Despite their differences in language and culture, the nations and nationalities of Ethiopia have a lot of civic and ethical cross-cutting cultural heritages they share together and have continued to uphold for ages.
In Ethiopia, civility has always been the epicenter of people’s daily life and social consciousness. Ethiopians have a polite way of greeting each other and guests from other countries. The smiles on their faces and the wishes they express during their greetings depict their respect for each other based on age and their social status. In modern days the youth and even those at the middle level of age greet each other in a manner that is completely incompatible with the social values of the peoples of this country.
Ordinary Ethiopians both in the rural and urban centers are very careful of the words they use in speaking to each other or with persons outside of their localities. They verbally show respect to each other and express their genuine views on matters related to social life.
In traditional Ethiopia, civic education is provided by the head of the family or the most senior member in the community. Some of the standard norms of behavior are based on religious teaching while the rest are based on ethical and moral values that have been practiced among community members.
Children are mentored and practically taught how they should respect their seniors. Even in the previous educational system, children are taught about good behavior and social norms in moral and ethical classes traditionally known as Gebregebinet which has been canceled from the curriculum some 40 years back.
During the Derge regime, political indoctrination and lessons in Marxist Leninist ideology replaced the system of moral education that was accepted both by the students and community members. Religious institutions, churches, and mosques were either demolished by force or transformed into secular organizations that are closely supervised by the totalitarian government.
The Derge government focused on establishing and strengthening youth organizations for political indoctrination and did not care about the preservation of civic and ethical values and even discouraged the youth to focus on the ideology of class struggle and atheism to make the youth highly skeptical of the traditional ethical standard of behavior.
Because of the mistakes committed both by the government and the society, the youth have turned out to be individualistic and lacked their own views about a number of important national issues.
It is interesting to note that even youth organizations affiliated never mention to train about social ethical standards of conduct. They focus on political discussions and never cared about the civic values and norms in society.
The entire situation precipitated into the creation of a youth society that is only fond of amusements and recreation instead of conducting useful social services from which the society can benefit.
A considerable number of the youth are now addicted to narcotics and alcohol with no strong rehabilitation centers to assist them to get rid of the adverse way of life that would destroy their bright future.
Indeed, the youth is the backbone of our society responsible for the economic, social, and cultural development of this country. If this force which constituted well over 60 percent of our society is not disciplined with ethical and civic values and is not trained towards better attitude towards labor and social services, the future of our country and its age-old social values will be at stake.
The problems associated with non-adherence to the civic and ethical standards of our society are obviously very clear to every responsible citizen but the point, however, is how this could be reversed so that the youth would be able to carry out their social responsibilities.
Families in different nations and nationalities play a decisive role in shaping the future of our youth. Apart from attempting to meet their basic needs, families should be trained on how they can successfully help to develop the mentality of their children in the context of acquainting them with social and ethical values that they need to uphold in their future life. This is extremely important to avoid the proliferation of a rebellious generation that could lead the country into irreversible chaos.
The introduction of civic and ethical education in schools across the country was an important contribution made by the government of EPRDF but the results and the contributions made in promoting civic education among the students have never been evaluated against the backdrop for which they were originally instituted.
The other problem with the civic and ethical education program was the actual methodology in which the subject matter was introduced. The methodology employed in the presentation of civic and ethical education lacked practical demonstration and was limited to a classroom situation and sitting for examination on the subject without according due regard to the contextual application of the lessons. It is therefore very important to review the content of the curriculum on civic education by involving all the major stakeholders in the education sector.
Despite the institutional arrangements made to address the plight of the youth in Ethiopia, most of these governmental and non-governmental institutions do not actually address the problems of the youth and if they do so they do it in a fragmented and scattered manner with no solid impact at the national level. It is, therefore, useful to devise an integrated and complementary strategy that would promote self-assertion and self-confidence among our young generation.
Promotion of civic and ethical education among the youth cannot be fruitful by approaching the issue only on a single track. It is very useful to come up with a participatory strategy that could involve the whole sector of the social fabric in the country.
The other factor that needs to be considered is an underutilization of currently available resources that should have been effectively employed for the benefit of the youth. For instance, youth centers and small scale public libraries’ established across the sub-cities in Addis Ababa could have been effectively utilized to address the multi-faceted approaches to youth development.
Civil society organizations including NGOs and professional associations have a comparative advantage to work with the youth because they are in much closer proximity to closely observe the status of the youth in their respective localities. A number of international and local NGOs are already engaged in commendable activities in the area of career development for our youth. These programs should be replicated in the regions and zones by way of maximizing their impacts.
Many people across the country blame the youth for their undesirable participation in the previous and current unrests that had prevailed but this could have been halted if we all had the wisdom and vision of handling the most precious stratum of our social ladder. It is important to positively accent the role of the youth in our societies and come up with measurable and impact-oriented programs that can tackle the alarming level of unemployment among the youth. Conferences on the issue of the youth are not entirely ruled out but the current situation demands a practical solution.
It is wrong to consider the youth as trouble makers or a threat to society because the future of this country rests on them. It is incumbent upon every responsible citizen to help and support the promotion of civility through multiple sets of civic and ethical education programs targeting the youth.
The Ethiopian Herald July 25/2019
BY SOLOMON DIBABA
