School of thought

Ethiopia 's educational system - if we can call it that - is a shoddy affair which has changed with each new regime, systematically dismantling whatever positive traits existed. The new regime refuses (often as a matter of principle) to build upon what good there was previously. It has been Ethiopia 's sad lot that it is forever starting from scratch. The victorious ruling order of the day invariably changed symbols, drafted a new constitution and proceeded to systematically tear down institutions like the armed forces, the courts and other branches of government.

Education in Ethiopia has been deteriorating for almost four decades. This is particularly shameful when one considers that Ethiopia boasted an indigenous (not colonial) modern school system as early as the late 1800's.

It would have been less catastrophic if successive regimes had simply restructured the school systems they inherited. But no, they had to uproot entire curricula, introduce dogmatic ideology into school textbooks and effectively denigrate previous education, and at best ostracize and at worst persecute established scholars of the old system.

Many of the best minds Ethiopia has ever produced were branded 'petit bourgeois reactionaries', harassed, indefinitely jailed and killed. The desperate, the moneyed and the lucky fled the country and became carrier exiles, destined to further enrich minds at Ivy League schools.

The 1974 revolution, the death knell of Ethiopian education, was also the scourge of the intellectual elite. Ironically, the revolution was enthusiastically sparked by Haile Sellassie University students and professors who had recklessly dabbled in Marxism-Leninism in their over-reaction to the feudalist excesses of the empire. True to Marxist thought, - 'the revolution devours its own children' - the learned classes opened Pandora's Box by introducing the hammer and sickle. Which delightedly cut off their heads.

Re-christened the AAU, the nation's only university committed 'hara-kiri' as it appointed malleable second tier academics and even Iron-Curtain professors. Thousands of 'loyal' 'children of the proletariat' were sent to 'sister' socialist countries to be the nucleus of a new order that would eliminate all vestiges of former learning. The corruption of Ethiopia's education system was so thorough that it may take decades to rid ourselves of the malign effects, so painfully displayed by the semi-educated and barely employable hordes that 'graduate' from state institutions and so-called colleges.

The EPRDF is not to be envied. It inherited not simply a neglected school system but an almost unfixable mess which, in the end, sunk so low as to order colleges to close as students were mobilized for war.

The new education policy adopted by this government resembles a leaky life boat with one oar, splashing ineffectually to avoid the maelstrom as the mothership sinks. The present strategy seems to be 'let them learn anything by anyone'. Perhaps this is the only option and may well be justified in time. But until then many millions will have been put through a massive and risky experiment. The gains, if this policy is successful, are priceless, but the failure would be more than catastrophic. The only way to guarantee the emergence of a viable education system is when quality control is an intrinsic element of that system. It is impossible to establish such as system within a few years, as Ethiopia 's education system requires many decades of sustained commitment.

Education has always been used as a political tool in Ethiopia , where the elite can produce future generations in their own image. We know that this doesn't work. It stalls progress. Education functions when it meets a need. The present economic situation is not one which can use educated and enterprising students and graduates. While focusing on education, the private sector must be promoted so that graduates have rewarding jobs to go into and the kind of education offered is tailor-made to Ethiopia 's context.

That is, if another regime doesn't tear everything down and start from square one. Again!