(Part Two)
With the expansion of modern education the growth in the number of the population and the number of students going to school began to swell up and the issue of teachers` efficiency and their contribution to producing effective students became the concern of every parent and the government as well. What is more, as part of its vision to eradicate illiteracy, the government allocated budgets to build schools in both urban and rural parts of the country.
Whenever the issue of modern education is raised, the preparation and standard of teachers is always an important issue because it is teachers who contribute the lion`s share in the creation of a new generation of intellectual citizens.
With the expansion of modern education teachers training colleges and institutes did continue to expand and it appeared that the government understood the needs of the society and thousands of teachers were trained and fielded in to the various schools. But the teaching profession did not manage to acquire popularity because of economic issues. The salaries of teachers are notoriously lower than many other professionals and many college graduates would opt to join the profession or in the first place get the training as a teacher when they see other avenues have been inaccessible. As much as the profession of teaching is noble and respectable, it has not been economically awarded with an attractive remuneration. Some say given the efforts that go into teaching, given the arduous task of managing so much responsibility it should have been awarded better pay and benefits than other professions.
Another challenge for the public schools is also the emergence of so many private schools that have now become a new reality especially for those who have a relatively good income and can somehow afford to pay the fees.
What is more, damaging now a days is the perception that all public schools are mediocre and all private schools are of high standard, so much so that we see some parents refuting to send their children to public schools even risking bankruptcy by getting subjected and surrendering to this perception that their kids would get decent education only if they were sent to private schools.
Currently, there is a huge controversy on what sort of schools students must go, public or private. At the beginning there were only government run and administered public schools in Ethiopia except a few schools run by missionaries.
There were also a few international community schools meant largely for foreigners such as the French Lycée Gebre-Mariam, the Italian School or the Greek Community School etc. Later on private schools began to emerge and soon their popularity began to surge given the kind of facilities that they provided to students. But it was only the well-off who could afford to send their kids to these schools.
As the number of students began to swell to a huge proportion the alternative of sending kids to private schools became an option to avoid overcrowded public schools. In a way two classes of schools were being formed. But even in the various private schools there began a kind of competition because it became a business enterprise aiming to profit and hence the fees, the facilities and the way the teachers impart the lessons became factors that went into the competition.
In the meantime, what we have come to observe lately is that public schools have lost a lot of reputation in the minds of many parents led by the talk that surrounds public schools being led by inefficient teachers and with students exposed to various vices around public school compounds.
Very often parents are induced to make
emotional decisions on where to send their kids based on these widely spread stories and the perception they create. It is often true that there are more students in one class on average in the public schools than in private schools. It may be true that often the facilities of the private schools may be better than the public ones also because of the sheer number of beneficiaries who share them.
Some people talk about the quality of the teachers arguing that those working in the public schools are less prepared than the ones in the private schools who they say are better trained and armed with better pedagogical skills. They also say that because of the poor pay of the public teachers they are bound to take little effort while they teach and what is more, there is insufficient supervision and control over public school teachers. For instance, they say when they often absent themselves from their classes, the controls are lenient. Many argue this cannot happen in private schools because the controls are more stringent and the administrators would not allow them to do that.
Moreover, parents would protest because they pay a lot of money and they demand certain services worth their expenditure. Ethiopians do have this conundrum regarding how effectively the educational system is being run because the division now between the private schools and public ones is being exploited by some unscrupulous individuals who seem bent to profit from such reality, presumed or real.
Comparisons are made on various grounds but many argue the solution to Ethiopians’ problems in the education sector cannot be the private sector because it is not accessible for the majority of citizens. Particularly, currently, with a thousand economic problems afflicting every family, it is inconceivable that all families could afford private schools when they already have their own other day to day economic problems.
BY FITSUM GETACHEW
THE ETHIOPIAN HERALD SUNDAY EDITION 6 AUGUST 2023
