The Education stride: HRD report - Aiga Forumaigaforum.com/article1/HDI-report-and-education-stride.pdf · The Education stride: HRD report (Wubanchi Demse 05/10/15) Two weeks ago,

The Education stride: HRD report

(Wubanchi Demse 05/10/15)

Two weeks ago, the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) released the much anticipated National Human Development Report 2014 for Ethiopia.

It has been over 15 years since the last National Human Development Report for Ethiopia was published and since then much has changed. The Government has been engaged in a major effort to transform Ethiopian society and place the country on a trajectory to become a middle-income economy by the year 2025.

As the chief of UNDP office attested:

Over the last several years, the economy grew by nearly 10 per cent per annum, one of the fastest growth rates registered in the world. During this time, significant attention has been given to upgrading economic and social infrastructure and promoting pro-poor spending on education, health, and other services that benefit the poor and marginalized.

One of the primary movers of this stride is the achievements in the education sector.

Indeed, the long-term trends analyzed by the UNDP and its Human Development Report indicate that impressive progress in educational attainment has been made in the last 10 years.

The report established that:

While the recent expansion of education has tak-en place at all levels, the Government has made particular efforts towards universal primary edu-cation. Gross enrolment rates in primary school are 98.2 per cent for boys and 92.4 per cent for girls, while for secondary schools the gross rates are 40 per cent for boys and 37 per cent for girls.

Ethiopia has thus seen an enormous and rapid increase in enrolment in primary education that has contributed to reducing the gender imbalance within education. The Government aims to achieve universal pri-mary education for those aged 7-14 as a GTP target by 2014/15.

As part of expanding educational opportunities over the past two decades, net enrolments in primary school have almost tripled since mon-itoring

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began in 1994. Currently, 85.7 per cent of Ethiopian primary age children are attending primary school.

The report established that:

Secondary school enrolment has risen too, but remains at quite low levels, especially in rural ar-eas, and among the poorest groups. Only in the last five years did the gender gap start decreas -ing at this level of education.

Primary school (Grades 1-8) net enrolment rose from 68.5 per cent in 2004/5 to 85.7 per cent in 2012/13, but it remained virtually unchanged over the last two years of that period. Lower pri -mary net enrolment rate (Grades 1-4) reached 95.3 per cent, having improved by 3.1 percent -age points from the previous year. While net enrolment for both boys and girls are showing improvement, boys’ net enrolment is ahead of girls’ by 5.3 percentage points.

Unfortunately, the rate for upper primary (Grades 5-8) net enrolment fell from 48.1 in 2011/12 to 47.3 per cent in 2012/13. The gender difference had been reversed in 2010/11, and was 48 per cent for girls against 46.5 per cent for boys in 2012/13. Large variations were observed at the regional level, with some regions (Tigray, Am -hara, Benishaongul-Gumuz, SNNPR and Gam -bella) at or above the national average, while others lagged behind. The gender ratio at the national level stood at 0.94. Gender disparities in favor of boys are quite pronounced in some regions, especially in Benishangul-Gumuz and Harari.

Primary school completion rates (Grade 8) show ongoing improvement, reaching 52.8 per cent in 2012/13, representing a marginal improvement over the previous year (52.1 per cent). Male completion rates reached 53.3 per cent while females were at 52.2 per cent. The latest data (MoE, 2013) show a lower drop-out rate from primary school for girls (15.4 per cent) than boys (15.9 per cent). However, significant differences exist between rural and urban areas (see Figure 3.6)

Literacy Definitely more Ethiopians are attending school, especially in rural areas. The question is wheth-er they are getting more knowledge and skills. The levels of literacy and numeracy (among the population over 10 years old) have increased significantly over time. As revealed in the 2011 Welfare Monitoring Survey (WMS), literacy rates have risen since 2004 from 37.9 per cent to 46.7 per cent in 2011. Literacy rates in Ethiopia are on target for males but lower than expected for females, even when taking into account levels of income. This is

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occurring despite major im-provements in literacy for both sexes since the mid-2000s. Overall, the female literacy rate has increased from 27 to 39 per cent between 2004 and 2011, and male literacy from 49 to 59 per cent for persons aged 10 years and older.

Tertiary Turning to the tertiary level, university education in Ethiopia has a history going back some 63 years. The first higher education institute in Ethi -opia was established in 1950 as Addis Ababa University College. When the current Govern -ment came into power in 1991, there were only two government universities and 16 colleges.

Currently, there are 32 government universities (plus 75 private higher education institutes).

The student intake (new enrolments), which was less than 15,000 when the current Gov -ernment came to power in 1991, has reached about 467,843 currently. The education budget, which was only 16.7 per cent of the total budget in 2004/05, reached 25.2 per cent in 2012/13.

A total of 237,877 students were studying in technical and vocational institutions (TVET) in 2012/13. In 2012/13, 79,786 students gradu -ated from government and private higher edu -cation institutions.

Gender gap The recent narrowing of the education gap has contributed to the observed narrowing in the gender wage gap. On average, differences in education explain a significant fraction of the variation in productivity, wages and incomes among adults. Moreover, in their roles as moth -ers, educated women pass on the benefits of higher education to their children. A World Bank study (World Bank, 2012a) states that children born to more educated mothers are less likely to die in infancy and more likely to have higher birth weights and be fully immunized.

In summary, more Ethiopians are at least getting basic education, which, by itself, is a significant achievement.

Multi-sector collaboration is needed for cur -riculum development for promoting adult edu -cation. The Government provided educational instruction to 3.5 million adults in 2012/13 and planned to double that number in 2013/14.

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However, a significant portion of those who en -roll in formal education at the first cycle of pri -mary do not seem to continue their education even to the secondary cycle of primary educa -tion.

Quality of Education The rapid expansion in access to and enrolment in education is a necessary but not a sufficient condition to ensure that Ethiopians have the knowledge and skills that will enable them to create or find more productive employment. There are multiple factors that come into play in this, including quality of education, employment opportunities, and the requisite environment to create or expand productive employment.

The Government is trying to improve the qual -ity of education through the School Improve -ment Programme financed under the General Education Quality Improvement Programme (GEQUIP). This programme lays the ground -work for improvements in student performance.

Examples include the creation of a conducive school environment, the improvement of school facilities, the use of cluster resource centers, tutorial classes, student peer networking, and greater participation via student parliaments / councils.

Besides enrolment expansion, some indicators of education quality have begun to show prog -ress. Examples include the mass hiring of new teachers that has led to the reduction in pu -pil-teacher ratios from 66:1 in 2004/05 to 49:1 in 2012/13 for primary education, and from 51:1 to 29:1 for secondary education. The na -tional pupil-teacher ratio also improved slightly from 50:1 to 49:1 in the same period.

In the same period, the proportion of qualified primary school teachers increased from 60.6 per cent to 64.7 per cent, with qualified women slightly outpacing men. In addition, some 95 per cent of teachers and supervisors currently meet basic professional teaching standards and re -ceive ongoing in-service training. The Govern -ment further plans for some 220 educational institutions to complete qualification standard assessments. And teachers’ qualifications will be upgraded through professional development arrangements with US and UK educational or -ganizations.

Similarly, efforts are being made to increase the use of tutorial classes for low performing stu -dents (mainly girls), purchase additional reading materials,

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promote improvements in libraries and laboratory facilities, and establish cluster resource centres for multi-purpose educational uses.

According to surveys of school directors, teachers and students, there have been visible changes in teaching methodology. The tenden -cy of shifting from a lecture (“chalk and talk”) approach to an active learning approach is be -coming more common in schools.

The school environment is thus becoming more favorable for the entire teaching-learning pro -cess. In most schools, the availability of facilities - such as libraries, laboratories, pedagogical centres, separate toilets for boys and girls, and playgrounds - is improving. Other important developments include giving students from less developed regions preferential treatment in ad -mission to tertiary education. Disabled children are being offered special education and appro -priate facilities and infrastructure in regular edu -cational institutions.

By and large, however, the main determinants of inequity and exclusion from education lie out -side the classroom: poverty and food insecuri -ty; child labour both at home and commercially; long distances to schools (especially to second -ary schools); gender disparities and in particular early marriage; and the lack of continuous ac -cess for children from pastoralist families.

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Therefore, let’s review the progress using the comparable, detailed data between 1991 E.C and 2005 E.C.

Gross enrollment ratio in kindergarten schools: is defined as the proportion of total number of children in kindergarten, irrespective of age to total population of age 4-6.

In 1992 E.C. (1999/2000) only about 99,710 children in 834 kindergarten schools have been reported to have access out of the estimated total 5,396,040 children of the relevant age group.

In 2005 E.C. (2012/13) out of the estimated 7.71 million children of the appropriate age group (age 4-6) about 2.01 million children have been reported to have access to pre-primary education all over the country. Though the enrolment is small when compared to the appropriate age group, gross

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enrolment rate is higher than the previous year. Moreover, it is expected that the gross enrolment rate could be higher as data from several kindergarten centers might be under-reported.

Gross Enrollment ratio in primary (1-8): It is defined as the proportion of total enrollment in primary, irrespective of age, out of the corresponding school age population for primary. This is probably the most widely used indicator of access or participation in developing countries, as the quality of data classified by age is in question. In most cases this figure includes under or overage students, as a result it can be higher than 100%. Normally, the age of students in grades 1-8 have to be 7-14, with the starting age at grade 1 is seven. Hence, it is said to be a crude measure of coverage.

There were about 12,683,585 primary school age population, i.e., between the ages of seven and fourteen, of which 6,462,503 (51%) were enrolled in both cycles of the primary education (grades 1-8) in 1992 E.C. (1999/2000). That is the primary GER at national level is 51%, and when we see GER by sex, it was 40.7% for girls and 60.9% for boys.

Now, GER in primary level has reached 96 percent, which is close to the average GER of lower-middle-income countries. The gender gap narrowed from 6.9 percentage points in 2001 E.C. (2008/09) to 5.8 percentage points in 2005 E.C. (2012/13).

Net enrollment ratio (NER) in primary: if it was possible to get reliable age specific data, NER is the best way of measuring participation and is a more refined indicator of coverage in terms of explaining the proportion of pupils enrolled from a specific age group. However, unfortunately, due to various reasons it is very difficult to use this indictor seriously as the age specific data we get from schools has low quality. For example, the net enrollment ratio for primary is calculated as: number of pupils in the age range of 7-14 divided by the total population of children aged 7-14, and multiplied by 100. It is usually lower than the GER as it excludes over-aged and under-aged students, but use the same denominator as GER.

The data on primary net enrolment ratio shows an increasing trend as the GER does. Both the GER and NER of Primary, indicate that access is improved through time. In 2005 E.C. (2012/13) NER has increased by 0.5 percentage points from the previous year and is 2.9 percentage points higher than in in 2001 E.C. (2008/09)

Enrollment in Senior Secondary Schools: In 1992 E.C. (1999/2000) 571,719 students were enrolled in senior secondary schools, which has increased annually at an average growth rate of 9.2% since

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1988 E.C. Out of the total enrollment 233,192 were girls, who accounts for 40.8% of the enrollment. The GER for girls was 8.5% and 12.0% for boys. These raised the national GER for secondary to 10.3%.

Enrolment in all secondary education (grades 9-12) has grown by an average of 4.6 % per year for the last five years. There were nearly 1.9 million students enrolled in the year 2005 E.C. (2012/13). From this total, over 1.5 million in the first cycle (grades 9-10). More than eighty one out of every hundred students in secondary education are in the first cycle. The average annual growth rate for grades (11-12) is 15.0% for the last five years.

Higher Education: Total enrollment in the higher education institutions in 1992 E.C. was recorded to be 67,682 in all programmes, Regular, Evening and Kiremt. Out of this non-Government institutions had 8,376 students, which accounts for 12.4% of the total. The non-government institutions were accredited for diploma programs only. Therefore, the non-government institution share of the diploma programs accounts for 23.45%. In that year, there were 14,647 female students, which is 21.64% of the total enrollment in the higher education institutions. The participation rate for girls at this level had increased from time to time. For example, in 1991 E.C. (1998/1999), at this level, there were 9,769 female students that accounted for only 18.68%.

Statistics show that access to higher education institutions is improving through time for both sexes; and it also confirms that the role of non-Government institutions is significant.

In the year 2005 E.C. (2012/13) the total undergraduate enrolment (government and non-government; regular, evening, summer and distance programs) is 553,848 of which 166,141 are females which accounts for 30% of the total enrolment. In addition, 474,198 (85.6%) of the total undergraduate enrolment is in government institutions.

The postgraduate program is a specialized program offered under the schools of graduate studies to students who already have their bachelor’s or first degree. Completion of this program is certified by awarding either a Masters degree or equivalent, or a PhD.

The significant increase in postgraduate enrolment in the past five years of which 90.3% are from government institutions. In 2005 E.C. (2012/13), the percentage of female postgraduate students is 19.5% which is lower by 0.7 percentage points when compared to the year 2004 E.C. (2011/12).

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Urban-Rural Disparity: A comparison of rural and urban enrollment in 1992 (1999/2000) indicated that 68% of primary enrollment accounted from rural areas, but when we see enrollment in senior secondary schools, rural enrollment accounts only for 2%.

However, in 2005 E.C. (2012/13), a comparison of rural and urban enrollment indicated that about 81% of primary learners are in rural areas, only the rest are in urban areas.

The proportion of girls enrolled is still lower than boys by all comparisons, rural-urban and primary-secondary levels. This tells us that we have to exert much effort to make females, which accounts for half of the population, beneficiary of the education system.

Percentage of certified primary school teachers: According to the national standards, the first cycle (1-4) primary education requires teachers with minimum qualification of Teacher Training Institutes (TTI) certificate and Teacher Training Colleges’ diploma for the second cycle (5-8).

At national level 90.0 % of primary school teachers are certified and have the minimum qualification required, TTI certificate and college diploma. Somali has the lowest ratio 60.8%. These figures exclude teachers with qualifications of 12+1 and above, BA/B.Sc. and MA/MSc, as we have no information if they are certified for teaching. If the figures had included the percentage of certified teachers could have been higher than 90.0%

There has been a rapid growth in certified teachers for upper primary (5-8) education over the past five years hence most of the teaching staff at the upper primary level education are trained.

Primary PTR has shown an increasing trend at national level, from 37 in 1988 E.C. (1995/96) to 56 in 1992 E.C. (1999/2000), which is higher than the standard for primary by 6.

The PTR for secondary has reached 44 in 1992 E.C. (1999/2000). Usually the national level indicators show the general direction, and may not show clear pictures, as it masks the variations at lower levels. PTR at school level shows a better image of the teaching learning process.

It was only in 1998 E.C. (2005/06) that teachers in the preparatory program (secondary second cycle) were separately tracked. there is little variation among regions on PTR but the trend in the past five years shows continual reduction in this measure.

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Pupil-Section Ratio ( PSR): This ratio is one of the efficiency indicators, as lower ratio in comparison to the national standard means underutilization of resources. In 1992 E.C. this ratio was 66.4 for primary and 74.9 for secondary schools.

The Pupil-Section Ratio ( PSR) for the year 2005 E.C. (2012/13) reached 53.7% which is higher than the previous year.

Efficiency Rates: These rates help us to understand how the education system works in terms of the use of available resource and time. A student has three paths in a particular academic year , i.e. Promotion, repetition or dropout.

These rates are commonly used to measure the efficiency of the education system in producing graduates of particular education cycle. Repeating a grade means utilizing more resource than allocated to a student, and leaving a school (dropout) before completing a particular cycle of education is also wastage of resources. In both cases, the meager resource allocated for education and time will be wasted or underutilized. Therefore, Repetition and Dropout rates are indicators of the level of inefficiency of the education system.

We can observe that repetition rate shows a tendency of decreasing while the dropout rate is increasing in the last five years. The 1992 E.C. (1999/2000) figure shows that 72.9% of the previous year students have promoted to the next grade and the remaining 18.9% have dropped out and 8.2% have repeated.

Data shows that boys’ repetition rate is higher than girls’ except in the years 2001 E.C. (2008/09) and 2002 E.C. (2009/10) in which girls repletion rate is higher than boys. It can also be observed that total repetition rate was lower in the year 2001 E.C. (2008/09) and this indicates that there was a great achievement of decreasing repetition. The 2004 E.C. (2011/12) repetition rate has decreased from the previous year by 0.6 percentage points.

Repetition Rates by Grade: This indicator measures the proportion of students who have remained in the same grade over one year, and have used more resource for that grade. pupils use more resources allocated to school than those who pass to next grade the following year.

The resources are in the form of teacher salary, school materials and facilities etc. This reduces the internal efficiency of the system. The policy states automatic promotion at the first three grades of primary. But in practice repeaters in these grades are still reported.

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* Girl’s repetition rate in all grades is higher than boys. The repetition rate for girls, boys and both combined show similar pattern. For all the lowest is at grade six and the highest at grade 8.

* The rate at grade 1 is 10.9%, which is far better compared to the previous year, which was 17.3%.

Dropout Rates by Grade: The proportion of pupils who leave the school varies from grade to grade. In most cases this figure is higher for grade one. At national level, 30.3% of pupils enrolled in grade 1, in 1991 E.C (1998/1999) had left school before reaching grade two. Figures show that dropout is highest at grade 1 and lowest at grade 6. The average duration of study for dropouts (who do not complete their primary schooling), i.e. the average number of years they stayed in the education system before they dropout was 3.3 for boys and 3.4 for girls.

The proportion of pupils who leave school varies from grade to grade. The dropout rate is higher for grade 1, grade 5, and grade 8 where as the lowest dropout rate is at grade 3. At national level, 22.7% of pupils enrolled in grade 1, in 2004 E.C. (2011/12), have left school before reaching grade 2 in 2005 E.C. (2012/13). Therefore, to decrease dropout at primary school (grades 1 to 8), the Ethiopian education system has to focus on decreasing grade 1 dropout students because, if grade 1 students are kept in the system the probability of dropping out in future grades is much less.

This gigantic achievement was made possible by a clear vision and committed leadership. For the last two decades, Federal, regional and woreda offices worked guided by a common vision, which included not only the works on education sector but also the necessary context, which is maintaining a peaceful and stable environment and a continued economic growth

The government commitment is best demonstrated in budget allocation. As one World Bank report summarized it:

The strong commitment to educational development since 1994 is reflected in budget allocations to the sector, which increased steadily to reach more than 23 percent of total government expenditures, and 5.3 percent of GDP, in 2009.

Both of these percentages are high relative to per capita income by international standards. The share of recurrent education spending

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at the woreda level was estimated in excess of 40 percent during the period 2006–09 for most regions.

The composition of government education expenditures, moreover, changed in favor of general and higher education during the years 2003–08, while the share devoted to TVET fell sharply.The share allocated to higher education is estimated to have reached 50 percent during the period 2008–10. Secondary education has been squeezed between the primary and higher education subsectors—allocated less than 10 percent of the public resources available for education in 2009/10, compared to 30 percent or more in countries such as India and Indonesia. External resources flowing through budgetary channels were estimated at Br 4.7 billion in 2009/10, representing approximately about 28 percent of total education expenditures.

The report said:

At the centre of the country’s strong econom -ic and social performance has been the Gov -ernment’s proactive and leading role in shaping socio-economic policy. With its goal of making Ethiopia a middle-income country no later than 2025, the Government, among other things, has been investing heavily in economic and so -cial infrastructure, streamlining public services, revamping the tax collection system, and sup -porting small and medium enterprises (SMEs).

Throughout much of the twentieth century, Ethiopia was one of the most educationally disadvantaged countries in the world. The majority of the population has had little access to schooling, a legacy that continues to affect the country’s human resources. Great strides have been made in education since 1992(1999/2000). Almost all children of primary-school age now in school, while enrollment growth has also been impressive at the secondary level, for which the gross enrollment rate has more than doubled since then.

The changes are too big to deny. Therefore, the cynics have started to question the significance of the changes made and claim it is only an increase in enrollment. Access to education is a right of citizens clearly recognized in the FDRE Constitution

However, the progresses made are far comprehensive than a mere access to education. Access at all levels of the education system increased at a rapid rate in line with a sharp increase in the number of teachers, schools and institutions. There were important improvements in the availability of trained teachers and

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some other inputs which are indispensable for a high quality education system. Disparities decreased through a more than average improvement of the situation of the disadvantaged and deprived groups and of the emerging regions. Efforts were made to make the content and the organization of education more relevant to the diversified needs of the population, for instance through the introduction of alternative basic education and the development of innovative models such as mobile schools.

In 1992(1999/2000), when the Derg regime was overthrown, educational infrastructure, access and equity was meager. That has been documented by several international development institutions. A World Bank summary of the situation describes:

Access to education was low: gross enrollment rates were 30 percent at the primary, 13 percent at the secondary, and less than 1 percent at the tertiary level. The primary enrollment rate was, moreover, less than half the average Gross Enrollment Ratio (GER) for Sub-Saharan African countries. Girls’ participation rates in primary education were much lower than those of boys, especially in rural areas. In addition, there were severe regional differences in primary GERs, ranging from 7 percent in the Afar region to 87 percent in the city of Addis Ababa. The quality of education was also poor, with inadequately trained and poorly motivated teachers and an overall lack of instructional materials. The system was both seriously underfinanced and inefficient—one-third of all students dropped out of school in their first year. Physical facilities were dilapidated due to war damage and the absence of preventive maintenance.

The new government made education a priority in the national development agenda and placed education at the centre of all development endeavors, in alignment with the national economic growth trajectory. The 1994 Education and Training Policy of the Federal Democratic Republic Government of Ethiopia articulated the aims of Education and Training as: Expanded and equitable access to general education and vocational training to meet the demands of the country and the economy; Improvement of the quality of education throughout the system; A special focus on girls’ and women’s education; Changing the curriculum to increase the relevance of education to local communities, including a shift to vernacular languages; and Gradual decentralization of school administration, with strong community participation.

It is not easy to measure the progress of education, as it has both quantitative and qualitative nature. To better appreciate the scale of the progress made, let's take a look at education indicators, which are quantitative measures designed to

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indicate nature, direction, and extent of change. Education indicators play an important role in providing a clear picture of the education system and the tangible changes that have occurred as a result of the system and other interventions.