atheism or the denial of the very existence of the Creator, was anathema to Ethiopian tradition and belief system. However formidable the challenges were, the search for an education system that could articulate the needs and aspirations of the Ethiopian people had continued unabated even after the crisis of “socialist education”.
In the 1990s and during the last decade of the 20th century, Ethiopia’s search for a suitable educational approach to solving its many problems had continued unfettered. However the proposed educational reforms did not address the fundamental weaknesses of the system but aimed at improving or overhauling this or that aspect of it. Under the EPRDF for instance, the basic orientation of the educational system was left untouched while certain institutional reforms were implemented. The pillar of the educational policy of the EPRDF regime was to build as many schools and universities as possible throughout the country and bring as many students as possible in these schools and universities. However, that was a huge and ambitious project that did not touch at the core issues of the educational system.
Although that was not bad in itself this approach focused exclusively on putting education in the service of the development needs of the country, which was wrongly perceived as something that could vanish by teaching and graduating hundreds of thousands of youngsters and deploying them into the economic system that could not carry so many graduates. This created a kind of “inflation of educated people as well as massive joblessness and most of all a sharp fall in the quality and objective of modern education.
It was only a leap from one crisis to the other while the shortcomings and challenges accumulated to the extent that educational ethics was undermined, and being educated was only getting the necessary grades by any means (including through buying grades, cheating, favoritism and corruption) and graduating without acquiring the necessary qualifications entitling graduates for employment. Thus a generation of pseudo-educated youngsters crowded the job market and there was compete chaos as the priority was put on acquiring a college degree rather than a decent education , strong knowledge or wisdom.
Nevertheless, the locomotive of educational reform did not stop at any station and the present approach to reforming the system has apparently started from below as more emphasis is once again being given to nurturing the next generation in a new and ethically and morally improved environment free from the above-indicated corrupt practices. The recent decision by the educational authorities to make twelfth grade national exams free from corruption, cheating and like practices may look strange as the decision led to the mobilization of hundreds of thousands of students and their journey to different universities across the nation where they could sit for the exams in an atmosphere of security and free from cheating and other unfair means of getting higher or underserved marks as it was an established practice in the recent past. It was obviously a massive logistic and management operation but it is bound to pay off dividends according to the authors of the project although it might take more time to an objective assessment of its merits and shortcomings. With the exception of occasional hiccups, its overall success is commendable because the project is implemented in a challenging national political, and economic atmosphere.
Hundreds of thousands of young people recently sat for the school leaving certificate examination in an atmosphere free from intimidation, complication or alleged criminal acts of cheating at the exams that were standard practices in the past. The problem of cheating at the exams had reached such a worrying level that ti had made it difficult to separate those students who were hard working and honest from those who tried to pass the exams by dubious means such as using various electronic devices to connect with people outside the exams halls and relayed the answers to them or stealing the exams in advance and attend the exam sessions with the answers well prepared. There might have been also other questionable methods to in their bid to pas the exams at any cost.
This problem had reached such an alarming proportion so much so that the educational authorities were in great distress every time national exams were scheduled. They were busy trying to seek ways and means of preventing the dishonest students from resorting to cheating. This was a very stressful situation simply because it compromised the ethics and morality of education in general and the rules and regulations that should be followed during exams.
It was indeed a malaise the gave advantage to the incompetent students and undermined the aspiration of hard working and honest ones. As such it had to be stamped out at any cost and the solution was found out to be first prevent theft of the exams and second conducting the exams under maximum security conditions. And the best way was found out to be to move the candidates for the school leaving examination to universities and colleges where the alleged cheaters could not resort to the usual dirty tricks. This was obviously done for the sake of upholding the integrity of the exams and protecting the educational system from such abuses that compromised its objectives and ethical standards.
The educational reforms in Ethiopia can only be multifaceted, interdependent and deep going. The reforms or rectifications also involve more efforts than mobilizing tens of thousands of students for exams. It might include a critical study of the structural, philosophical and fundamental shortcomings of the system , otherwise a holistic approach to addressing the objectives of the reform that is bound to take more time, efforts and resources. Studies need to be made and debates need to be undertaken throughout society because there is nothing fundamental for the country than producing the ideal educated citizen of the future who is free from corrupt practices, ethically solid and morally well-armed in addition to exercising their talents fairly and fully.
The reforms should also include steps to do away with inter-student misunderstandings formerly fomented by anti-peace elements eager to make critical capital about the social diversities in the backgrounds of students prevalent on campuses. The diversities should served further cohesion and understanding among the student body and not promote conflicts or chaos as the anti-peace forces wished. Anyway, it was no small feat of organizational, budgetary and logistic achievement to mobilize hundreds of thousands of students to various exams centers across the country and conduct the exams in a peaceful and dependable way.
Even if there might have been some organizational or logistic problems, the lessons learned from this year’s national exams will undoubtedly serve to improve the effectiveness of similar events in the future. The whole process can be hailed as the first step in the right direction of educational reforms that will put an end to the controversial exam system once and for all.
BY MULUGETA GUDETA
THE ETHIOPIAN HERALD FRIDAY 21 OCTOBER R 2022