Ethiopian Education System: Challenges and Enhancement Pathways

The sources highlight several significant challenges facing the Ethiopian education system:

• Alarmingly Low University Entrance Exam Pass Rates: A major challenge is the extremely low success rate of high school students taking the university entrance exam. In one instance, only 3% of the 845,188 students who took the exam obtained the average required for university admission, meaning only 27,000 students passed. This pass rate was a slight drop of 0.01 percentage points compared to the previous school year. Another report indicates a pass rate of 3.3% for 29,909 out of 896,520 grade 12 students in a different exam period. The Minister of Education, Berhanu Nega, explicitly stated that these results demonstrate "how our education system and we as a society have failed".
• Systemic Failure in Schools: The poor performance is widespread, with nearly half of the schools that presented candidates for the university entrance exam having not a single student pass.
• Inadequate Teaching Resources and Methods: Dr. Meseret Assefa, a lecturer at Addis Ababa University, attributes the low scores to a "lack of teaching tools and poor learning and teaching methods". He also points out a "lack of interest in tackling the real teaching and learning problems that affect student performance".
• Cheating in Examinations: The education system has faced issues with cheating. Efforts to reduce cheating in examinations have been welcomed, and the Ministry of Education was previously compelled to administer national exams outside students' localities due to the "spread of stealing of exams".
• Poor Quality of Learning and Low Foundational Literacy: Despite "enormous progress towards universal primary education," with 88.7% of children enrolled by 2021-2022, the quality of learning remains a major challenge. A critical issue is that 90% of 10-year-olds are unable to read or understand a sentence from a simple text.
• Low Enrolment in Higher Education Levels: While primary school enrolment is high, only 33.1% of the age group is enrolled in secondary education, according to UNICEF. Furthermore, in 2018, only 10% of the age group was in higher education in Ethiopia, as reported by the World Bank.
• Challenges and Aspirations of Youth: The education system is discussed in relation to the views and attitudes of Ethiopian youth, including their aspirations, challenges, and expectations concerning the current educational offerings. The national exam results play a significant role in shaping the future of Ethiopian youth and the nation's educational standards.