Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia
Ministry of Education
Five Year Education Sector Capacity Development Strategic Plan
Main Report: Complete Version
November 2006
Ethiopia: Strategy for Capacity Development in Education
November 2006
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CONTENTS
Acronyms
Executive Summary (Separate Document)
1. Background
 Preamble
 Comments on ToRs:
 Methodology
 Scope & Limitations of the Strategy
2. The Context: overview of the education policy and system of Ethiopia
 The structure and management of the Education System
 Conclusions on Education Policy, Progress and Current Practice
3. Analysis of Capacity Issues within the ESDP by main sector
 Overview of the ESDP
 Main Capacity Gains
 Pre-Primary Education
 Primary Education
 Secondary Education
 Technical and Vocational Education (TVET)
 Higher Education
iv
1
5
8
4. Analysis Of Education Mandates, Roles And Responsibilities, And Related
Capacity Issues
32
 The Education Financing Issue and Gap
 Ministry of Education: Conclusions
 Possible Factors Influencing the Staffing Situation of MoE
 Education Sector Staffing Situation at Various Levels of Administration
 Institutional and Organisational Dimensions, and Individual Needs
 Conclusions
 Implications for Strategy
5. Capacity Challenges and Lessons Learned:
 Capacity Challenges in the Education Sector
 Lessons learned from Education Policy Implementation
 Lessons concerning Education Capacity Development Initiatives
51
6. A Strategy for Education Capacity:
61
 Goal
 Strategic Objectives and Activities
1: Working environment made more conducive to improved performance and
education service delivery by addressing capacity-destroying issues, practices and
phenomena
2: Improved co-ordination, communication and mutual learning structures and
modalities, within the education sector and between it and other key stakeholders, for
better resource management, informed decisions and stakeholder engagement.
3: Strengthened institutional, organisational and individual capacities, in areas crucial
to delivery of ESDP III
4: Empowered Regional and local structures and improved ownership and
management of local capacity strategies in education
5. TVET institutions (public and private) responding to labour market needs and
providing on a sustainable basis, qualified and competent skilled manpower in
accordance with occupational standards.
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6. Autonomously and effectively managed Higher Education Institutions which
produce graduates meeting quantitative and qualitative socio-economic needs of the
country for high-level manpower.
 Summary Of Strategic Priorities, And Implementation Modalities
Boxes
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
The Gate (of the Ministry of Education)
Why Textbooks Matter
Case Example: Estimated Costs of Primary education ESDP for 1998EC
Compared with Budget 1997: Adaamiitulluu Woreda
Girls Education: The Strategy of a Gender and Education Department
Summary of Key Issues in the World Bank / MoE Review of Education in
Ethiopia 2005
Independent Evaluation Group Report on Primary Education Programmes
Possible Impact of Top-down targets on Education System Capacity
2
14
33
52
54
54
64
Tables:
1: Ministry of Education: (Old) Functional Units and their Staffing Situation (as at early
August 2006)
35
2: Summary Of Strategy Elements’ Priority, And Implementation Modality
82
Chart:
Organisational Chart of the Ministry of Education (August 2006 onwards)
36
_________________
Appendices (Separate Volume)
A: Terms of Reference
B: Bibliography
C: Persons Interviewed
D: Background Paper: Links ECDPM Capacity Study and the Present Strategy
E: Education Policy: Progress in Key Aspects
F: Ministry of Education: Profiles of Main Departments and Agencies
1. Planning and ESDP Co-ordination Department
2. Education Management Information System Panel
3. Department of Education Programmes and Teacher Education
4. Technical and Vocational Education and Training Department
5. Higher Education Department
6. Public and external Relations Department
7. National Organisation for Examinations
8. Education Media Agency
9. Higher Education Strategy Centre
10. Higher Education Relevance and Quality Assurance Agency
11. National Pedagogical Resource Centre
G: Approved Staffing Distribution, for the New MoE Structure (Separate Excel File)
H: Capacity Issues, by level of Government
I: Regional and Woreda Case Studies
1. Overview of Cases and a Methodological Note
2. Key Challenges of the sector & outstanding capacity issues
3. REB SNNPR
4. SNNPR: Arbegona Woreda (World Learning insights)
5. SNNPR: Burji Special Woreda
6. Tigray Region: Negash Primary School
7. Oromia Region: Woreda Adaamituulu:
8. Oromia Region: Borena Zone: Dire Woreda
9. Benishangul Gumuz Region
J History of TVET in Ethiopia
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ACRONYMS
ABEC
ADRC
ANFEA
ARM
BEN-E
BESO
BOFED
CB
CBTF
CPD
CSR
CSTC
DBS
DfID
E.C.
ECDPM
EFA
ELIP
EMIS
EMPDA
EQUIP
ESAA
ESBU
ESDP
ETP
FY
GAC
G.C.
GDP
GER
GFDRE
GOE
HE
HEI
HERQA
HESC
HESO
HRDU
ICDR
ICT
IDA
IER
IMF
JDTAM
JRM
KETMB
LAMP
MCB
MDG
MOE
MOFA
MOFED
MOH
NCTTE
NER
NFE
NGO
Alternative Basic Education Centre
Academic Development Resource Centre (on University Campuses supported by
EQUIP)
Adult and Non-formal Education Association
Annual Review Meeting (for ESDP III)
Basic Education Association – Ethiopia
Basic Education System Overhaul later Basic Education Strategic Objective
Bureau of Financial and Economic Development
Capacity Building
Capacity Building Task Force (of MoE: a Ministry/Donor Forum)
Continuing Professional Development
Civil Service Reform
Community Skill Training Centres
Direct budget support
Department of International Development
Ethiopian Calendar
European Centre for Development Policy and Management (Maastricht)
Education for All
English Language Instruction/Improvement Programme
Education Management Information System
Educational Materials Production and Distribution Agency
Educational Quality Improvement Project (supportive of ADRCs)
Education Statistics Annual Abstract
Elementary School Building Unit
Education Sector Development Programme
Education and Training Policy
Fiscal Year
Girls Advisory Committee
Gregorian Calendar
Gross Domestic Product
Gross Enrolment Ratio
Government of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia
Government of Ethiopia
Higher Education
Higher Education Institution
Higher education Relevance and Quality Agency
Higher Education Strategy Centre
Higher Education System Overhaul
Human Resources Development Unit
Institute for Curriculum Development and Research
Information and Communication Technology
International Development Association
Institute for Education Research (at UAA)
International Monetary Fund
Joint Donor Technical Assistance Mission
Joint Review Mission (for ESDP III)
Kebele Education Training and Management Board
Leadership and Management Programme
Ministry of Capacity Building
Millennium Development Goals
Ministry of Education
Ministry of Federal Affairs
Ministry of Finance and Economic Development
Ministry of Health
National Centre for Technical Teacher Education
Net Enrolment Ratio
Non-formal Education
Non-Governmental Organisation
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NOE
National Organisation for Examinations
NPT
Netherlands Programme for Training (Family of Projects supporting HE and HEIs)
PAP
(National) Program Action Plan
PASDEP
Plan for Accelerated and Sustained Development to end Poverty
PBS
Protection of Basic Services
PEP
Public Expenditure Programme
PER
Public Expenditure Review
PIM
Programme Implementation Manual
PIP
Public Investment Programme
PMO
Prime Minister’s Office
PRP
Poverty Reduction Paper
PRERD
Public and External Relations Department
PRSC
Poverty Reduction Strategic Credit
PSCAP
Public Service Delivery Capacity Building Programme
PTA
Parent and Teacher Associations
RAB
Regional Affairs Bureau
REB
Regional Education Bureau
REO
Regional Education Officer
ROPA
Results-Oriented Performance Evaluation
SDC
Skill Development Centre
SDPRP
Sustainable Development and Poverty Reduction Programme
SFP
School feeding programme
Sida
Swedish International Development Co-operation Agency
SNNPR
Southern Nations Nationalities and People’s Region
SSR
Student Section Ratio
STR
Student Teacher Ratio
TA
Technical Assistance
TDP
Teacher Development Programme
TEI
Teacher Education Institution
TESO
Teacher Education System Overhaul
TOT
Training of Trainers
TTC
Teacher Training College
TTI
Teacher Training Institution
TVET
Technical and Vocational Education and Training
UNESCO
United Nations Education Science and Cultural Organization
UNICEF
United Nations Children’s Fund
UPE
Universal Primary Education
WAD
Women’s Affairs Department
WAO
Women’s Affairs Officers
WB
World Bank
WCB
Woreda Capacity Building (a programme under BESO II)
WEO
Woreda Education Office
WETMB
Woreda Education Training and Management Board
WoFED
Woreda Office for Finance and Economic Development
WFP
World Food Programme
WUDB
Works and Urban Development Bureau
ZED
Zonal Education Department
ZEO
Zonal Education Office
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1. BACKGROUND
Preamble
This is a draft strategy for the development of capacity – institutional, organisational
and that of individuals – in the education sector of Ethiopia. Or rather, it is the start of
what should be a participative inclusive process of defining a way forward which
meets not only the goal of the ESDP III, but also equips the sector with the ability to
utilise productively the rich human professional resources within and outside it in
future. This document represents the first step along what should be a long road. We
hope that it is a helpful and constructive beginning. The study was started in July –
August 2006 by Berhanu Seboka, Lissane Yohannes and David Watson. This work
was supplemented in November with additional work focused on TVET, HE and the
workings of Regional and Woreda Councils by David Watson and Berhanu Seboka.
Additions to the strategy have been made as a result.
Definition of ‘Capacity’
We have deliberately adopted a broad definition of ‘capacity’ in this study. While
international experience – and indeed that of many in Ethiopia – indicates that the
concept of capacity means different things to different people, a major recent study1
has suggested that it represents far more than ‘an organisation’s ability to perform and
meet its objectives, to produce development results, and re-plan for the future’, in
which terms a range of definitions in the literature currently describe it. Along with
this, nonetheless important, feature of ‘capacity’, the complementary features revealed
in the ECDPM study include the capability of an organisation, or an education
system:
 to relate internally and to other elements of the public sector and the society it
serves;
 to organise itself in a coherent manner;
 to have time and ‘space’ to experiment, to learn and re-new itself on the basis
of real experience and changing environments,
 to possess a shared vision,
 to be seen as accountable to, and legitimate in the eyes of, those it serves. This
legitimacy is crucial for its capacity to generate financial and popular
(ultimately political) support.
These properties of successful ‘capacitated’ organisations or systems are in addition,
and essential complements, to the capacity which is usually the focus of attention: the
capacity of the system to perform or produce development results: in this case quality
education.
During this assignment it was heartening that many of our interviewees spontaneously
expressed the hope that there would be more opportunity to exchange information,
experience and perceptions with colleagues in the education sector, and with
1
The European Centre for Development Policy and Management (Maastricht) is currently completing
a three-year study of capacity issues undertaken on behalf of the Governance Network of the
Development Assistance Committee of OECD. Key papers are available on
www.ecdpm.org/dcc/capacitystudy . Capacity is defined in the ECDPM Study as ‘that emergent
combination of attributes, assets, capabilities and relationships that enables a human system to perform
(i.e. create development value), survive and self-renew’.
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stakeholders who rely on it. They bemoaned the pressures of routine work, chasing
ambitious performance targets, in difficult conditions, all of which seemed to preclude
such opportunities. Such observations indicate that a broader definition of ‘capacity’
is consistent with the experience and aspirations of many of those working in the
sector.
We hope therefore that the general argument underpinning this strategy - that the
above broader notion of capacity is the one which Ethiopia’s education system should
adopt in its pursuit of improved education quality outcomes - will be widely accepted
by all who are involved in the process of fleshing out this skeleton strategy, and
putting the strategy into practice.
We end this preamble however with a mini case-study (Box 1) which unfortunately
symbolises how the sector will need to make some internal procedural changes if its
‘capacity’ (in the broader definition) is to improve.
Box 1: The Gate
‘Why don’t you start by doing something about the gate?’ asked one of our interviewees – an education
sector professional working outside the Ministry. He explained that he was now reluctant to visit
colleagues in the Ministry of Education because the process for navigating the entrance gate was so
complicated….and if not complied with – threatening and humiliating.
Unlike most other Ministries, where after security checks access is straightforward, the MoE policy is
to require visitors to the Ministry to ensure the official they wish to see provides prior written
confirmation to the guards at the gate that the visitor has an appointment, and should be granted entry.
Without such a letter, as we know to our cost, delays result, as the guards are required to obtain
confirmation from the official concerned.
Even very senior professionals from outside the Ministry have been interrogated insensitively by the
gate guards, and delayed because the requisite letter has not been sent by the department in which the
prospective meeting is to take place.
While the necessity for security is clear, it is unfortunate if the procedure adopted in the Ministry
inhibits the very professional interactions which would add to its capacity to guide the delivery of
education services nation-wide.
Time for a change….should it be made part of the Ministry’s capacity development strategy?
Commentary on the ToRs
While capacity of the education system to deliver has been a pre-occupation of policy
makers and planners in the sector since ESDP I in 1997, and a range of capacityenhancing interventions have been mounted since then, an overall vision of what the
sector needs to achieve in terms of capacity, and how to work towards it, has been
missing. There is also (and unsurprisingly) confusion over the meaning of ‘capacity’.
The Terms of Reference (See Appendix A) for this study acknowledge that capacity
development encompasses three dimensions: the individual (skills, knowledge,
attitude); organisational (policies, procedures, structures and inter-relationships), and
the institutional features (legal, socio-cultural and the effective ‘rules of the game’) in
which organisations and individuals function.
The Capacity Building Task Force of the Ministry of Education (chaired by the
Director of Planning and comprising MoE and donor representatives) seeks a
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medium-term strategy to enhance education system capacity, which takes account of
the factors – especially institutional and organisational - which have impeded many of
the capacity building initiatives to date. In a subsequent phase, an implementation
plan is to be drawn up.
Views were exchanged between the consultants and the CBTF on the feasibility and
indeed the necessity for fieldwork during the current brief assignment (approximately
a total of 5 weeks team/country time in total). We raised the question in view of the
range of activities already ongoing in the regions involving key informants, and in
view of the volume of research and capacity assessment findings which provide a rich
resource for determining capacity issues, gaps, and possible approaches to addressing
them. It was agreed however that while these visits should go ahead, a smaller number
of regions (four instead of six) should be visited than indicated in earlier elaborations
of the ToRs.
Although not explicitly provided for in the ToRs it is strongly recommended that this
draft be translated and distributed widely to as many stakeholders of the education
system as possible, comments or contributions invited, and discussed at a national
workshop after the end of the current school holidays. Only after it has been amended
though this process should an attempt be made to draw up an implementation plan.
Methodology
The approach taken to drawing up a draft strategy for capacity development involved:
1. A review of pertinent literature: both related to ESDP, progress with
decentralisation in Ethiopia, and (education) capacity issues in general, as well
as relevant international documentation on the subject of capacity and
education systems. The materials consulted are at Appendix B.
2. The preparation of a paper linking a recently-concluded three-year study of
capacity change and performance by the European Centre for Development
Policy and Management for the Governance Network of the OECD/DAC, to
the present study. This paper in amended form is at Appendix D. The paper
was presented to CBTF members and supportive responses received.
3. Inception and periodic meetings of the consultants with the CBTF.
4. The consultants visited Tigray Region as a ‘pilot’ visit. Difficulties were
experienced in travelling to Mekelle (the journey took 24 hours eventually),
and in accessing even key regional staff. Several Woreda Education Officers
had to be seen together during a break from ongoing training. Their
involvement precluded Woreda visits. Only one school/KETB and PTA could
be visited.
5. The CBTF decided to limit the number of regional visits to three more regions
(instead of the five indicated in the ToRs), and suggested Woreda cases studies
representing high/medium/low capacity cases were drawn up on this basis.
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6. Accordingly, visits were made to Oromiya, SNNPR and Benishangul-Gemuz
regions. A disproportionate burden fell on the shoulders of Berhanu Seboka in
this regard, due to illness of David Watson during the first week’s fieldwork
which necessitated his early return to Addis Ababa, and the longer-term illness
of Lissane Yohannes which prevented him participating in the latter three
regional visits in August.
7. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with a range of stakeholders in
Addis Ababa within and outside the MoE (see Appendix C for a listing of
interviewees). This led to the accumulation of more reports and other relevant
materials. It is noteworthy that repeated attempts often had to be made to
access reports that interviewees mentioned as being relevant (especially in the
Ministry of Education). We make some suggestions for beginning to enhance
records and documentation storage systems as one part of the capacity
strategy. This is an important but hitherto apparently overlooked element of
‘institutional memory’, made all the more important by the high staff turnover
described in Section 4.
8. An outline of the strategy document was prepared by the consultants and
circulated to members of the Capacity Building Task Force after discussions
with the DFID Education Adviser. Report writing was completed in draft with
the consultants working remotely and communicating by email after other
feedback on the outline was received.
9. The CBTF responded to the first draft in September with a request for
additional work to be done to allow the strategy to encompass TVET, Higher
Education and education service roles, and relationships with elected Councils.
10. This comprehensive draft was submitted in November 2006 as a result of
additional fieldwork in SNNPR, Oromia and Addis Ababa Regions and further
research and dialogue with the CBTF.
Scope and Limitations of the Strategy Study
The strategy attempts to encompass all aspects of the capacity issues of the state
education system. The main country and fieldwork period of the study July 17th –
August 25th was in retrospect limited, when account is taken of the number of sources
and interviewees to be seen, the time of the year (school holidays, when many key
informants are undergoing training courses and are away from their usual work
stations), and illness affecting team members. An important limitation of the strategy
is that at this stage it only represents the considered view of the study team. It is
essential that this draft becomes the subject of a consultative workshop as soon as
possible involving a representative sample of as many federal, regional, woreda and
school-level stakeholder groups as possible (with representatives of NGO, academic
and private sectors, as well as development partners). Therefore this document should
be seen as the first contribution to debate. One of the lessons emerging from the
recent ECDPM study of capacity change and performance is that capacity ‘strategies’
become rapidly out of date as circumstances change. It is hoped that this initial
strategy can fuel debate and revision of the approaches adopted to education capacity
building not just in the immediate future of ESDP III, but into the next decade.
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2.
THE CONTEXT: OVERVIEW OF THE ETHIOPIAN EDUCATION
SYSTEM AND POLICY
The Management and Structure of Ethiopia’s Education System
The organization and management of the educational system follows the decentralized
administrative structure of the government: it is divided into nine National Regional
States and two City Administrations. Each region/city administration has its own
Bureau of Education (REB), various Woreda Education Offices (WEOs) and Kebeles
(Tabias in Tigray) with their Kebele Education and Training Boards (KETBs)
responsible for administrating and managing the educational system. In some of the
larger regions, the Zonal Educational Departments bridge administratively all
educational activities between woredas and regional bureaus. At school level Parent
Teacher Associations are often active in motivating community engagement in
education (both in terms of school attendance and financial contributions) and
monitoring school performance.
Except for tertiary educational institution, each Regional State Education Bureau is
both administratively and financially responsible for general education, and technical
and vocational education and training as well as teacher training and other diploma
level colleges (public and private) that operate in their respective Regional States.
Regions receive un-earmarked block grants from federal government. They allocate
these according to formulae between woredas. Woreda councils allocate these funds
between sectors, taking into account locally generated revenues, needs, and other
factors (such as growth of school enrolments). The management of the education
system is thus a collective responsibility of the MoE, the REBs and WEOs:

The MoE is mainly responsible for policy and guidelines that help implement
general education on the basis of research and policy analysis. The units
within the Ministry of Education are responsible for setting standards;
planning and assessment of the curricula, educational programs, teachers’
training and development, syllabus preparation for textbook development,
educational media, and accreditation of educational institutions and
programmes. It is also responsible for the setting of standards and for
regulating NGOs and private educational providers at all levels (pre-primary
to tertiary).

The Regional Education Bureaux, although they also have input in this
process, are by and large responsible for adopting and implementing the ESDP
without major departure from the overall policy.

Woreda are the primary educational authorities responsible for the
establishment and implementation of all educational activities spanning from
pre-primary to secondary education.
The education structure offers 8 years of primary education, in two cycles each having
four years duration. Secondary education comprises four more years, divided into two
cycles each having two years duration. The overall delivery mode of the education
system encompasses both formal and non-formal education. Non-formal education
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covers training both for out-of-school-age children, as well as adults who have either
have had any educational opportunities and/or dropped-out from the formal education
system. For this reason, it is viewed as open-ended as a training program, and, to
some extent, this is reflected in its institutional arrangement.
The formal education program has further been divided into pre-primary, general
education, technical-vocational and tertiary education sub-programs. The ESDP
encompasses all aspects of the formal and non-formal educational systems - the
curricula; teacher training; educational inputs; educational finance; organization and
management; the structure of education; career structure of teachers; assessment and
evaluation of sector policies and programs.
Conclusions on Education Policy, Progress and Current Practice
One of the yardsticks used to determine the overall status of education service
delivery in Ethiopia is the Education and Training Policy. This was promulgated in
1994 (TGE 1994). It has not been revised since then. Appendix E summarises selected
key policy statements and describes achievements to date. From this Appendix,
statements of ESDP III vision and goals, observations on recent progress, and the
discussions during the strategy study, the following conclusions are drawn:
1. The Policy has many merits: it clearly depicts the nation- and human resourcebuilding purpose of education. However, a recent major study of the education
system lead by the World Bank (World Bank 2005) which mainly focused on
primary and secondary levels questioned whether it is still relevant to current
challenges, in terms of the financial and manpower implications of the
structure of the education system. An earlier Bank study (World Bank 2003)
analysed Higher Education. The policy and education system face enormous
quantitative and particularly qualitative challenges. On the other hand, it must
also be acknowledged there has been some qualitative progress as well as huge
quantitative and equity gains since it was written.
2. Few people we met appear to be familiar with the content, let alone being
moved by the spirit, of the Policy.
3. Equity of access (in terms of universality of primary education, gender, and
geography) has been the driving force behind policy implementation. ESDPIII
puts emphasis on the inclusion of pastoralist communities in the education
system, and enabling all regions to have a tertiary education institution.
4. Attainment of quantitative targets is seen as paramount, so that the country can
meet international commitments: in particular UPE by 2015. All the evidence
we accumulated indicates that these targets are being ‘cascaded’ downwards
from national through regional level, to woredas.
5. This dominant focus on one aspect of ‘what we are trying to achieve’ – at least
on the part of system functionaries and stakeholders whom we consulted as
part of the capacity strategy exercise - points to the need for an informed,
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participative ‘re-visiting’ of the policy and what is being attempted in the
education sector. 2
6. Recent national policy developments in other domains – for example PASDEP
– are linked to, and partly dependent on qualitative (even more than
quantitative) progress in the education sector. They also may impinge on
education sector budget allocation and priorities. For example, ESDP III’s
indicative budget is Birr 53 billion, but only Birr 37 billion is provided for it in
PASDEP. PASDEP also states that if financial shortfalls occur, TVET will be
the least protected sector – despite its priority in ESDP III, and its importance
in the view of PASDEP sector officials in a recent separate consultation
exercise.3
2
We understand that such a review is currently being planned by MoE.
See Hough (2006) ESDP III Contribution to PASDEP by James Hough May 2006 for the MoE CBTF
pp 30ff.
3
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3.
ESDP, AND EDUCATION CAPACITY ISSUES, BY SECTOR
Overview of the Education Sector Development Programmes (ESDP)
The ESDP is a twenty-year education sector indicative plan that translates the 1994
Education and Training Policy (ETP) into action through a long and medium term
planning cycles. It is a sector wide approach that encompasses all the education and
training programs of Ethiopia - spanning from pre-primary education to tertiary
education. It relies on a consultative process of setting targets, its scope and priorities
for action. It calls for a sustained public investment program through mobilization of
national and international resources. Ensuring equitable access to quality primary
education for all children by 2015 is the main aim of ESDP, with particular attention
to the education of girls, and the children of pastoralist and agro-pastoralist
communities.
The first five year ESDP began in 1997/98 and concluded in June 2002. The second
ESDP lasted three years between 2002/03 -2004/05. The third five year ESDP started
in July 2005 and spans until June 2011. ESDP is a comprehensive intervention
package initiated and owned by the government of Ethiopia and has mobilized
national and international efforts to boost the performance in terms of enrolments at
all levels especially in the primary education sub-sector.
ESDP III
The frame of reference of the current draft capacity development strategy is ESDP III
(MoE 2005a and 2006d). Its vision for the education sector is ‘to see all school-age
children get access to quality primary education by the year 2015 and realise the
creation of trained and skilled human power at all levels who will be the driving
forces in the promotion of democracy and development in the country’.
The mission is defined as:

Extend quality and relevant primary education to all school-age children and
expand standardized education and training programmes at all levels to bring
about rapid and sustainable development with increased involvement of
different stakeholders (community, private investors, NGOs, etc.)

Ensure that educational establishments are production centres for all-rounded,
competent, disciplined and educated human power at all levels through the
inclusion of civic and ethical education with trained, competent and committed
teachers.

Take affirmative actions to insure equity of female participation, pastoral and
agro-pastoral and those with special needs in all education and training
programs and increase their role and participation in development.
Quality is a key indicator of ESDP III: it lists quality-related issues as most of the
challenges to be overcome. For the first time, the ESDP III explicitly addresses and
assesses Adult Learning / NFE; pre-primary development; TVET and HE.
The following section highlights program achievements and issues specific to ESDP I
and II implementation (1997/98-2004/05) to lay the ground for further capacity needs
in the sector. It complements Appendix E, which tabulates key points from the ETP
1994 and summarises progress at end of ESDP II.
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Overall capacity gains and outstanding issues ESDP I - II
Analysis of implementation capacity issues with in the education sector is the first
step towards the formulation of a strategy to respond to the ToR (“capacity to do
what, whose capacity and how?”). This section provides indications of the sector’s
performance, by level, to provide the basis of a strategy to address major
implementation capacity issues facing the sector.
Some general observations on the experience of ESDPs so far include:


REBs and the MoE have gained planning experience in the processes of
ESDP preparation (identification of problems, setting of goals and targets,
action planning, provision of alternative scenarios, financing options,
overall implementation strategies and management structures).
Although programme formulation involved some participation and
consultation with donors, key stakeholders appear not to have been fully
engaged through the process. There is still scope for more participation in
future from academia, CSOs and NGOs, and the private sector, and a need
to make the process more strategic so that ESDP is ‘internalised’ at all
levels with increased ownership and better impact.
Pre-Primary Education
Early childhood education is the least developed sub-sector in Ethiopia. The national
coverage still remains miniscule (2.3%), urban biased and in favour of the relatively
well-off. Out of the estimated 6,647,796 eligible age cohort, (ages 4-6), only 153, 280
children were reported to have access to the service in 2004/05. During the same year
the total number of kindergartens was 1479 country-wide. The highest GER is
observed in Addis Ababa (32.9%), followed by, Diredawa (10.6%) and Harari (6.6%).
Interestingly enough the emerging regions such as Gambela and Beneshangul Gumuz
have recorded better performance in GER than the larger regions (Tigray, SNNPR,
Amhara and Oromia) who have hitherto been assumed to have better implementation
capacity.
The government notionally assumes responsibility for issuing policy directives,
setting of standards for curriculum, support in teachers training, supervision and
licensing of pre-primary education institutions. However, according to stakeholders
interviewed, performance in this sub-sector has not met their expectations.
The level of supervision to support and maintain quality is seriously constrained by
lack of curriculum structure, professional staff and budget. Statistical data with
regard to relevance, efficiency and quality of the service are lacking. Several
observers we consulted feel that pre-primary education is a key missing element in the
development of education in Ethiopia, along with adult education. It has received little
attention in terms of policy direction and resource commitment, both from the side of
the government and international development partners.
Recently however there is some evidence of heightened interest in the value of preprimary education. Most of the officials in MoE, REBs and WEOs consulted
confirmed that the importance and benefits of pre-primary education have been
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recognized as one of the first essential steps towards achieving the goals of education.
Some efforts are under way to revitalize the state of pre-primary education as one of
the critical intervention strategies to improve the performance of primary education.
Indeed, research has also confirmed that investments in pre-primary education have a
higher payoff than any other level of education in terms of the positive effects on
achievement, reduction of educational wastage (dropouts and repetition) and
increased completion rates: all beneficial for children born into poverty. There was
consensus that “… seven is too late to begin education” because the major cognitive
development stage of a child occurs before age seven.
Respondents were aware of the financial limitations facing the sector and do not
advocate for formal, centre-based interventions that are not affordable. Rather they
suggest for innovative approaches that include non-formal early childhood programs,
which are flexible, low cost, community-based interventions, designed to benefit all
children both urban and rural in its simplest form.
Capacity to develop curriculum, provide the basic minimum resources and monitor
progress is minimal. Clear capacity need has emerged to treat pre-primary education
as an essential basis for later education rather than treating it as a downward extension
of primary education. The most felt capacity needs in this regard included:
a) Policy dialogue and well articulated strategy: awareness on the positive
effects of pre-primary education exists but needs further policy dialogue and a
well articulated strategy that favours the poor.
b) Institutional arrangements: there is a need to revisit the institutional
arrangement for staffing and management at all levels
c) Alternative approaches: there is need to search for community based
innovative/alternative approaches to early childhood development programs,
d) Budget Support: earmarked government and donors budgetary commitment is
an essential precondition in the process of realizing EFA Goals
e) Training of personnel: in curriculum planning and development of early child
education materials in local languages (design & production of pre-school
syllabus, textbooks, play materials, teachers/caregivers guide) and child
centered methodology;
f) Incentive structures: creation of clear incentive structures and strong policy
support to enhance community- public-private partnerships.
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Primary Education
Access, coverage and equity:4
During ESDP I and II, Ethiopia recorded impressive results in terms of coverage,
access and equity in primary education (grades 1-8). The average annual enrolment
growth rate was 12.3%. The number of primary schools in the country grew from
10,394 in 1996/97 to 16,563 in 2004/05, an increase of 54.7%. Out of the newly
established schools, 85% were constructed in rural areas. As a result, Gross Primary
Enrolment Rate (GER) which stood at 34.7%, on the eve of ESDP I in 1996/97, grew
to 79.8% at the end of ESDP II in 2004/05 (71.5% for girls and 88% for boys). The
performance exceeded the revised target set for the year by 9.9 percentage points. If
enrolments under Alternative Basic Education are included, the GER reaches 85%. A
closer look at the Gross Enrolment Rate (GER) for lower primary cycle (1-4) and
upper primary cycle (5-8) gives a clearer picture. The GER for the lower primary
cycle (1-4) moved up from 54% in 1996/97 to 102.7% in 2004/05, and for the upper
primary cycle (5-8) went up from 17.4% to 52.5% during the same period. A look at
the Net Enrolment Rate (NER) also shows a move from 27% to 68.5% during the
same period. Efforts made to improve the Apparent and Net intakes in grade one (up
from 87.5% and 19% in 1996/97 to 148.78 and 60.9%, respectively) have in fact
favourably impacted both the GER and NER.
Gender and equity:
Remarkable improvements have been registered to narrow the gender gap, and both
urban-rural and regional disparities. The gender gap in the apparent intake rates has
been significantly reduced from 47.5 percentage points in 1996/97 to 11.9 percentage
points in 2004/05. Net intake rate also showed the same trend in the reduction of
gender disparities (brought down from 5.5 percentage points to 3.6 percentage points).
The gender gap in GER that was 30.2 percentage points in 1996/97 was brought down
to 14.3 percentage points at the first cycle primary education, and at approximately
16.5% for the whole primary cycle (1-8) in 2004/05. However, gender disparities are
still apparent except in Addis Ababa and Tigray. Of the regions visited Tigray has
recorded perfect equity in GPI (i.e.1) in 2004/05.
Of the equity issues, disparity among regions is growing. For, instance, the disparity
in GER for primary (1-8) between the lowest and highest performing regions (Afar
and Addis Ababa) which was 71.9 in 1996/97 has increased to 129.3 percentage
points in 2004/05. The GER for some regions (Addis Ababa (150.2%), Gambela
(127.4%) and Benishangul Gumuz (107.4%) is much higher than the national average
(79.8%), while it is far below the national average for others (Afar 20.9% and Somali
23.3%). The low performing regions are largely pastoralist communities, which are
not in favor of formal education. The same applies to the agro-pastoralists area of
Oromia and SNNPR. The GER for Borena Zone in Oromia (66%) is also below the
national average.
The low level of NER, perceived disparities between gender, urban-rural and across
regions were seen as major areas to be addressed during ESDP III. The MoE,
4
Statistics cited are drawn from Annual Abstracts of Education Statistics or ESDP JRM Documents.
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Regions, woredas and communities have already demonstrated efforts to enhance the
participation of children in primary schooling.
Remaining Capacity Deficiencies
The following are the main needs for further capacity strengthening in terms of
strategy, staff skills and budgetary commitment, in order to scale up and sustain the
initiatives:
 Innovative low cost, flexible and multi-sectoral solutions to primary education
(ABE, satellite schools, multi-grade teaching, evening classes, boarding
schools and hostels) targeted at out of school children, pastoralist and semi
agricultural areas.
 Further revision and improvement of the ABE package in terms of curriculum,
methodology, teachers training and budget share
 Greater support, training and empowerment of community structures such as
PTAs and KETBs to organize and mobilize community efforts to bring all
children to schools, construct, upgrade/renovate classrooms and establish low
cost education centers,
 Provision of water supply, separate latrines and sanitary facilities particularly
for girls
 Improved and better distribution of school feeding program that would also
benefit ABE learners
 Scaling up annual census of children to allow proper projection of enrolments,
planning for resources and setting of achievable targets based on reliable data.
Development of formats and training of school principals, teachers, PTAs and
KETBs particularly in micro planning/school development planning,
management, financing options, low cost school alternative construction
designs, data capture, progress monitoring and reporting techniques should be
the primary target in this regard
 Programmed, multi-media based continuous awareness raising campaigns to
win parental acceptance and willingness to send their children to school
irrespective of gender.
 Creation of better synergy amongst all actors to gain commitment of all parties
to contribute and mobilize additional resources to support the education in a
more coherent and coordinated manner.
 Study the impact of the result oriented performance management system and
incentive structures used to monitor achievement of targets (e.g. SNNPR) and
scale up further based on feasibility,
 Introduction of minimum education service delivery system (like in Oromia)
Other Capacity Issues in Primary Education


GER is not generally appropriate to monitor progress in education. NER and
completion rates are the most appropriate measure of achievement in primary
enrolment. Thus, regions need technical assistance and policy direction to
amend their monitoring tools as appropriate.
Some regions have gone far in initiating and managing change and innovations
and yet others lack the initiative and capacity to implement. Out of the four
regions visited, Tigray, Oromia and SNNPRs have already introduced a
mechanism to register all children aged 1-14, that enabled them to project
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



enrolment and plan for resources, while Benishangul Gumuz has not yet
developed that capacity to practice it as part of its annual planning exercise.
This has limited their capacity to provide accurate demographic data on
enrolment. Regional information on GER for example displays serious data
error. The same phenomenon was observed in Gambela by the 2005 JRM.
The use of multi-grade approaches and traditional learning institutions
(churches, medersas) may need to be explored with more support from
technical experts, in order to accelerate enrolment.
Regions and woredas may also need capacity to explore and encourage
alternative strategies of schooling to respond to parental demand for more
school spaces. For example in the Kokosa Woreda of Oromia and Burji
Special Woreda of the SNNPR, alternative schools were lacking, though a
significant number of children were out of school.
Economic and socio-cultural factors, especially the need for child labour and
early marriage, may continue to challenge the educational participation of
children in rural and low-income families. This calls for mechanisms to
minimize the foregone opportunity and direct educational costs of poor
parents.
HIV/AIDS may pose a major challenge on further enrolment and sustained
participation of children in education. Thus, a community based support and
care mechanism should be integrated into the education system. Benushangul
Gumuz have already initiated such a program by allocating HIV/AIDS funds
within the education sector to mitigate the challenge.
Relevance and Quality
Relevance of the Curriculum: The MoE and REBs have made efforts to reform the
curriculum (syllabus and text books). Gender issues, HIV/AIDS, life skills,
environment, civics and ethical education have become an integral part of the
curriculum. Mother tongue has been introduced as a medium of instruction for most
of the regions and is being used in 19 languages at the primary level and in TTIs.
However, changes are taking place with regard to the medium of instruction at the
upper primary level. Following the 2004/05 election and in response to parental
demand, some regional governments have decided to use English as a medium of
instruction starting grade seven (e.g SNNPR, Amhara). The 1999/2000 summative
evaluation conducted by the MoE in collaboration with regions provided insights for
revision of the curriculum (objectives, contents and organization). Capacity in
primary curriculum planning and development is present in some of the regions
(Addis Ababa, Tigray, Oromia and Amhara). However in others (SNNPR, and almost
all emerging regions) there is a continuing high level of technical assistance from
MoE.
Quality of learning: In the Ethiopian context, three variables are central to determine
the relevance and quality of education: student-textbook ratio, share of qualified
teachers, and learning achievement:
(i) Textbooks: Improving the Pupil-Textbook Ratio to 1:1 has been one of the major
objectives of ESDP. However, significant shortages and variations have been reported
(JRM 2004, 2005, Alebachew 2005). The team’s discussion with supervisors,
principals, teachers, PTAs and KETBs revealed similar problems. The availability,
supply and quality of textbooks are still problematic. For example, in SNNPR, the
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pupil textbook ratio in the visited Woredas varied from 1:3 in Arbegona to 1:10 in
Burgi special woreda in certain subjects (e.g. language). The same is true for Oromia.
Teachers and supervisors expressed their concern not only in relation to the
availability of textbooks, but also about the accuracy of subject-matter,
appropriateness of language, simplicity of diagrams and quality of printing and
binding. Present arrangements also make it very difficult to capitalise on cost savings
from large print runs. Thus, capacity of WEOs to develop professionally, project
needs, plan for finance and manage procurement to ensure the timely distribution of
textbooks into the hands of students are among the top issues deserving attention in
the capacity strategy. REBs need to be able to estimate textbook costs, influence
decision-making, generate additional funding, coordinate production activities and
facilitate distribution. Box 2 below summarises why we think ‘textbooks matter’. We
understand that a study is planned, as part of the ToR of one of the TA posts in
Planning and ESDP Department being funded by the EC. It is hoped our observations
– drawn from consultations during the present study – will be useful.
Box 2 : Why Text Books Matter
Many of the conversations during this capacity strategy study have touched upon the issue of text
books. Generally, the reason is that the issue is in some respects problematic (although the extent varies
enormously region to region). The significance of adequate text book supply and quality is
acknowledged in ESDP III. From our discussions the following dimensions to the importance of the
issue became apparent:
- At a time of unprecedented pressure on pupil - classroom and pupil - section ratios, and given the
inadequate space and furniture available in many classrooms, teachers have to rely on children having
reliable access to textbooks: child centred methods (which would diminish somewhat the significance
of all having textbooks) are extremely difficult to practice in such circumstances and almost a ‘luxury’.
- Girls’ personal security can be compromised if they have to share a textbook with boys.
- The physical quality of some textbooks is apparently poor: they often do not survive more than a
fraction of the estimated five years.
- The content is sometimes poorly written and illustrated; typographical errors are common; they
contain too much material for learners to absorb. If this is the case, then they are ill-fitted to the
curriculum.
- REBs, whose responsibility it is to order textbooks on behalf of woredas, are often short of budget for
them (hitherto the most common reason for shortfalls). This problem may arise for a variety of reasons.
Our interviewees sometimes appeared genuinely unsure of what the underlying reasons for any (supply
shortage or delay) problems.
- REBs are frustrated by the quasi-monopoly amongst parastatal corporations they face when tendering
and placing orders. Producers are allegedly unresponsive, unreliable and inefficient.
- These producers are autonomous and not subject to accreditation and supervision by the MoE.
- Transportation of supplies is problematic in the larger and more extensive regions and zones (even if
tenders include transport perhaps to zones: suppliers may turn out to be themselves ill-equipped to
perform that function reliably). In regions with multiple languages (e.g. SNNPR) precise calculations
of various orders is made even more complex by changes in language policy and/or changes in other
aspects of curriculum content and delivery: thus wastage is a real threat.
- If WEO / then REB enrolment projections are faulty, shortages, delays and other disruption is a real
possibility.
- Given that there is no ‘earmarked’ text book ‘fund’ available to REBs, they are dependent on
delegated authorisation from woredas of budget amounts sufficient to meet their needs: obtaining this
authorisation in adequate volumes and with punctuality is sometimes very difficult: tenders cannot be
placed until all authorisations have been received if inefficient repeat orders are to be avoided.
- REB staff are ill-equipped to supervise technically the meeting of their order. They are not trained in
quality control of book production processes and finishing.
- It appears that data on textbook availability per pupil is sometimes misleading and over-optimistic.
The situation on the ground is usually worse than the statistics imply.
This issue is a major one: and has importance and complexity beyond the scope of this study to address
adequately. It is therefore proposed that the proposed EC-supported TA and study take the above points
into account. Its draft ToRs should be the subject of consultation with all REBs and a selection of
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woredas to ensure all key issues are captured and pursued. The recommendations of the study should
be automatically brought up in ARM and JRM processes for deliberation and action by concerned
parties.
Sources: Various discussions at federal and regional level during this study
(ii) Teachers: The 1994 ETP gave special attention to teacher training and
professional development to remedy the crises of education in Ethiopia. To this effect,
the MoE carried out an extensive study entitled “A Critical Review of the Quality and
Effectiveness of the Teacher Education System in Ethiopia” in 2001. The study cast
light on the weaknesses and strengths of teacher development. The report concluded
that the system’s ability to provide education in accordance with the goals of the ETP
was weakened by several factors. The principal one was teachers’ qualification and
pedagogical skills required to perform, which in turn were constrained by:
 difficult working environment: large and heterogeneous classes, minimal
teaching resources, poor physical infrastructure
 weak pre-service preparation and lack of continuing in-service
professional development
 an overly academic, often irrelevant and ill-understood curriculum
 an examination system that discourages active learning, creative thinking
and the development of higher-order thinking skills
 weak management and leadership
 lack of professional identity as educators
 lack of internalised professional values, ethics and self-esteem
 lack of status and regard within the society
 low morale
 inadequate rewards
 poor living conditions
This resulted in a reform known as ‘Teacher Education System Overhaul’ (TESO),
which later developed into the ‘Teacher Development Program’ (TDP) in 2003. The
purpose of TDP is to improve the knowledge, skills, qualifications and attitudes of
primary and secondary teachers, with a view to ensuring (a) the proportion of lower
primary teachers fully qualified (b) proportion of upper primary teachers fully
qualified; (c) share of secondary teachers fully qualified, and (d) improvement in
performance of teachers to promote active learning methodology. The program is
organized and implemented under six priority areas (Higher Diploma Program (HDP),
Pre-service Education, In-service upgrading and continuous professional development
program, Leadership and Management Program (LAMP) and English Language
Improvement Program (ELIP). It is owned and managed by the MoE, and financed by
six bilateral agencies with a support from a coordinating committee drawn from key
partners.
The Mid-Term Review report of TDP in 2006, however, indicated that “none of these
ESDP targets have been met so far, although there has been a considerable increase in
the share of qualified teachers at each level of the school system” According to the
report and as can also be seen from the Education Statistics Annual Abstract (MoE,
2004/05) the gap between ESDP target and progress was found wide, as indicated
below.
 97.1 percent of first cycle primary school teachers (grades 1-4) have a teaching
certificate. The target for 2004/05 was 99 percent. Achievement is only 2
percent below target.
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

54.8 percent of second cycle primary school teachers (grades 5-8), have a
teaching diploma. The target for 2004/05 was 80 percent. Achievement is 25
percent below target.
No qualitative study has yet been carried out to measure the impact of training
on teachers’ application of learner centred methods in their classroom
teaching.
As trends indicate, the gap in the number of qualified teachers at lower primary
(classes 1-4) level is narrowing, but it still remains wide at the upper primary level
(classes 5-8). The same applies across regions. The disparity across the regions is
wide and in several regions there is an unacceptably low share of qualified teachers.
At 1st cycle primary level, the share of qualified teachers in a region ranges from 83%
to 100%. In three regions, Afar, Gambella and Harari, the share of qualified teachers
is below 90%. At 2nd cycle primary level, the share of qualified teachers ranges from
4.2% in Somali to 84.6% in Gambela. In five regions, Tigray, Amhara, Oromiya,
Somali and Harari the share of qualified teachers is below the national mean of
54.8%. In each of three regions, Oromiya, Somali and Harari, the share of qualified
upper primary teachers is below 50%. The interesting thing is that the share of
qualified female teachers in primary schools has slightly exceeded that of male as can
be observed from the 2004/05 EMIS report. Of the visited regions the percentage of
qualified teachers at lower primary schools varied from 92.7% in Tigray to 100% in
Benishangul Gumuz. At the upper primary level again Benishangul Gumuz is in a
much better position (70%) and Oromia being the least (43%).
Knowledge and application of pedagogical skills in active/student learning
methodology, self-contained classroom and continuous assessment techniques is
reportedly unsatisfactory. The main reasons mentioned include: lack of proper
training, poor incentive mechanisms, overcrowded classrooms, poor school facilities
and inadequate learning resources.
(iii) Learning Achievement:
Results of the two National Assessments conducted in 2000 and 2004 by MoE with
technical and financial assistance from USAID for grades four and eight indicated that
learning achievement did not satisfy the minimum standard of learning outcomes set
by MoE (50%). This indicated that attempts made to boost enrolment have seriously
undermined the quality of learning. Though educational quality is an elusive and
complex issue, its improvement generally requires a holistic approach in terms of
inputs, process and outcomes in relative terms.
Implementation capacity Issues:
In the long run, as repeatedly suggested by the JRM, it would be useful if ESDP III
considers the availability of additional indicators to more precisely gauge efforts at
educational quality. If the government and partners are serious about making
improvements in the quality of education concrete steps have to be taken with regard
to:
 relevance of curriculum,
 adequacy and availability of textbooks and other teaching/learning materials,
 school facilities,
 competency and motivation of teachers,
 language of instruction,
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



management of the education system,
completion rates,
learning acquisition (both academic and life skills as measured by
achievement tests) and last but not least,
enrolment targets should concur with adequate budgets
Efficiency:
An assessment of schooling efficiency as measured by pupil-teacher ratio (PTR),
pupil-section ratio (PSR), and dropout and repetition rates. The minimum acceptable
standard set for PTR and PSR are 50 and 60 respectively, but the trend is not
improving year to year, mainly due to the massive increase in enrolment.
Nationally, PTR which was 60 in 2000/01 has reached 66 in 2004/05. Similarly, at the
end of ESDP II the average PSR reached 69 on average nationally. The PTR varies
between 22 in Harari to 109 in Somali region in the lower primary cycle. In Oromia
the PTR was found to the next highest (90) followed by SNNPR (71), while it was in
par for Tigray (50) and slightly less for Benishangul Gumuz (47). In remote woredas
such as in Dire/Oromia and Arbegona/SNNPR the PTR also appeared higher (73)
than the national average. The implication is all regions are not on a similar level of
teacher utilization efficiency. Efficient use of teachers was observed in regions such
as Tigray and Benishangul Gumuz, whereas in regions like Somali and Oromia there
is over utilization of teachers. In others such as in Harari, Gambela and Addis Ababa
teachers are being underutilized. The national figure for PSR (69) show better
utilization of resources compared to the standard, but when seen in the light of
student-teacher interaction time, the current PSR will have a negative impact on the
process of learning.
The wastage of educational resources in the form of dropout and repletion have been
reduced from 15.7% and 11% in 1996/97 to 14.4% and 3.7% in 2004/05 respectively
for the complete primary cycle. Drop out is still highest at grade one (22.45) followed
by grade seven. The greatest repetition rate occurred in grade seven and eight and
least in grades 1-3 (but this could be attributed to the automatic promotion policy,
than learning achievement). The repetition and dropout rate for boys and girls did not
show significant difference and the average number of years they stayed in the
education system was about 3.5 in 2004/05. As such the percentage of primary
students who survived to grade five were estimated at 53.4%, meaning that about 46%
of the students did not continue their education in the upper primary cycle.
Future capacity issues


The standard pupil-teacher and pupil-section ratio is 50 students per
teacher/class room. This could be tolerable in pedagogic terms and wise use of
resources. Above this level it is less feasible for teachers to organize optimal
learning environments in overcrowded classrooms that hardly allow enough
student-teacher interaction.
The forgone opportunity costs as expressed in the need for child’s labour both
at home and in the field is still the major cause affecting the proper education
of children especially in rural areas. This being the reality, insisting on a single
shift system would not be a feasible solution for quality improvement. Its
impact could not also be adequately justified with regard to learning outcome.
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

The system should allow more flexibility in school calendar, especially during
peak agricultural seasons
While the automatic promotion policy seem to have favoured pass rates in the
lower primary cycle, it would be instructive to assess why repetition is getting
higher as children move up in the ladder
Secondary Education
As in primary education, secondary education in Ethiopia also comprises two cycles
or levels (lower secondary and upper secondary/pre-tertiary). Secondary education
also experienced rapid expansion over the ESDP periods. The total enrolment increase
was approximately 121% (from end ESDP II from the beginning of ESDP I). As
indicated in the ESDP II progress report, the total number of secondary schools
(Grades 9-12) reached 690 in 2004/05 from 369 in 1996/97: an increase of 53.5%.
The GER increased from 8.4% to 27% and that of girls from 7% to 19.6%. The
introduction of incentives systems such as scholarships, stipends and tutorials were
instrumental in increasing the share of girls’ participation in secondary enrolment: but
the gender gap is constantly getting wider (it increased from 2.2% in 1999/2000 to
14.6% in 2004/05).
Despite the efforts made to increase the number qualified teachers, the percentage of
qualified teachers did not exceed 41% in 2004/05. The target set nationally was 73%.
This 2004/5 actual figure is 3.9 percentage points below achievement in 2003/04.
Regional differences are a major concern: 82.5% of teachers are qualified in Diredawa
but only 21.7% in Tigray (the lowest of all the regions)
The Student-Teacher Ratio (STR) stands at 54, and it will clearly take time and
resources to bring it down to the acceptable standard (40). Disparity in the STR is one
of the greatest problems meriting close attention, especially in remote rural areas. In
two of the sampled woredas for example, the STR was as high as 209 in Burgi and
167 in Arbegona woredas of SNNPRs. The pupil section ratio also remained at 78
against the (1:60) target set for ESDP II.
The good news, in terms of quality improvement measures at secondary level, is that
the student-text book ratio of 1:1 has been achieved in all secondary schools. This was
confirmed by WEOs, supervisors and principals during the fieldwork. The other
quality improvement measure attempted by the government is the introduction of ICT
in secondary schools (satellite based instruction through TV/plasma screen and the
introduction of school nest for E-learning).
There are arguments for and against the use of plasma screen broadcasts. While the its
supporters advocate it as a measure enhancing quality and equity of secondary
education provision, others argue that it discourages interaction, encourages passive
learning and also significantly undermines the role of teacher in the classroom. The
application of ICT is undoubtedly constrained by lack of capacity in maintenance and
repairs. This makes it difficult to operate whenever programmes are on air.
Many of the stakeholders we met, expressed the view that secondary education has
been treated as an ‘orphan child’ under the ESDP. They argued that the greatest policy
concern and budget priority was focused on expanding primary education. Indeed it is
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undeniable that the attention given to secondary education is insignificant compared
with the needs and pressures on this sector from ever-increasing output from the
primary sector. Much remains to be achieved in this regard. The supply response has
been so slow to respond to the huge enrolment influx from below.
Existing schools are extremely over-populated. Strains are already apparent on the
resources available. Almost all urban secondary schools are forced to accommodate
unreasonably large numbers of children. This poses critical challenges in the
management of school discipline, let alone the difficulties it poses for achieving
proper levels and types of instruction. One case in point is the Yirgalem secondary
school (SNNPR). According to the principal the school has to provide spaces for
students coming from 23 feeder primary schools: estimated at about 7000-10,000 per
year. Timetabling alone gives rise to much confusion and these pressures cause
mismanagement of resources. There is in our view a deep crisis facing secondary
education in Ethiopia. This concern echoes that expressed in the 2006 ARM.
The 2005 JRM noted that most secondary schools routinely operate below standard,
and much remains to be done. Three out the four secondary schools the team observed
were simply upgraded from primary to secondary level without giving due attention to
the standards implied in this change. In almost all secondary schools visited, basic
minimum facilities, laboratory equipment, chemicals, apparatus, library facilities and
furniture are either not in place or out-dated. All secondary schools we visited are
short of qualified teachers, running costs, support staff and supervision support.
Given the resource limitations at the moment, it appears beyond government capacity
to assume all budgetary requirements in secondary education. However, the
government can play a key role to forge enhanced partnership with the private sector
in order to maximize investment opportunities in the sub-sector. Currently, the private
sector is more engaged in kindergartens and primary education. Parents appear to
favour private schooling. Almost all of the educational personnel including teachers
and managers whom we met sent their own children to private schools, implying a
clear comparative advantage of private schools in Ethiopia. Reasons they mentioned
include: children are less harassed; parents are better informed about the progress of
their children; school-home communication is regular; they have strong in-built
supervision and management systems and encourage innovation, creativity and
basically provide customer satisfaction. There is also a wide consensus of opinion that
private schools perform better than government/public schools in terms of test scores.
Communities are eager and willing to contribute what they have, but they seem overstretched to contribute on all fronts, and are hoping for government support to respond
to the situation. Alternative strategies like multi-media base distance education,
videoconferencing, e-learning, radio education should also be considered as options to
respond to the situation. We therefore include an informed multi-stakeholder
discussion at national level of the crisis in secondary education as one element of the
capacity strategy.
We understand that the World Bank is planning a major review of Secondary
Education in Ethiopia. This will provide a valuable factual basis for discussion of
policy options and funding implications in future.
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Ethiopia: Strategy for Capacity Development in Education
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Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET)
Major Findings (Achievements &Challenges)5
Great strides have been made in the expansion of TVET sub-sector There were 17
public TVETs before 1994. In 2000/01 the number of TVETs reached 23 with a
maximum intake of 6,000 students (of whom females constituted 23.4 per cent) (MoE,
2001). At the conclusion of ESDP II (2004/05), the number of TVET Centers had
soared to 199 of which 31% were owned and managed by the non-public sector.
During 2004/05 a total of 106, 336 trainees were registered (51% females) in some 33
fields. Of these, 60% were attending a regular day program, while 40% were taking
evening programs. Another 42,000 trainees were also enrolled in 25 public
agricultural TVETs the same year (MoE, 2006). The ESDP III target set for the TVET
program is to more than treble enrolment from the current 106, 300 to 315,403 in
2009/10 (MoE, 2006).
During ESDP III the following activities are planned: curriculum revision, skill
upgrading for TVET teachers, employment of 2000 expatriate staff, drafting and
issuance of the new legal framework for the TVET management and operations,
developing directives and guides on accreditation, apprenticeship, trade testing,
certification, developing occupational training standards, construction of 3,304
additional classrooms fully furnished and equipped, and recruitment of 4,561 local
instructors/trainers.(MoE, 2006a). The share of TVET budget with in the education
sector during ESDP III is just under 6% (roughly 300 million Birr). The Regional
National States are responsible for the implementation of Technical and Vocational
Education and Training (TVET) and Skills Development (SD). As such, regions have
exerted a considerable effort to prepare strategic plans for TVET. The National State
of Tigray is one of the most advanced in developing a policy framework for TVET and
SD (Froyland, 2001). Other regional states visited (Oromia, Addis Ababa and the
SNNPRs), have also produced medium and long term plans with assistance from the
Ethio-German TVET program. The role of Woredas in TVET development seems less
clear and currently TVETs are directly answerable to REBs except in Addis Ababa,
where they report to the sub-city governance.
A favourable policy framework is in place The review of development strategies in
Ethiopia shows that there is an increasing policy attention for TVET. The Agriculture
Development Led Industrialization Strategy (ADLI), the Interim Poverty Reduction
Strategy Paper, the Development Framework and Plan for Action such as PASDEP,
the Industrial Development Strategy of 2003, the ETP and the ESDP, are all
encouraging and in favour of TVET in Ethiopia.
These development strategies call for making the TVET program responsive, demand
driven, integrated and out-come based in programming, structure, management and
financing systems. This renewed interest reflects both a concern for addressing the
problem of the growing youth unemployment as well as the needs for middle level
skilled manpower in economic development.
5
The background and history of TVET in Ethiopia is presented in Appendix J (see separate volume of
Appendices).
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An Ethio-German partnership for TVET Program is underway: it started in March
1999. The Program was based on several appraisal studies in 1997 and 1998. The
program provides technical assistance in three components:
 Development of a consistent TVET policy and appropriate TVET structures at
the federal level and in four regional states (Amhara, Oromia, Southern
Nations, Nationalities and Peoples Region (SNNPR) and Tigray);
 Strengthening of vocational teacher training and further training at NCTTE,
the National TVET teacher training college (expected to serve as the centre of
excellence);
 Development of 25 Skill Development Centres (SDCs) in four regions (GTZ,
2001).
The World Bank also financed the NCTTE in 1994 to help the college admit the first
cohort of TVET teachers into a four-year degree program and training of technicians
for two years. Bi-lateral aid from Finland was also received for the college in
November 2001(Froyland, 2001).
Areas of moderate achievement
The establishment of TVET councils and boards both at the national and regional
levels has not shown results up to the present. It seems that inadequate attention has
been paid to their capacity development especially in terms of roles and
responsibilities. Attempts made to building trust with the industry have been minimal.
The main bottleneck was reported to be lack of ownership and meaningful
coordination. The observed gap between sound policy intentions and poor
coordination may be due to weak institutional capacity to implement reforms both at
the national and regional levels.
Promising innovations and reform ideas
The new TVET Strategy (MoE 2006a), indicates a clear need towards the
establishment of a vibrant national co-ordination body involving employers, sector
ministries and the private sector. If indorsed by the government of Ethiopia, this shift
in governance pattern, although probably not applicable to all regions, is likely to
bring TVET systems closer to the needs of the labour market. To a large extent, this
development is related to new thinking in public policy, which advocates publicprivate partnership as a key principle to increase efficiency and accountability in
management to ensure ownership of policies and the relevance of TVET.
This new strategy also seeks to establish a dual (classroom/place of work) form of
training which in turn necessitates capacity to build trust with industry: modernizing
apprenticeship schemes integrated into a national training system is seen to be the way
forward.
Encouraging entrepreneurship for self-employment
Some efforts are underway to assist TVET graduate to create their own job through
micro-credit schemes; access to premises, and provision of direct contracts in smallscale public projects especially in the construction sector. For example, the Gullele
sub-city in collaboration with the Ethio-German MSE and TVET Projects has
attempted to assist TVET graduates without employment to become self-employed. In
Oromia and SNNPRs the regional governments favour TVET graduates by providing
them direct access to tenders by in small-scale construction works (up to 60,000 Birr).
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e.g. construction of low cost community schools, health posts and low cost residential
houses.
However, the current state of TVET output does not support increased
competitiveness of the graduates in the labour market or self-employment. For
example, results of a sample tracer study in the SNNPR in 2005/6 showed the fact that
only about 16% of the TVET graduates are employed (3% established their own
private business, 9% managed to survive as cooperatives and about 4% are employed
in the private sector). 66% ended up unemployed and some 17% are currently
working in the field not related to their training. The situation suggests the need for
further market analysis, quality improvement, and development of entrepreneurship
awareness and business development skills as well as inclusion of a broader package
of incentives such as access to credit, market, working premises, technical assistance
and post-training support measures.
Attempting to establish outcome-based systems
The TVET system is still dependent on a school-based system of operation and this
new strategy advocates a paradigm shift into an outcome-based approach of training.
The effort made through the Ethio-German partnership towards drafting the national
qualification framework is acknowledged. In the views of the study team, the
development of compatible national qualification frameworks will definitely represent
a strategic instrument to increase the competitiveness of the TVET in the economy
and labour market.
Reviewing funding sources, mechanisms and principles
The proposed Financial Framework for establishing a formula funding scheme
reflects a broader international trend towards output-related funding systems. It
promises to be an innovative and potentially productive reform. As such it should
deserve particular attention. Cost sharing mechanisms and the introduction of a
training levy would constitute a significant trend towards increasing employer’s
participation in TVET capacity development issues.
Challenges:


Investment in TVET is believed to be a key element in the development
process and poverty eradication because it provides the necessary skills and
knowledge required by the economy.
The impact of TVET is not promising as it now stands. As indicated in the
ESDP III, the efficiency and effectiveness of the TVET System has been
questioned for not meeting the expectations of the labour market6. Training is
said to be curriculum-oriented and theoretical, teachers are less qualified;
6
It is interesting to note that in a comparative study of government and non-government TVETs, Yukuno Amlak
(2000) found significant quality differences. The graduates from the sampled non-government schools had a
significantly higher employment rate. Furthermore, respondents from the two types of TVET schools expressed
different views on what were the major problems that hindered the implementation of vocational programs.
Respondents from government schools identified (1) lack of facilities and (2) absence of occupational information
and public relation service, while respondents from non-government schools considered as main problems: (1)
low absorptive capacity of the companies, (2) duplication of training areas, and (3) absence of accreditation
services. The first group was concerned about internal efficiency and better government services. The nongovernment school respondents were preoccupied with external effectiveness and system for external quality
assurance.
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







teachers’ career ladder is limited, upward mobility is perceived to be difficult
and opportunities for continuous learning and upgrading are rare.
Weak coordination of efforts and invisible synergy between factors and actors
of TVET development. The regional TVET bodies need to coordinate their
efforts with the Ministry/Bureau of Rural Development and Agriculture,
Health, Trade and Industry, Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs, the Central
Statistic Authority, professional associations, private sector providers,
employers, trade unions and other regional stakeholders involved in the
training and further training of teachers and skilled technicians.
Ownership is weak at regional and local levels of involvement, especially as
regards to governance, planning and management of information system at
woreda, zonal and community levels.
Little relevance to practice and context. Trainees are not adequately prepared
for the world of work/employability. The range of occupational areas, trades,
skills and knowledge, in which training is offered is not market driven. TVET
in the past has exclusively focused on curricula and economic matters.
However, our discussion with clients indicates that such measures usually fail
because they ignore the importance and centrality of perceptions and
aspirations of societies when making education choices.
Negative perceptions and attitudes towards TVET: The primary cause of
disregard for TVET in Ethiopia is partly the result of perceiving TVET as
education for youth with low academic abilities. This perception equates
academic education with intelligence and TVET with lack of intelligence;
consequently imposing a negative impact on results. Choosing TVET is
perceived as limiting one’s educational attainment, which in turn reduces
lifetime upward mobility because subsequent career paths in Ethiopia depend
on the initial choice of education path and of course this was what was
happening to date.7
Girls and women are underrepresented in certain training programs. This is
also due to the fact that existing programs mainly address typical male skills
and occupations.
Training offers for existing micro and small entrepreneurs and people in
employment are hardly available.
Inadequate staffing, continuous re-structuring and transfers, delay in
procurement of raw materials essential for the training are also mentioned as
serious blow to TVET activities, and are referred to as reasons for TVET’s
inadequacy for and performance. The attrition rate for TVET teachers is
estimated to 20 per cent. It was also pointed out that TVETs are increasingly
facing difficulties to conclude the curriculum prescribed for learning within
the schedule due to late start and interruptions of varied reasons.
Follow-up and monitoring of outcomes is not routinely practiced. No or very
little evaluations have been carried out in the past on the implementation of
policies related to the actual performance of TVET.
7
Froyland (2001) indicated as a result of interviewing college students that they do not want to become TVET
teachers. Educational modules were not considered relevant to Master of Arts (MA) studies in engineering or
careers in the private industry. The students saw NCTTE as a vehicle to advance technological competence and
promote prospective careers outside the teaching profession. Unless this underlying factor of negative perception
of TVET is taken on board by programs intended to promote the role of TVET it will be very difficult to get the
social and economic return anticipated thereof.
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Conclusions
Attempts at TVET reform, in spite of its potential merits, have not yet produced the
desired effect partly due to lack of implementation capacity. The existence of a
depressed labour market in the face of rapid expansion and enrolment, rigid
curriculum, the lack of career guidance and focus on learners’ motivation and
incentives, as well as frequent changes in management are other factors affecting the
development of TVET in Ethiopia. TVETs have also experienced excessive loss of
personnel, again affecting institutional memory, micro-level innovations and scalingup of capacity partly due to brain drain and frequent changes in the organization and
management of the system.
Thus, the development of the TVET sub-sector is perceived to be fragmented,
uncoordinated, under resourced, little-researched, poorly integrated, and unresponsive
(MoE, 2006a). National intellectual organization for quality control, and a centre of
excellence that could serve as an important part of a ‘Think Tank’ in TVET
development is generally lacking and the sub-sector is barely represented by key
stakeholders in the planning, management and reporting requirements.
Internal planning processes have not yet been formalized and institutionalised in terms
of system thinking. This situation poses an even greater challenge vis-à-vis the efforts
to realize expected results in accordance with its TVET mandate as prescribed by law.
Nonetheless, the future seems promising with the newly envisaged Strategy; Financial
and Occupational Classification Frameworks, and a new Proclamation. It seems that:
 TVET is emerging out of a past backlog with a sense of enhanced clarity of
vision, goals and strategic objectives.
 The industriousness and commitment of the MoE and technical assistance
personnel concerned is visible in those with whom we interacted.
 Within the limitations imposed by the inadequacy of resources (both human
and financial) and system, the new strategy has made visible contributions in
several priority areas of MoE’s TVET mandate.
The new TVET strategy underscores the need to build pathways in content, and the
accreditation and certification process. In terms of qualifications, Basic Vocational
Training, Junior Vocational Training and Middle-level TVET including short-term
technical higher education, and continuing education, are expected to form a more
comprehensive TVET environment, linked to Higher Education. Traditional
apprenticeship can, furthermore, be added to these formal modalities.
In order to be effective, this panoply of varied yet disjointed forms of trainings should
be organized into proper streams of training, integrating successive levels of study,
going from the qualified worker to the advanced- level technician and engineer. This
necessary rationalization would imply not only a revision of the institutional
arrangement at the federal and local levels and the way of financing, but would also
necessitate renovation of establishments’ mode of operational autonomy. An approach
per stream would permit, in a given trade area, the linking of all the levels of
qualification by combining work experience with initial training and continuing
education.
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Thus, attempts at developing quality benchmarks for the TVET system is a step in the
right direction. A strategy to follow up on activities should also be developed.
(Quality Assurance, Occupational Standards and testing, etc)
Finally, deciding upon the future of TVET is of immediate importance. This involves
taking an urgent decision on its future management, structure, financial sustainability,
integration mechanisms, incentives, and coordination (as outlined in the strategy). A
new policy should accommodate life-long learning and training needs at all levels
(and should include consultations with the higher education sector to establish
complementarily between the TVETs and the Universities).
Higher Education
Plans and Targets
The Higher education sub-sector of the Ethiopian Education System is deemed to be
of the utmost strategic significance for the future economic and social development of
the country. One reason is the historically low – even by regional standards - levels of
enrolment.8 For example in 1995 it was just 35,000 (for a population of over 65
million). For the last year for which data is available (2004/5) this had already grown
to 187, 500. The importance of promoting not only larger enrolment but greater
geographical and gender access to quality higher education has been manifested in
very ambitious ESDP III targets for numbers of universities, their staffing, and student
populations. After the relatively recent establishment of four new Universities in
2000, and a further two in 2004, thirteen new universities are planned with effect from
2006/7, with the aim of bringing tertiary education to most regions of the country.
Donor-assisted construction of the first of the new Universities is underway.
Annual intake capacity at public institutions is to be 110,000 by the end of ESDP III
(2011) (compared to an undergraduate intake of 32,000 in 2004, and merely 6,000 in
1994). Recent rapid growth has been observed in numbers graduating, from 17,500 in
2001, to 28,500 in 2004/5 (an increase of 12.8% annually) (Teshome 2006 page 5).
From a relatively low base, annual enrolment in graduate programmes by 2011 is to
grow to 26,000 (MoE 2005).9 The latter source notes the increase in the proportion of
the state education budget allocated to higher education: from 14% in the early 90s to
23% in 2004. (Teshome 2006 page 17).
Policy studies and analytical work
A range of studies on higher education (HE) have been conducted over the previous
years. The basis for the 2003 Proclamation on Higher Education (No 351) and
subsequent public sector HE expansion plans was an assessment of capacity building
needs in view of economic growth objectives, and an associated capacity building
plan for HE made in 2002 compiled under the leadership of Dr Teshome Yizengaw
(the former Deputy Minister for HE 2001-5) (Teshome 2002). It foresaw the need for
a new law, university autonomy, cost sharing, and the creation of what are now the
Higher Education Strategy Centre (HESC) and the Higher Education Relevance and
Quality Assurance Agency (HERQA).10 It estimated that the undergraduate intake
8
Even in 2004, only 1.5% of the age cohort was attending HE.
Graduate programme enrolment was 1,286 in 2002, and 3,600 by 2004 the end of ESDP II.
10
These two units constitute the autonomous higher education ‘support units’ to the Ministry of
Education.
9
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would be 30,000 by 2004/5 and each of the existing universities would have a student
population of at least 10,000 by 2004/5 (the end of ESDP II) of which ultimately 30%
should be female.11 It proposed a range of undergraduate courses which would be
opened in universities and colleges, as well as an expansion in graduate programmes,
in part to fuel recruitment of university staff, culminating in a graduate intake of 6,000
by 2004/5.12 It also confirmed encouragement of private sector higher education
institutions by government, which accounted in part for the 14 accredited private HEIs
accounting for 15% of the student population in 2002.13
The World Bank conducted a major study of HE in 2003 (World Bank 2003). It
generated a range of documents including detailed proposals on HESC and HERQA;
ICTs in HE; financing the sector including cost sharing and block grant formulae and
mechanisms to provide the resource backing for university autonomy; leadership and
management of universities (including detailed proposals for contracting out);
staffing, and student affairs (including approaches to tackling HIV/AIDS).
The newly-constituted HESC led a major review of the leadership management and
administration of universities in 2004 known as the Higher Education System
Overhaul (HESO) study. (HESC 2004). This was followed in 2005 by an analysis of
the establishment, curriculum, resource and organisational aspects of the thirteen new
universities (HESC 2005). Both studies made numerous and far-reaching
recommendations as to future management resourcing and structuring of the expanded
system of HEIs planned.
The implications of the HE expansion plans were explored in a study by Dr Teshome
Yizengaw and presented in a seminar in mid 2006 (Teshome 2006). This study
included survey research amongst five university’s management staff and students.
The subject of university expansion has also attracted a large number of journal
writings, for example Saint (2005), Desta (2004) and Shimelis (2004).
Preliminary Observations on HE plans and analyses
At the risk of not doing justice to the depth and thoroughness of the analytical work
above, the major points from the earlier analyses, and our preliminary observations
made on that basis and subsequent developments are that:
a) GoE plans and proposals are bold and ambitious, and stress the importance of
HE expansion as a prerequisite to national economic and social development.14
They indicate strong indeed unequivocal top-level commitment and support to
HE expansion, while giving due regard to the importance of maintaining
11
The latest edition of Education Statistics indicate that the aggregate intake in public University
institutions was 43,000 in year 1 in 2004/5, but a disappointing out-turn of only 18.3% of the 96,000
enrolled in public undergraduate programmes being female in 2004/5. In contrast, just over 30% of the
private HEIs’ enrolment in 2004/5 was female.
12
Unfortunately, graduate intake in 2004/5 appeared to be only 1,700 in 2004/5: a worrying indication
of future problems in generating enough able qualified candidates for academic teaching in the
expanding system, bearing out Saint’s concerns (Saint 2005).
13
By 2004/5 (the last year for which data is currently available) private HEIs enrolment in regular,
extension and distance undergraduate degree programmes had risen to 23,600 (20% of the total
undergraduate enrolment that year).
14
No other country in the world is trying to expand its higher education sector at a rate similar to
Ethiopia.
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Ethiopia: Strategy for Capacity Development in Education
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academic quality, HEI autonomy, adequate access to resources, and
encouragement of the private sector as a provider of HE capacity.
b) The studies have generated large numbers of recommendations (the HESO
study alone made 128), and have tended to counsel caution in relation to
expansion plans in view of the inefficiency and rigidities of the management
culture prevailing in public HEIs; the limited capacity at the centre – in MoE
and the support units – to steer soundly the future development of HE, and to
establish and maintain robust quality assurance systems. The ’13 Universities’
Study (HESC 2005) in particular reflected reservations amongst most of the
categories of those consulted, that quality considerations would be
compromised unless a cautious and staged approach to the new universities
was adopted, whereby limitations would be initially put on the levels of their
academic awards; they would specialize and limit the range of courses offered,
and arrangements would be made for their associate status in respect to
neighbouring more established HEIs.
c) Difficulties in attracting retaining and motivating adequate numbers of
suitably-qualified academic staff has been commonly identified as a major
underlying constraint. Saint (2005) speculated that targets in enrolment
suggested implausibly large proportions of newly-qualified graduate degree
holders would have to be attracted to university teaching if proportions of
graduate degree-holding staff were not to become dangerously low.
d) The assumption that the Ethiopian economy and labour market can absorb the
rapidly growing numbers of university graduates has rarely been questioned
and never tested empirically. The HSRC (2006) study gave a qualitative rather
than quantitative analysis, and then was oriented towards TVET-type
qualifications. An earlier study was conducted in 2001 (referred to in Saint
(2005), where 192 employers were asked in what fields they faced the greatest
difficulties in recruitment (Budu 2002).
e) As will become clear from the situation analysis below, there remains much
‘unfinished business’ in HE. Many of the recommendations made in the
various studies have not (yet) been acted on, or are proving slow to bring to
fruition and operation. Capacity of the MoE – already alluded to elsewhere in
this report – remains limited and under ever-increasing pressure.
f) In view of the financial stringency which the Ethiopian public sector is facing,
planned strategies for supplementing temporarily scarce national capacities
(for example through the employment of expatriate lecturers in universities)
may not be financially feasible.15
g) Despite the acknowledged high costs of campus-based HE, little attention
appears to have been given to exploring the potential of, and strengthening
capacities for, delivery of sound Distance Learning programmes.
15
Several commentators made the point that it is becoming progressively more difficult to attract
suitably qualified Indian expatriate academic staff than it was when the Indian economy was growing
less rapidly. Those recruited recently are generally not as experienced as earlier groups, yet their cost is
more than ten times their Ethiopian colleagues.
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h) Similarly, private provision has not been as actively encouraged as policy
statements indicate, and obstacles to private sector engagement have not been
removed as rapidly as planned. Indeed, from some perspectives, the sector is
seen more as an adversary than a partner in provision of HE system capacity. 16
i) Notwithstanding the cautionary note of many of the above analyses, and the
content of policy dialogue since then from development partners’ interactions
with government policy makers, the government has remained resolute. On
several occasions it has signalled that it will – come what may – stick to its
plans. It appears that it is not prepared to ‘revisit’ its current expansionary
strategy.
j) The State Minister for HE has recently issued a ‘Lead Plan’ which appears to
be a blueprint for capacity building in the sector. However there appears to
have been no input from those working in the field of capacity development
into the document to date.
Situation Analysis
This analysis is based on interviews with MoE HE Departmental officials, and Heads
of HESC, HERQA and NPRC (in IER, AAU); visits to Hawassa, Dilla and Addis
Ababa Universities, where senior academic and administrative staff were interviewed
at length, discussions with the Chair of the Association of Private HEIs, some
development partners and technical assistance personnel, and reading of a large range
of studies and other documents including all those mentioned above (see Appendices
C and B respectively for full listings). Many of our observations are corroborated by
the findings of the Teshome study (Teshome 2006). We indicate this where
appropriate.
Our principal observations are as follows:
a) MoE capacity to guide implementation of the ESDP III HE programme is very
limited, particularly in view of the rapid public HE expansion. The HE
Expansion and Strengthening Department has few expert staff (besides its
Director). The HE System Transformation and Improvement Department is
50% understaffed compared to its approved complement of 4 experts.17
b) HERQA and HESC have active Boards, and have accumulated a variety of
staff from international volunteer and Ethiopian sources. Both Directors
(HESC’s is in Acting capacity) have experienced difficulties recruiting
suitably qualified senior expatriates and adequate numbers of Ethiopian
16
The private HEIs have requested tax concessions on imported machinery and equipment, which have
not been granted. Those related to books were waived 18 months ago. Some regions have been
unhelpful in securing land leases for the construction of private HEIs; this makes Bank loans more
difficult to obtain. Some REBs are reportedly very difficult to deal with. They are responsible for
inspection and supervision of HEIs in their area, despite their having no other responsibilities for higher
education. MoE imposes a minimum cut-off point in terms of SLC grades before entry to a private
university is permitted. It imposes a restrictive maximum number of students permitted in a classroom
at a time (40). The HEI Association has experienced difficulties in being granted meetings with
Ministers.
17
Teshome (2006) raises the question as to whether a separate Ministry or Commission is in fact
needed to guide higher education development. (page 8)
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professionals (although HERQA is better prepared now than at any time
previously in terms of recruited staff and a positive indication of sympathetic
consideration by MOFED in respect of operating budgets). Both have
Strategic Plans and ambitious Work Programmes. Their independence – and
reportedly the timbre of debate in meetings – may be constrained by the fact
that the Minister of Education is Chair of both Boards18 and continuing
transport constraints. Governance of these bodies will be progressively more
crucial as their work gets more involved in critical assessments of HE system
operations, and should be debated as a matter of urgency.
c) The National Pedagogical Resource Centre for Higher Education (NPRC),
located in the Institute for Educational Research in the University of Addis
Ababa, has not been legally formalized since its establishment in 2000. It
therefore has been unable to receive MoFED subventions. Notionally its role
will be to support the work of Academic Development and Resource Centres
(ADRCs) in each of the existing nine public universities, which are being
established with help from the Dutch-supported Educational Quality
Improvement Project (EQUIP). This project is due to be reviewed in early
2007. It will be important to address the future status, location and resourcing
of the NPRC in relation to the ADRCs during that review.19
d) Despite the liberal provisions of the 2003 Proclamation, Universities are still
not autonomous in terms of budget (block grants from government are not yet
in place); contracting out is still at an early stage, and has been questioned by
auditors apparently unaware that it is permitted in the Proclamation. This
problem has been compounded by the absence of a recent MoE guideline on
contracting out; student selection and annual intake levels are determined by
MoE; academic and key support staff pay scales are determined by CSC
norms; appointment of top management is still seen by government as being
its prerogative20. This lack of autonomy has constrained the applicability of
leadership and management training, which HEIs have received over the past
few years under the NPT Programme. 21 In the case of planned ICT
development in HEIs, while physical installations are in process, real
difficulties are anticipated in recruiting and retaining trained technicians after
completion of training, due to uncompetitive salaries paid in public HEIs.
The Proclamation indicates that the Ministry shall determine membership of HESC’s Board. It states
that the MoE’s representative shall chair the Board of HERQA.
19
A consultative survey of NPRC stakeholders was undertaken in early 2006 see ter Keurt (2006).
20
University top managers are – as a result of government action - reportedly subject to progressively
more frequent transfer or replacement. One interviewee reported that 4 out of the 9 top managers at
public universities are newly in position or still in transition. Teshome (2006) reports that over half
managers he consulted by survey questionnaire opined that expatriate managers are needed to reinvigorate university management in the short term. (Teshome 2006 page 10)
21
Teshome (2006) comments negatively on the performance of many of the Boards which ostensibly
govern universities, and laments their lack of focus on strategic issues, and apparent lack of
preparedness for their role. (page 8). He goes on to criticize the common lack of separation of
university governance from management.
18
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e) The proportion of academic staff with higher degrees (PhDs and Masters) and
substantial research and teaching experience at all universities is in decline.22
Attrition of senior staff is caused by relative decline in salaries compared to
those available outside public sector HE, and a perception that academic
freedom is restricted. The way universities are resourced and managed means
the university academic environment is not conducive to creative work.23
Rapidly increasing pressure on student numbers limit or remove opportunities
for normal teaching interaction with students or their assessment based on
essay or assignment.24 Senior staff who remain are reportedly demoralized,
and reluctant to commit their full energies into teaching or research in part by
the factors above.25 There are reportedly cases where lecturer appointments
have not only been first degree holders, but recent former students in the very
Department in which they are now appointed lecturers.26
f) Changes in the nature and maturity of students are taking place, in part due to
the change in most degree courses’ length from four years to three, and the
decision to have Grade 12 as the university-preparatory year in secondary
school. Students now accordingly have to choose their area of study while still
at school (instead of after one year in University).27 Aptitude testing was tried
briefly 25 years ago, but quickly abandoned. Up until recently, deliberate
efforts were made to mix the student population at a given university with
candidates from all over the country, but this policy is changing due to
constraints in student accommodation capacity.28 This situation has adverse
national cohesion and equity dimensions and consequences. Students are
Teshome (2006) concurs with this observation. His survey indicated a ‘critical shortage of qualified
faculty’ (page12).
23
Particularly bitter complaints were heard concerning the shortage of equipment and materials in
laboratories and the absence of functional libraries with comprehensive and up to date book stocks.
Academic staff reportedly persuade friends or colleagues overseas to send recent books, which are then
photocopied for student use. No less than 85% of students consulted in the Teshome study saw better
libraries and books as an expenditure priority.
24
Indeed classroom accommodation is becoming so overstretched in places that some students are
forced to stand outside and listen to lectures through open windows. This situation constrains the
potential for application of student-centred methodologies soon to be espoused by ADRCs.
25
A salary for a full Professor is approximately $370 per month.
26
One student wrote recently in a graduation bulletin that ‘peer-teaching has arrived’. One interviewee
– an academic with over 30 years experience - said of the current situation and atmosphere in his
institution ‘our wishes are turning to ashes’. While he acknowledged that 20 years ago only 0.4% of
eligible children could be university students, ‘HE then was worthy of the name’. He feared that the
new universities would be ‘little more than glorified secondary schools’. One university was reported
recently to have 803 academic staff of which only 6 were Associate Professors, and 14 Assistant
Professors. The rest were lecturers or more junior still. In one (4 th year) engineering class all the
instructors had graduated the previous year. We were unable to corroborate this assertion due to nonavailability of 2005/6 data (to be contained in the next issue of the Annual Abstract due out in
December 2006 or January 2007).
27
There are no statistics available on the proportions of students who are able to follow their preferred
course. High-scoring SLC candidates who do well in the entrance exams tend to get their choice.
Lesser candidates are allocated to under-subscribed courses by MoE. Given that the target is 30% of
applicants for HE should be sent for B.Eds, and these courses are routinely under-subscribed, it means
that there is a high probability that the worst candidates for HE become secondary school teachers
against their will.
28
Whereas in the past only a modest proportion of students in Addis Ababa University would come
from the city, 69% of this year’s intake reportedly are local students who therefore live at home. It
appears that 100% of law and medical students in AAU’s intake this year come from Addis.
22
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reportedly heeded more by University management than previously. They
have accordingly become more assertive (and occasionally aggressive)
towards lecturers than before.29
g) The current system of assessing students’ degree award is ‘norm-referenced’
(i.e. a given proportion of the ‘raw’ score distribution of students get a first
class degree etc.) but our interviewees indicated that overall ‘raw’ scores in
many subjects are tending to decline (in part due to the factors above).
However, this norm-referencing practice obscures any decline in overall
student attainment year to year. It is difficult to identify unambiguously
‘quality problems’ and declining academic standards, and to take prompt
remedial action. This applies both in the context of teaching environments and
the nature of learning which students derive from courses. Evidence of decline
in standards and student attainment emerge only from rigorous assessments
over time. By then it may be too late to take remedial action. This poses a
major dilemma for HERQA and policy makers. Nevertheless we make some
suggestions in the capacity strategy section in this regard.
h) The MoE decreed some years ago that failing students at first year level could
not be dismissed (a stricture which has been partially relaxed since). The
obligation on universities to give remedial attention to failing students
compounds problems of work pressure and class discipline.
i) There is anecdotal evidence of growing rates of student unemployment.
Paradoxically, education graduates are most likely to have success in finding a
job.30
j) Despite the rhetoric concerning the significance of the threat to students and
academic staff posed by HIV/AIDS, and the stress in the HESO Report on the
issue, relatively little attention and resources appear to be devoted to it.31
k) The proposed revision of the National Education Policy may provide a vehicle
– if an inclusive, participative approach is followed where all key stakeholders
have a voice – for critical re-assessment of the performance of the education
system and the inter-linkages between its various levels.
29
There have been several instances of assault by aggrieved students on academic staff who awarded
poor marks, including one stabbing.
30
However, REB staff report attrition problems with newly-posted graduate teachers, especially in
remote rural locations.
31
Teshome (2006) page 13 ‘According to 64% of students and 81% of the management respondents
students are seldom provided with accurate information about human sexuality and related health and
development issues’.
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4.
ANALYSIS OF EDUCATION MANDATES, ROLES AND
RESPONSIBILITIES, AND RELATED CAPACITY ISSUES
We subdivide this section into components dealing with the apparent gaps in
education sector financial capacities (since these underpin – indeed undermine –
attempts to boost overall sector capacity); an overview of the Ministry of Education
(the detail is in Appendix F where profiles of each of the main departments are
sketched), and issues concerning the staffing of the education sector at various levels,
which of necessity are gleaned from a variety of sources.
The Education Finance Issue and Gap
This issue has been subject to various studies over the past few years, including an
enquiry to ascertain why levels of education capital expenditure appeared to be
constrained, and whether budget support could be expressly directed towards
education expenditure by woredas. It is not the purpose of this sub-section to repeat
the conclusions of these studies, but instead to summarise what appear to be some
fundamental constraints in public finance availability for ESDP over the next few
years, from various sources, including our fieldwork. It is hoped that this will assist
the proposed Task Force established under MoE auspices (as a result of the discussion
on the topic at the last ARM in May 2006) which we understand will be addressing
this issue in the near future.
The first major issue is a macro-level sector financing gap. This has been mentioned
in the subsection on the Education Policy and its interconnections with other sectors
and development strategies (PASDEP in particular). ESDP III’s indicative budget is
Birr 53 billion, but only Birr 37 billion is provided for in PASDEP. There is no
immediate explanation forthcoming of how if at all this gap will be bridged, if, as
donors have confirmed in the last ARM, they cannot bridge it. We are not aware of
any inter-ministerial dialogue on this fundamental point so far.
The second issue is the funding scenarios for key public services benefiting poor
people in the light of the 2005 election. The donors’ suspension of budget support
thereafter is to be partly mitigated by the introduction of the Protection of Basic
Services Project. However, in purely aggregate terms, this will not be a complete
substitute at least for the block grants for regional governments. Table 2 of the Project
Appraisal Document of the PBS project (World Bank 2006b) notes that even under
the ‘with PBS’ scenario 2 block grants are expected to fall from Birr 7.056 billion in
2005/6 to Birr 6.067 billion (a reduction of 14%) at a time when as far as we could
detect, education budgets at woreda level will be under unprecedented pressure from
cascade-targeted ESDP enrolment increases. While the above grant projection does
not automatically mean less education funding, we observed that in practice education
allocations are fairly static as a percentage of woreda budgets…therefore any cuts in
the total ‘cake’ would be felt at least proportionately in local education budgets.
The third issue is the gap between the theoretical costs of MoE standards and norms
(as per the Directive on Education Management Organisation, Public Participation
and Finance) and education targets, and funding currently available locally to meet
them. We observed a graphic example in Adaamiitulluu Woreda, where a full costing
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of next year’s enrolments for primary education was available, and comparable to the
corresponding budget this year (see Box 3).
Box 3: Case Example: Estimated Costs of Primary education ESDP for 1998EC compared with
Budget 1997: Adaamiitulluu Woreda
The Education budget amounts to approx 34% of the woreda budget annually. But the amount
provided is usually only about 30% of the budget requested by WEO.
The WEO received about Birr 2 million (in 1997 EC) from the Woreda Administration. Councillors
have remained mute about this. They say ‘it is up to communities to fill the gap’. WEO estimates the
value of community contributions to be approximately Birr 1.4 million (1997): approximately 70% of
the value of the public expenditure contribution.
Calculations based on projections for woreda done through the OEB/JICA SMAPP project supporting
Oromia, and on the costs estimated on the basis of Regional costs norms indicate that for 1998:
1998 Recurrent Costs Required:
Birr ‘000
1st level teachers salaries
3,354
2nd level teachers salaries
4,175
Textbooks 1st
71
Textbooks 2nd
43
Administration Salaries
1,567
Furniture
486
Schools’ Block Grant
671
Total Recurrent need 1998
10,324
Capital need
Classroom Construction
(mix of types)
3,482
Actual budget available
(recurrent and capital) in 1997: 2,000
Requested by WEO in 1997
7,000
Shortfall (recurrent only) 1997
8,324
Bridging this gap would mean an over 300% increase would be needed in actual available budget in the
previous year. This situation translates itself into shortfalls in teacher recruitment compared to numbers
required: the 1998 targets and actual teacher recruitment reported by the WEO are:
Diploma target 123 (actual 6 recruited)
TTI target
90 (actual 28 recruited)
Degree
20 (actual 6 recruited)
Total
233 (actual 40 recruited)
NB The WEO Can recruit teachers in the labour market here (Woreda is on on main Addis – Awassa
Road): but main constraint has been lack of woreda budget allocation for education.
Source: Team calculations based on OEC/JICA/SMAPP Costings and WEO information
Only one of the woredas we visited managed to provide schools with block grants in
accordance with the Blue Book norms (Burji Special Woreda in SNNPR). We
discussed briefly the innovative practice in SNNPR of basing budgets on needs not
just previous annual estimates (as in Oromia above). Commentators have made
favourable observations of the benefits of this practice.
The fourth issue on education finance is the weight of community contributions. The
estimated value of these is 70% of the public woreda education budget in 1997. As far
as we can assess, this is by no means exceptional. Community representatives
repeatedly stressed that they feel that they cannot sustain the present – let alone future
– levels expected of them. We suggest a repeat of the 2005 Mussa survey is made as
en element of the capacity strategy.
The fifth issue concerns supply of staff with finance administration and accounting
expertise. This mainly concerns WOFEDs, which act on a pooled-service basis for
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education and other key sectors in handling expenditure administration, procurement
and accounting matters. While we have no firm data due to time restrictions during
visits at woreda level, several conversations with BOFED staff indicated major
concerns about anticipated WOFED staff shortages in future. The PBS project will
permit several hundred accountants to be hired nationally. This may go some way to
compensate for the extra pressures on reporting required by donors for these
resources.
Finally there is the major issue of the respective allocation of resources between
sectors in ESDP as planned and as it is being ‘rolled out’. The major World Bank
study of 2005 drew attention to several major policy questions which MoE will need
to address if the Education and Training Policy is to be sustainable, and ESDP
financially feasible (see Box 5). The last ARM raised questions about the underfunding of secondary education in particular. Our analysis of this sector in Section 3
confirms these concerns. Our discussion on the possible impact of the major
acceleration of higher education places indicated that there is a real danger that initial
costings will prove too optimistic in the light of experience, and HE expansion will
require will require significantly more resources than anticipated.
As part of our ToRs for the second phase we attempted to explore the workings of
elected Councils and to assess they provided a degree of public accountability and
awareness of the difficulties being faced in virtually all woredas over education (and
other basic service) funding. We found that Councils and Councillors are widely seen
as ‘rubber stamping’ bodies. They comprise popularly-elected but inadequately
empowered representatives of local communities. Their ability to play a meaningful
role, in relation to the executive Cabinet is limited. Decision-making on education
budgets and plans are affected by influential voices in Cabinets at regional and
woreda level, especially Heads of BOFEDs and WOFEDs, (not REB or WEO Heads).
We outline the implications of these findings for the education capacity strategy
below.
The Ministry of Education
This sub-section assesses and summarises the team’s conclusions concerning the
present status – in terms of organisational change, structure and staffing – of the
Ministry. It draws conclusions, suggests possible causes, and makes corresponding
recommendations. These are taken forward into the strategy. It draws on the profiles
of individual Departments presented in Appendix F. It should be stated at the outset
that this does not amount to a comprehensive organisational review (this study was
not obliged or equipped to undertake one). It draws on earlier reports by the then
Minister’s Organisational Adviser32, a review of the MoE’s Strategic Plan (2006) (in
Amharic), of a ‘self-assessment’ which preceded it, and of ‘old’ and ‘new’ versions of
the Ministry’s organisation chart. It is also informed by educationists now outside the
Ministry who have experience of it in earlier years, as well as discussions with two
State Ministers of Education and current senior staff.
32
See Windy (2004)
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Conclusions on the Ministry of Education
1. Even before its current re-organisation, the Ministry of Education was in a
seriously weakened state in terms of professional staff. Table 1 below gives a
general impression of the rate of vacancies in its various departments
immediately before the re-organisation (not including NOE, EMA or ICDR).
Unfortunately, the data combine administrative support staff posts with
professional grades (despite our request for them to be separated) hence the
picture is less clear than it could have been. From discussion, it is certain that
most of the vacancies are in professional grades, hence crude calculations of
percentages of posts vacant in key departments under-state the true
professional vacancy rate. Even so, rates of 50% vacancies in Planning and
ESDP Department33; 66% in HE Training Programme Input Dept, 60% in its
HRD Department, and 48% in General Education’s Educational Programme
and Teachers’ Education Department give grounds for concern. TVET is
experiencing less but still considerable rates of vacancies (between 30% and
34% in its departments). Data on staff resignations (not including transfers
within or out of the Ministry) indicate a loss of over 30 staff annually –
probably mainly professional staff. If the actual figure of staff levels in 1997
EC is compared to 1998 actual, all main Departments suffered a substantial
reduction in staff available.
Table 1: Ministry of Education: (Old) Functional Units and their Staffing Situation (as at early
August 2006)
Staffing
Functional Unit
Actual
1998 E.C
1997
Approved
Actual
Vacant
2
3
2
1
Minister’s Office
Administration and Finance
183
214
175
39
Public Relations
9
13
9
4
Legal Service
3
5
4
1
Women’s Affairs
4
4
3
1
Civil service office
4
12
4
8
ESDP and Planning Department
52
68
34
34
Audit services
3
6
3
3
National Agency for UNESCO
4
6
4
2
Sub-Total
264
331
238
93
2
2
2
2
Teaching and Vocational Education
TVET curriculum Development Department
22
29
19
10
TVET research Department
7
12
8
4
TVET program Implementation and Quality
16
20
14
6
Assurance Department
Sub-total
47
53
43
10
2
2
1
1
Higher Education
Training Program Input Department
9
18
6
12
Human resource Development Department
8
15
6
9
Sub total
General Education
Training Program In-out Department and
Research
19
2
104
33
35
2
13
1
22
1
From frequent visits to the Planning Department during the study, it appears only to have four
professional staff.
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National Organization for Examination
119
Education and Mass Media Agency
158
Educational Program and Teachers Education
27
36
19
17
Department
Civics Education Department
8
3
5
Ethics Officer
1
0
1
Sub-total
410
45
22
23
Total
740
476
2. The Ministry prepared a new organisation chart under its previous political
leadership. This has been approved by the Civil Service Agency:
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Please refer to Appendix G for approved levels of staffing of the Ministry within the
new structure (all posts have been subject to recruitment – largely internal). Our
observations on the new organisation chart are that:
 It appears to conflate many separate functions.
 It still does not relieve Ministers of the plethora of administrative
decisions and minutiae they become embroiled in now (with a
Ministerial span of control over seven Departments and three State
Ministers).
 It gives apparent equal ‘rank’ to Educational Programme and Teachers
Education Department (with massive responsibilities) and Ethics and
Civic Education Department (one subject area).
 It does however provide for a Human Resources Management
Department (currently missing).
3. The Ministry has a Strategic Plan in draft (in Amharic). Unfortunately this did
not inform the new structure (as is the standard procedure laid down by CSA).
It is still subject to Regional consultation, from which it is hoped it will benefit
considerably.
4. The absence of a Strategic Plan - at the time MCB was assessing which
Ministries should be ‘fast-tracked’ into organisational reform - unfortunately
disqualified MoE from the first round of organisational development
initiatives under CSRP. This is very regrettable, given the importance and
status of the Ministry.
5. Some of the highly experienced educationists who once worked there
remember a time when there was an adult/NFE Department and group of
internationally-recognised experts (this was abolished some years ago and the
staff disbanded). They recall a time when there were over ten masters
graduates in the Planning Department.
6. Morale in MoE seems low, on the basis of discussions within and outside the
Ministry during this study. But there are some positive Departmental working
environments: observers attribute this to their leadership.
7. It appears that managers must face major problems in accessing key
documentation.
Possible Factors influencing the staffing situation of MoE
Staff departures are attributed in part to professional insecurity caused by absence of
an approved structure for some time, and the prospect of ‘applying for ones own job’
to place staff in the new structure. They also seem to be caused by a deeper-seated
malaise of weak leadership and indifferent people-management practices. The
exceptions include TVET…where staff vacancy and loss rates seem less than average,
and Education Programmes and Teachers’ Education Department where staff seem
busy and well-directed.
Pressures of work are high and mounting (e.g. Planning Department): staff vacancy
rates are clearly one obvious reason. The pressing politically-visible ESDP III targets
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may well be another factor. Recent changes in aid modalities affecting education (the
Protection of Basic Services Programme) may affect Ministry reporting and
accountability pressures (although the Finance and Economic Development structures
will feel most of the burden, as will WEOs).
Other forces and influences may include:
 influence over appointments to key posts (a generic phenomenon in the civil
service according to the Meritocracy Study (Constantinos (2006);
 a ‘silo’ mentality within and between Departments and no effective measures
to combat this all-too-common trait;
 a generally insular style of operation where links to educational specialist
resource centres and academic institutions are limited
In the eyes of many of its professional staff, there needs to be an effort within the
MoE to make itself a professionally pleasant, rewarding and productive place to
work.34
Education Staffing at various levels of government administration
We have reviewed various sources of information on staffing of the education
function at different levels of the education system. Overall, information available on
the supply of qualified staff at various levels of the public administration, particularly
that available to education sector organisations, is sketchy. No clear general picture
exists. The sources below provide a somewhat out of date picture, and in any case do
not adequately cover some of the factors and phenomena which – anecdotally – are so
significant as determinants of organisational capacities, for example the factors
affecting turnover of skilled or trained staff.
The Federal Civil Service Personnel Statistics is currently being updated for the 1997
Ethiopian year - i.e. ending September 2005 (FCSC 2005). Only the previous report
for 1996 (ending September 2004) is available. The DLDP of MCB commissioned a
Human Resource Planning Survey in selected rural woredas in 2004. (DLDP 2004a)
There are several regional reports available on the implementation of the
decentralisation policy, which cast light on staffing situations at regional and woreda
levels, (Dom/Mussa 2006a and b; DLDP 2005); Draper (2005) provides important
insights into the situation in Tigray REB up to last year. A recent study (Constantinos
2006) has cast some light on the underlying political dynamics of promotion and
transfer affecting the extent of meritocracy in the middle and senior levels of the civil
service (though data was from federal levels, the practices occur in the regions to
varying degrees dependent on the region). Results of an analysis by Oromiya CSC of
WEOs staffing is presented.35 Finally we present some general observations from our
fieldwork.
The Federal Civil Service Commission presents data on staff availability, recruitment,
promotions, training received, departures from the service (various reasons) in
Ministries and Agencies and regional governments (at least those which submitted
34
All top management in MoE attended a CSRP Change Management training programme in
November 2006, which may go some way to achieving this goal.
35
See also Appendix F on MoE Departmental profiles, and Appendix I for Woreda case studies.
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returns). Training data is not available for regions. It shows that MoE hired 31 new
staff in 2004, while 40 joined through transfer, while 16 left the public service; (Jima
University took on 145 the same year); ICDR 10 and EMA 7. MoE trained none of its
staff in 2004, according to the FCSC: while EMA trained 102 staff.
For the regional governments, not only is the FCSC data incomplete (SNNPR, Somali
and Afar did not submit returns), but for the education bureaux some regions’ teachers
are included in the statistics, some not (it appears counting only REB staff). Therefore
little can be concluded from these data.
The DLDP HR study (2004) casts a little more light on staffing stock and movements.
It notes significant deficiencies in availability. Overall only just over half (53%) of the
approved posts in the sampled woredas were filled.36 SNNPR woredas appeared to be
worst off, with only 40% of posts filled. In describing whether qualifications of the
staff in post meet minimum requirements (since they do in over 80% of the cases), the
report noted that these requirements have been set with regard to the difficulties of
attracting people to work in government in the current labour market, and may
understate what would be the ideal level of qualifications for the post. This has
‘created an opportunity for large numbers of employees to move up the ladder without
fulfilling the educational requirements’. (DLDP 2004a page5). Only 42% of woreda
staff have any form of specialised qualifications, and only 5% a degree (DLDP 2004b
p.11). It also notes a high degree of ‘mismatch’ between the field of specialisation of
the incumbents and current job assignments (ranging from 65% in Tigray to up to
74% elsewhere)37. This indicates scope for constructive HR planning at woreda level.
Most vacancies (nearly 80%) were at Grades VII and above: where vocational, junior
college or degree qualifications are needed. Pay levels in government were cited as
the main cause of this situation.
Sampling opinions, the HR study found that nearly 90% of respondents thought that
their offices were inadequately organised to implement plans (citing shortage of
professional and supervisory staff, poor office facilities and inadequate operational
budget as factors).
Unfortunately, staff turnover as a topic is thinly covered (p.52). On average for the
two years before the survey attrition rates were 17% in Amhara and Oromia, 15% in
SNNPR and 13% in Tigray, with ‘transfer’ the most common cause cited. However
over 40% of sampled staff said they had been in their post for between 1 and 3 years
(20% less than one year) (table 5.37 of training assessment DLDP 2004b).
Other findings of the HR survey included:
 application of a ‘prototype’ (i.e. standard) organogramme structure to all
woredas despite differing sizes and needs;
 frequent re-organisations negatively affecting staff recruitment, retention and
performance (see table 5.7 in the training assessment: 40% of respondents
attributed non-utilisation of budget to ‘structural change and managerial
turnover’ - p.65 DLDP 2004b);
36
Twelve woredas altogether in Tigray, Amhara, Oromia and SNNP Regions, and over 800 staff
completed questionnaires.
37
Unfortunately the definition and interpretation of ‘mismatch’ is unclear from the report: from table
4.4 in the training survey it appears to refer to ‘acquired field of study compared to that required’.
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
underperformance due to understaffing (causing delays and under-spend of
budgets) by the pooled services (personnel, financial administration);
 large majority (95%) of supervisory posts held by males (c.f. 30% of
workforce is female);
 poor information flow between region and woreda;
 absence of any training policy or career planning at both levels (decisions on
training and nominations were ‘spontaneously’ taken by ‘management’), and
no budget to fund training at regional or woreda levels. No internal or external
evaluation of any training which takes place.
 Over 70% said they had received no training (DLDP 2004b p12);
 Over 70% of sponsorship of any training came from regional level (10% from
woreda level) in table 5.17 of training assessment.
 70% of managers had two years or less experience (table 5.27)
 ‘General management and planning’ dominate first order training preferences.
 Reasons cited why employees liked their jobs (over 90% said they did)
included ‘commitment to serve the public’ (8.6%) and ‘no client complaints
(33%).
 Difficulties in doing job included ‘no training’ (52%) and ‘work is too much’
(44%)
The report recommended the establishment of a payroll percentage-based ‘Training
Fund’ for management by CBBs and RCSCs.
Data from the regional reports on decentralisation implementation contain the
following insights:
 Vacancy rates at woreda levels were running at 38% in Amhara (30% for
education) but only 24% at regional level (Dom/Mussa 2006b p28)..but for
professional grades the rate of vacancies is 48% at woreda level (36%
regional). This is about the same estimate as the previous source.
 The proportion of staff having a degree was also the same as the DLDP HR
survey finding: 5%;
 Turnover rates in Amhara were difficult to compute because of inconsistencies
in data definitions: but between 2,700 and 5,200 left the service annually
between 1993 and 1997 EFY…However another assessment indicated an
annual rate of turnover of 20% affecting WOFEDs
 Civil service promotion policies affect career development for qualified degree
holders: 10 years service being required before entry to senior ranks even of
WOFEDs; when combined with the reality of political appointments to those
levels, this amounts to a disincentive to professional staff to remain in the
service.
 The Tigray review of decentralisation (Dom/Mussa 2006a) found it hard to
make sense out of staffing data provided by woredas: an indication of the
difficulties of personnel administration at that level.
In a rare personal insight into the ‘human capacity at the REBs’ Ian Draper ex VSO
Education Management Consultant to Tigray REB: (Draper 2005) noted his
observations after a year spent in the Bureau:
 Some evidence of political appointments (incl to school directorship);
 ‘Compartmentalisation’ of work on teacher development, curriculum
development, and learning assessment.
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





Respective ‘experts’ communicate via senior management and do not integrate
efforts into better overall education system planning;
Contradictions exist between active learning methodology ‘capacity
development’ for teachers and the large class sizes they teach, and use of
Plasma;
‘Experts’ undertake routine administrative tasks: under-utilising plentiful and
able administrative staff. Mistrust of others, aversion to risk-taking and job
insecurity are cited as possible reasons for this behaviour (as well as the
pursuit of out of town assignments to attract per-diems - necessary to
supplement inadequate base pay).
Leadership was generally poor; managers do not act as leaders: they protect
their own areas of responsibility, rarely evaluate their overall effectiveness in
terms of impact on student achievement (our emphasis), and consider how they
may do things better.
‘Additional capacity without cultural and structural changes merely replicates
existing systems, rapidly reproducing and reinforcing the prevailing paradigm
of working practice’. (p3)…and ‘many highly capable people are grossly
under-utilised’…
he concludes ’providing additional capacity without reforming existing culture
is counter-productive’.38
Recently, a review was undertaken (sponsored by DFID Ethiopia) of the federal civil
service and the extent to which it represented a ‘meritocracy’. The conclusions
included:
 The constitutional, policy and HR strategy frameworks, and indeed the advent
of PSCAP, pose an enabling environment (i.e. ‘in theory’);
 Practice is however more problematic: remuneration is not market-competitive
(causing ‘brain-drain’); the service is ‘unmanageably’ huge (over 1.2 million)
without any differentiation of major cadres (e.g. teachers);
 Political appointments to key posts are not publicly transparent. This risks
undermining competence of execution of key functions, professional staff
morale and the formal ‘theoretical’ career structure and current attempts at
personnel performance appraisal (including Results Oriented Performance
Appraisal).
 Paradoxically, attempts to introduce ‘Change Management’ appear ‘imposed’
and not owned by the civil service. Acceptance of change by staff is not seen
as an essential element, in which ‘winning hearts and minds’ must be achieved
by senior managers.
 The responsibility of civil servants to give feedback advice to political masters
on the feasibility and implementation of policies also appears undermined by
present practices.
The Oromia Regional Civil Service Commission analysis of turnover and vacancies in
various woreda education offices of the region39 indicated that the vacancy rate for
Draper seems to be equating ‘capacity’ development to ‘training’. All the features he describes in
Tigray REB are in fact elements of ‘capacity’ in the ECDPM definition.
39
This was done in response to our request for specific data and examples of how this generic problem
was affecting the education sector. The data here is distilled from a paper produced under the
38
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woreda education offices was approximately consistent with the findings of the
woreda HR and Amhara regional studies cited above: of the 357 approved
professional posts in 24 selected WEOs, only 174 (49%) were filled. The four zonal
offices sampled which reported data had 90% of their 56 professional staff in post.
Worst affected were one woreda where only 3 out of 13 professional posts were filled
(Qoree) and no other staff being in post), to another where 3 out of 15 were filled
(Nonnoo Sallee). The paper is frank in its assessment of the factors which appear to
be affecting turnover and these vacancy rates: transfers appear to be driven by factors
other than merit. Many have complained to the bureau that they have been transferred
against their wishes. Other factors include the apparent limited knowledge of staff
regulations, and allegedly limited competence of those sometimes appointed as
managers.
Finally, our general observations from our fieldwork visits are as follows:
a) There are great difference in the structures of REBs and WEOs from region to
region in terms of number of civil service personnel and their positions; levels
of academic training, and professional experience required for various posts
are also variable. There is no training policy for the civil service. However, the
TESO/TDP offers a clear and detailed system of teachers’ recruitment,
training and career development procedures.
b) There is a widely-held perception that the ways in which senior managers
acquire positions is not on the basis of competition, merit, or even seniority.
Positions instead tend to be awarded on the basis of an individual’s
membership of an influential group or faction.
c) The REBs claimed to have filled about 90% of the available positions, but not
necessarily with personnel possessing appropriate qualifications, skills and
experience.
d) Staffing of the WEOs we visited is far less than the approved disposition of
positions. Most woredas have no more than 50% of their approved line staff.
For example, in Burji Woreda (SNNPR), out of the total 17 positions
approved, only six are filled and most of the vacant positions are core staff. In
Borena Zone of Oromia, while of the approved 16 positions 11 are available,
but more than three-quarters of professional posts are vacant. The same
applies to Arbegona of SNNPR. In Adami-Tulu-Jido Kombolcha woreda of
Oromia, out of the 22 professional positions 12 (55%) are not filled. The case
of Sherqole in Benushangul Gumuz is even worse in terms of skilled
manpower.
e) Teachers, supervisors and principals especially at the upper primary and
secondary schools do not have the qualifications required, and are unavailable
in the required numbers. For example, in Tigray 50% of the upper primary and
79% of the secondary school teachers are under qualified.
supervision of Ato Tekalegne Berhane (Head of the Oromia CSC Bureau) by Ato Tesfaye Robbi (PR
Department of the Bureau). We are very grateful for this prompt, comprehensive and frank analysis.
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Institutional and Organisational Dimensions of Capacity, including individuals’
priority needs
On the basis of discussions during interviews and fieldwork, and of the available rich
literature on major policy initiatives, decentralisation progress reviews and local level
operational realities, a ‘map’ has been built up - in Appendix H - sketching the major
issues which are affecting capacities by level of government to which they are
particularly relevant or in which they have most impact, and are classified as
institutional (i.e. related to the political power, policy, socio-cultural, or legal ‘rules of
the game’); organisational (relating to procedures, processes, systems operating in
organisational units), and human or individual (factors related to availability of staff,
and people’s roles, responsibilities, and needs for training to provide knowledge,
skills and attitudes). Using the perspective advocated by Nils Boesen (Boesen 2005) it
encompasses both ‘functional/rational’ (getting the job done, and related to the work
environment) and ‘political’ dimensions (relating to power relations and interests).
This tabulation complements (and partly unavoidably overlaps with) the analysis of
capacity gaps by level of the educational system (from pre-school, through to higher
education), and the above commentary on staffing issues.
Major Concerns
(a) Personnel Management
The current practice of appointing school principals is a matter of concern for
many educational personnel including PTAs. The concern emanates from both
principle and pedagogical reasons. Assignment of school principals by
appointment without due consultation affects morale and may result in nonacceptability of the newly-appointed incumbent. Second, appointment without
adequate preparation and training for a principal’s responsibilities will not serve
the post’s purpose.
(b) Devolved Roles and Relationships
There are some coordination and communication problems observed in the
process of decentralization of administrative duties, and devolution of power to
the regional offices and woredas. A major exercise is currently being undertaken
by a MoE Task Force at Ministerial request, which is ‘mapping’ roles and
responsibilities for all education-related tasks at all levels of government. It is
hoped that this will help clarify who is responsible for doing what.40 This issue
has also been tackled in one or two regions level through drafting laws on
devolved responsibilities, within a legally binding mechanism. Amhara has gone
40
The State Minister for General Education established a Task Force on Organisation and Roles in
Education in September 2006. Its task is to define the 30 or so major activities connected with
education service delivery, and ‘plot’ the current patterns of responsibilities (and any incidences of
duplication, anomalies or gaps) for all levels of the general education system 9including teacher
education). The team have visited several regions, and find some variations in role assignments
between levels within them. The Task Force will be reporting within the next few months. In addition,
UNICEF has sponsored the production of a detailed manual, which specifies for all major categories of
general education (from Alternative Basic education through Adult education and teachers Education)
what the existing policy and procedures, norms and optimal approaches are. These two major pieces of
work promise to be most helpful not only for the stakeholders involved in education service delivery
but also new staff joining the education service at any level (including managers who are particularly
subject to frequent transfer, and who are not usually educationists by background); development
partners and volunteer staff working in relation to the sector; members of JRM Teams.
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the furthest in this regard, clearly indicating duties, responsibilities and
relationships at the different levels of educational (and other sectors)
administration.
Priority Management and Capacity Needs at Woreda Level
The most critical gaps/shortage area of personnel identified by WEOs include:
Planning officers, project officers, talented and skilled personnel in curriculum
development activities (including HIV/AIDS), research, monitoring and evaluation
experts, supervisors and well-qualified principals, non-formal and adult education
professionals, early childhood experts, computer experts and statisticians, and data
encoders. The main types of capacities which were prioritised in discussions in the
field included:

Capacity to plan and manage education service at the school, woreda and
regional levels are crucial for attainment of UPE. The decentralization policy
and devolution of power has also necessitated a bottom-up approach to
planning and management. However, only few if not any, have that capacity
to perform these new roles.

The new result oriented appraisal system has been put into force especially in
the SNNPR. The power to plan and implement education programs has been
devolved to the schools and woredas, the school being the smallest planning
unit. Thus, skills in the whole school development planning, monitoring and
evaluation systems are becoming increasingly important for principals and
PTAs to effectively discharge their duties. During our discussion some of the
areas mentioned for capacity development (especially in the SNNPR) were:

Capacity to collect and manage basic education statistics at the school and
wereda levels that would enable them to provide effective performance
monitoring (see also the subsection on EMIS below).

School development planning and management including (budgeting and
accounting systems, effective supervision, school discipline, sensitization and
training of officials)

Teachers, principals and PTAs in Arbegona and Awassa also mentioned the
need for clear school policies on matters such as the following: the enrolment
practices of the school, the code of behaviour and discipline, the recording
and dissemination of information related to pupil progress, the
implementation of special responsibilities allocated to teachers, the
arrangements for staff meetings, the development and utilization of school
library, the listing, maintenance and acquisition of teaching materials, the
manner of relationships between schools and local administration, and
directives/manuals on school construction/rehabilitation and preventive
maintenance

WEOs also mentioned the need to train staff in basic managerial skills,
financial management skills, basic knowledge of procurement procedures as
well as the capacity to monitor education delivery at school level networking
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for information sharing and experience exchange. Furthermore, a number of
woredas lack storage places for learning materials, and knowledge pertaining
to ordering, purchasing handling and distribution of school materials.
Capacity and Capacity Needs in EMIS: General Concerns
The MoE and REBs have been making great efforts in collecting education data and
publishing of the education statistics annual abstract. This document is regarded as a
major source document for REBs and the MoE, in order to plan, budget and monitor
sector development programs. It is also viewed as a powerful tool to influence policy
and lobby for donors’ support. However (i) the completeness, accessibility, useability
and timeliness of publication of this document was questioned by our interlocutors
and (ii) schools and woredas said that they do not recieve a copy of the annual astract,
despite the fact that they are the main source of data.
Indeed, some regions such as Benushangul Gumuz frankly admitted that they are
troubled by the accuracy and validity of the data generated currently. For them the
GER data for primary education are erraneous, and the capacity to undertake a census
on school children is an urgent priority. The GER tends to far exceed the baseline
population upon which the calculation is made. If not re-checked this will seriously
affect the realistic planning and decision making process of the education sector in the
region.
REBs think that inadequate human capacity to collect and process data at school and
woreda levels has reduced the accuracy of the information. Reportedly, some schools
and WEOs do not keep timely and proper records, and also lack training, which
makes it difficult for them to fill in the data forms accurately.
In some cases, inaccurate data and information are purposely submitted due to
financial pressures or private concerns. This tendency is probably magnified by lack
of feedback and dissemination of data to the woreda and school level, as well as low
motivation. Dissemination downwards and effective utilization of data at various
levels are the weakest aspects of EMIS as observed during the present study.
In view of the above challenges, there is a need to review the current system of data
collection, processing/management, utilization, dissemination and storage in a
comprehensive and user friendly manner. An EMIS system should be developed which
allows effective monitoring and evaluation of education for the promotion of local
reform and decentralization.
The 2004 EU-UNESCO diagnostic study report (EU/UNESCO 2004) identified a
number of capacity issues related to EMIS at all levels of management and has
provided seven key recommendations for action. The plan envisages that when EMIS
is effectively put in place, current problems with lack of knowledge on the status of
education development at a given time, and on what real needs to be done, will be
solved. Schools and WEOs deserve special attention both in terms of personnel,
equipment and infrastructure
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Suggestions were made by some interviewees with a view to making EMIS more
productive for example by networking the standard EMIS and linking it with the
following:
 School administration (student and staff records, budgets, etc)
 System administration (facilities, staff, financial administration, planning and
monitoring etc)
 Communication (Networking all schools with WEOs, REBs and the MoE
reducing the use of paper communications)
 All departments in REBs and the MoE to give access to data, internet and emails.
Apart from a computerised, networked and internet-connected system, it is also
suggested that other ways to access data should be made available. These include
publications, newsletter/information booklets, popular versions of statistics books, as
well as resource centres at national and regional levels.
Therefore, a further capacity development initiative of EMIS is required to allow
effective management of the education system at all levels. EMIS needs to be
accesible electronically, simple, user oriented, comprehensive, and shared within the
sector and other relevant institutions.
Once a comprehensive EMIS has been established, the situation of education, its trend
and the impact of various interventions will be firmly monitored and disseminated to
stakeholders. In addition to what is available in current system, the kind of data and
information required in the EMIS as suggested by varous stakeholders should also
include:
 Data on textbooks
 Comprehensive human resource information – teaching staff, non teaching
staff, their qualification, experiences, status, service records, career
development records
 Infrastructure and assets data –, furniture, school area, other facilities and
assets
 Performance measures data – results of national examinations and local
examination , transition rates etc..
 Financial management information– cash flow of school finance,
expenditure reports, implementation of school plans and school
contributions.
 Studies, researches, information materials, results of school inspection,
documents, education policy, acts and regulations.
The database created at the woredas is to be sent to both REBs and the MoE. The
REBs consolidate all databases from all woredas into a regional database and the MoE
further consolidates them into one national database, and annually publishes national
statistics booklets and popular versions for all stakeholders. Developing ESDP web
pages and uploading them on internet requires budget and personnel.
Moreover, after the national database is consolidated with other important documents,
it should be delivered and saved into the regional and woreda computers. The
analaysed feedback should be given back to weredas, schools and communities.
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EMIS capacity building at the woreda level is the most emphasized. Although
considerable vacancies remain, immediate posting, and training of personnel is
mandatory especially in statistics and data inputs into a computer system and
establish a woreda database along with the provision of the necessary equipment.
(none of the WEOs we visited, except one, have had a porsonnel responsible for
EIMS). Training heads of schools on how to fill in data forms and how to analyze the
data and produce reports would be essential. At REBs and MoE further capacity needs
were expressed in software facilitates, data entry, storage, processing and reporting.
Conclusions
Based on the above sources and analyses our conclusions are as follows:
a) Reliable information on quantities and qualities of personnel at all levels – let
alone their potential and demonstrated ‘capacities’ – is difficult to obtain.
Some of the most poignant depictions of day-to-day work, and the gaps in
capacities are personal or anecdotal. Key issues – especially the reportedly
serious ‘capacity-destroying’ problem of staff transfers turnover and political
influences on key appointments and ‘restructuring’ in general – are
particularly poorly covered in available studies.
b) The sources reviewed here do not amount to firm, objective evidence of the
consequences of such destructive practices, because they are not culled from
representative, randomly-selected sources.
c) Many of the problems which affect capacity in the education sector are in fact
generic and not specific to the education sector. (Italics indicate these in
Appendix H). Many are potentially amenable only to high-level policy
decisions and concerted cross-sectoral action (such as PSCAP is notionally
equipped to provide).
d) There are a range of clearly-articulated training needs emerging from our field
visits, but unless high-level policy attention is given to the various capacitydestroying factors and practices mentioned above, most of any additional
investment in the training dimension of capacity development will be wasted.
Implications for Strategy
a) The generic nature of many capacity problems implies that the strategy should
acknowledge that in the short-term, staff shortages (in terms of quantity,
qualification and ability) will persist. Unsatisfactory civil service pay and
conditions, and the poor levels of infrastructure and social facilities in most
areas will inevitably remain the same. Capacities of academic and training
institutions and projects to equip staff and communities with relevant skills
will only increase gradually.
b) The ‘generic problem’ issue also implies that either the education constituency
will have to:
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


rely on cross-sector programmes to address these issues (particularly
PSCAP since that is what it was designed to do); or
ignore them (with negative consequences for prospects of capacity
development) or
mount some sort of sector-specific pilot or experimental initiative
(preferably with the tacit support of those agencies supposedly acting
on these factors).
c) Some factors – as well as being generic - are essentially political and therefore
sensitive. The way in which certain individuals are appointed to key
managerial positions (including, and probably most pernicious in its effects,
school directors) are this category. The only way to address this type of
problem may well be accumulation of reliable evidence of the costs and
disruption caused by current practices, to convince policy-makers to moderate
current practices. Progress towards enhancing overall capacity may well
therefore depend on higher-level governance policy dialogue. There is no
guarantee that this ‘evidence-based policy’ approach will work, but we believe
it is essential to try. If it worked, a major contribution to education (and other
service) sector capacity might well result.
d) There is evidence of a culture of autocratic, un-integrated ‘silo’ management
of key inter-dependent functions (within but not limited to the Ministry of
Education or indeed the education sector). Therefore capacity strategies, which
rely on off-job training for individuals, may well continue to fall victim of
such organisational cultures, since the cultures impede application of new
knowledge or techniques acquired by individuals away from the workplace.
e) In view of this, organisational development (OD) - the practice of an external
consultant/agent facilitating interaction between key players in an organisation
to help them define and achieve goals and work performance – should be
considered as part of the strategy. This approach has been advocated before in
future capacity building approaches in Ethiopia. However, demand for such
assistance is limited, as is the current supply of (consultant) capacities to
undertake such assistance. 41
f) Furthermore, a holistic approach and strategy to education capacity
development in Ethiopia should observe the various dimensions of system
capacity now revealed by the ECDPM study, and not focus exclusively on
filling apparent capacity ‘gaps’ related to the short-term quantitative delivery
performance of the education system.
g) In the same way, any capacity building or consultations at Regional or Woreda
levels should acknowledge that education service capacity is partially
dependent on the role of other sectors’ staff, and therefore should encompass
them too. This particularly applies to BoFED and WoFED staff, in view of
their influence on education sector financial capacities and decision-making at
that level.
41
See DiP (2003) which reflected on optimal approaches to future capacity development to support
decentralisation based on successful international experience.
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h) More technical officers than the Heads of Education Bureaux and Offices
should be engaged in capacity building. Heads of Bureaux or Offices are
subject to the most frequent transfers, and may well not be educationist by
background.42
i) There is little to be gained by pursuing capacity building support to elected
Councillors at this stage, at least in relation to improving their understanding
of education issues.
j) The strategy should capture the diversity of circumstances and issues in the
various regions. This implies that at some stage during the capacity strategy
implementation, efforts should be made to guide and encourage regional
governments – or at least the most able – to develop their own education
capacity strategies. It is debateable whether efforts should be made in such
circumstances to support financially regional or enterprising woreda
governments with an education capacity ‘fund’. On the one hand, this
approach would risk confusion (yet another funding channel when efforts are
being made to reduce such channels) and not take account of the (similar)
capacity support needs of other sectors (especially PBS sectors). 43
k) Discussions during the study indicate that, in the medium term, it appears
crucial to begin to back the ostensible ‘autonomy’ of education institutions (a
provision of the Education Policy) by moving resources and accountabilities
down to the level of individual schools. The feasibility of such a major change
in education funding practice would have to be assessed in a thorough policy
study as part of the strategy. Autonomy of TVET and Universities are already
accepted in principle - but not yet in practice – as key elements of the
proposed TVET strategy and HE legal framework respectively.
l) While there is a high degree of consensus on the characteristics and content of
future TVET strategy, the situation in the Higher Education sub-sector is very
different. A policy of major expansion has been pursued without broad
consultation, without analyses of future labour market needs or how recent
graduates have fared in the world of work, and without a financing strategy.
Therefore, in the case of the HE sub-sector the consultants have faced a
dilemma, since we conclude that the extreme pressures experienced by the
public HEI system threaten a progressive and indeed accelerating decline in
Ethiopian public HE capacities to deliver internationally-benchmarked and
recognised academic qualifications, and relevant professional skills to the
system’s graduates over the ESDP III period. The current policy scenario
therefore holds out the real prospect of HE system capacity erosion. Given the
In view of the fact that ‘natives’ of the region are preferred candidates for the Head of Office posts,
in developing regions, the education level of the heads of offices may not be as high as their
subordinates.
43
Currently there is no provision for capacity building support via the PBS programme (except for
BOFEDs and WOFEDs which will receive additional (contract) accounting staff). However, if for
example regions wished to insert such resources for capacity building in their budgets, then these items
would compete with resources flowing down to woredas.
42
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nature of academic capacities44 they represent an intellectual and organizationcultural heritage, are therefore not easily restored once damaged. ‘Damage’ in
this sense means not just the diminution of numbers or proportions of
academics with high-level research-based qualifications and experience, but
also the spirit and atmosphere of intellectual discipline, rigour, energy,
determination and freedom in which academics work. Such qualities are the
essence of academic ‘standards’.
m) Our conclusion on HE is therefore that if current HE expansion strategy is
pursued the quality of the education received by students, and the worth
attached to their degrees in the national labour market and society as a whole,
will both decline. The above conclusion will unfortunately be valid unless:
undergraduate intake rates are reduced; resources (capital and recurrent) for
existing universities are increased markedly, and more recurrent funding is
made available once new universities get underway; genuine autonomy for
HEIs is granted (which combined with additional resources would permit them
to pay market rates to their academic staff for the first time); merit-based
appointment of top university management by universities themselves is
permitted; private sector participation in HE is actively encouraged and
supported (thus redressing the balance between public and private sector
involvement in the sector). ESDP III’s objective: the provision of ‘good
quality higher education to a large number of students equitably but based on
merit’ will not be achievable: certainly not on the scale envisaged, unless the
above measures are put in place.45
44
These human capacities are intangible, fragile, based on working culture and intellectual discipline
and rigour built up over time - five decades in the case of AAU, built on academic freedom of thought
and speech, a spirit of human enquiry and curiosity, ability and willingness to impart extensive wisdom
learning and skills to students, and knowledge and contacts with other academics in common fields or
national or international institutions.
45
Teshome (2006) reports that 72% of students consulted, and 88% of management staff in his survey
‘consider that the current expansion of higher education in Ethiopia would compromise quality of
education and training, as the focus is mainly on increasing the number of students, and not on quality
maintenance and improvement.’ (Page 12)
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5.
CHALLENGES IN THE EDUCATION SECTOR, AND LESSONS
LEARNED WITH PARTICULAR REFERENCE TO CAPACITY
This sub-section sketches key challenges in education delivery, and the lessons
learned in the many attempts which have been made to address the capacity
dimensions of those challenges in the Education Sector Development Programme
‘era’. The evidence is drawn from past research and its documentation in Ethiopia, as
well as evidence from fieldwork. International experience complements this data.
Challenges facing the Education Sector in Ethiopia
Challenges revealed by Assessments of Education Attainment
While the main challenges to education service delivery over the past ten years are
often depicted in graphic quantitative terms (enrolment rates, improving equity of
access – geographical, socio-economic and gender - to schools, improving teacher
numbers and qualifications) the National Learning Assessment (NOE 2004a and
2004b) depicted the qualitative challenges as even more stark than the quantitative
dimension. The assessments also provide evidence, which suggests inter-relationship
between educational quality or outputs, and the influence of variables which are
connected with institutional, organisational and human capacities.
For Grade 4 students, school organisation and management explained over 16% of
the observed variation in student achievement (before controlling for other factors):
School Director’s leadership and attention to communication and supervision of
teachers were indicated as important factors. Teachers’ variables explained another
7%, followed by school supplies and structures, and instruction and support.
Comments from parents and teachers confirmed their strong critique of the situation
facing most schools in terms of school supplies (particularly textbooks’ supply and
quality/nature, and lack of physical facilities such as classrooms and libraries: causing
sometimes gross overcrowding). In terms of teachers’ variables: an important factor
was not necessarily the qualifications of the teachers, but the extent to which they had
been exposed to, and practiced, modern participative teaching methods (i.e. teacher
training, especially in-service was crucial). There are indications in the Grade 4
Report that there is parental, student and teacher scepticism about the appropriateness
of the curriculum, both for teaching useful skills, and in terms of a mismatch with
students’ learning needs, and the resources and time available to teach it. In the Grade
4 report, most regions cited parental comments to the effect that ‘inadequate learning
is taking place.’
In the Grade 8 Report these sentiments are repeated, but with the rider that students’
attention to learning is deficient (and therefore even more of a challenge for school
authorities and parents). Teachers remained concerned about the limited utilisation by
students of available students’ tutorial or counselling services (for reasons of pupils
preoccupations with income-earning out of school at higher primary levels). At Grade
8 teacher behaviour was even more important as an explanation for variation in
student performance than at Grade 4 (accounting for over 32.5% of the variance).
Teachers report being daunted by the new curriculum they are supposed to teach:
feeling ill-trained and ill-equipped to do so.
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But ultimately, the major challenge to the education system will be in continuing to
persuade parents that it remains worthwhile to send their child to school. Compared
to other social services, education is not as amenable to parental judgement of the
qualitative value of the service. Ethiopian and international experience indicate that
most parents in rural areas will have received very limited education, and they may
well be unsure (a) what their child is learning and (b) what they should be demanding
from their school. While high levels of community contribution for school
infrastructure (and sometimes salaries and supplies) indicate past and current parental
valuation of education for their children, the evidence from the Learning Assessments
cited above indicates growing parental (and teacher) disillusionment with the value of
much of what passes for ‘education’ in reality.
Fieldwork Evidence of Challenges in the Education Sector
The fieldwork of the present strategy study has shed some light on the challenges
which continue to be faced in putting fundamental aspects of the 1994 Education and
Training Policy into practice. The case studies are summarised in Appendix I. For
ease of reference the main challenges they illustrated are summarised at the start of
Appendix I.
The equitable provision of education to girls as well as boys is a recurring challenge
in many regions (only Tigray and Addis Ababa appear to have reached a degree of
parity of access and participation). The experience of one REB Gender and Education
Department we visited illustrates the difficulties, but also a successful – and tenacious
- approach to tackling it. (See Box 4 below).
Box 4: Girls Education: The Role and Strategy of a Gender and Education Department
This case outlines the evolution of a Department, faced with a typical situation of inequitable access to
education by girls in one region: last year the GER was 95% for boys and 74% for girls, with wide
variations amongst zones and woredas. In remote pastoralist areas, especially where local cultural
beliefs are hostile to girls’ education, their GER plunges well below 50%.
High dropout rates are caused principally by factors such as distance of schools from home, and the
inadequate facilities (particularly toilets, which usually lack water supply); high repetition and even
dropout rates for girls at Grade 9 especially in the sciences are also caused by harassment, the
inequitable burden of chores at home faced by girls, as well as the distance factor.
A suggestion was made to the effect that more opportunities to present insights and case studies on
issues such as this in higher-level forums – of a truly consultative character – would be welcome. It
was unclear to the Head of the Department who set the agenda or list of invitees for such gatherings.
The current Department has been in existence for 12 years (since the Bureau was established) …the
present Head has been in charge for 4 years…and had to ‘start from scratch’ since little had been
achieved beforehand. Progress has however been made, through the use of the following approach:
- Researching analysing and presenting available data on the situation facing girls: scrutinising the
Education Abstract; concisely presenting evidence to key officials including the Regional President
(who was surprised: in part because this was the first time the situation had been so clearly described);
- Gaining commitment thereby to a change of organisational structure and staffing of the Girls
education function (now there is a Head, 2 experts and a secretary); NB politicians although organised
into a gender grouping in the Regional Council, have generally been silent on these issues despite the
existence of a Policy on Women’s Issues, and a provision that there should be a gender issues
department in all sector bureaux);
- Mounting a series of training programmes (2003-5) to convince PTAs, School Directors, KETBs and
WEO officials that the girls’ access issue is a collective responsibility; these covered approaches to
getting girls into school; how to keep them there, and how to enhance their performance ultimately;
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- Mounting a focussed Community Awareness Campaign in 2004: which was backed by the Regional
President, and resulted in a 14% improvement (narrowing) of the enrolment gap: it featured prizes for
best performing schools and woredas.
- Attempting to increase the number of female role models through campaigning on behalf of several
excellent female candidate School Directors who had been refused Directorships on the grounds that
their service did not quite match the 5 years criterion laid down in Guidelines. (Working together with
the Teachers’ Association, this campaign was successful);
- Challenging the provisions of guidelines which weigh unequally on women, because their formulation
was not an inclusive process.
Lessons emerging
- Politicians often remain inert unless special efforts are made to brief them and advise them of issues
on which they may request information and with it challenge current policies or practices;
- ‘Ownership’ amongst male officials of the education policy provisions on female access may be
limited and needs continuous reinforcement; the factors which deter girls’ access include
infrastructural and discipline factors.
- Guidelines may have gender implications: they should always be formulated in an inclusive fashion;
- Consultative conferences’ agendas should encompass key elements of the education Policy, and be set
inclusively too;
- The original Education Policy and even ESDP III may need further ‘socialisation’ amongst all levels
of educational administration.
- It is unsatisfactory and inadequate that on major issues such as girls education in the country’s
largest region, there is 100% reliance on an external donor (UNICEF in this case) for funding policypromotional and awareness activities. NB Positive comments were received on the work of BESO with
female teachers: again promoting female role models.The imaginative (and successful) strategy
employed by the Gender Department head would make a positive and challenging case study for
sharing with other regions at consultative conferences.
Source: Interviews during fieldwork of study
Challenges Revealed by a Major Review of Primary and Secondary Education
A major joint WB/MoE review of primary and secondary education was completed in
early 2005. It reached some far-reaching and challenging conclusions and
recommendations on future education policy changes, and commented critically on
the affordability of the current Ethiopian education structure model. Despite there
being a series of workshops after the report’s publication, and the packaging of policy
issues conveniently at the end of each chapter, we are not aware of many policy
changes being made thereafter. For ease of reference, we summarise the main points
below in Box 5. Given that several themes in the review accord with our own
observations, particularly those related to the apparent un-affordability of present
policies, we carry forward into the draft strategy some of the main suggestions of the
review. It will also be apparent that several issues also resonate with the recent
WB/Independent Evaluation Group review of international primary education
investment over the past 40 years (also summarised in Box 6 below).
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Box 5: Summary of Key Issues in the World Bank / MoE Review of Education in Ethiopia 2005
A central conclusion was that the 1994 Education Policy model is not a valid basis for future education
development, and needs adaptation. In particular, it appears that it would be more financially feasible to
aim at only four – maximum six – years of universal education – at least in rural areas - in meeting the
2015 EFA goal, not the current 8 years (which is seen itself as an unusual feature of primary education
structure compared to the 6 year norm elsewhere). Part of the rationale is related to the costs associated
with (relatively high) target qualifications, and inefficient utilisation of, relatively well-paid teachers.
The system’s aggregate recurrent costs (approximately similar to international norms as a proportion of
GDP) structure exhibits quality-endangering economies when compared to international levels through
very high pupil teacher ratios (particularly in rural areas); lower than average non-salary expenditures,
lower supervision intensity (and costs), and high attrition rates of better-qualified teachers from upper
primary and secondary grades.
Efficiency should be enhanced across the whole system. There is scope for simplifying the curriculum
(to minimise the need for specialised teachers and equipment between Grades 5 and 8); reducing
standard costs by simplifying classroom designs; lowering teacher qualification standards; enhancing
effectiveness of management and motivation of teachers and how they use their time (putting more
stress on quality-enhancing behaviours such as homework setting, not further training); increasing
application of alternative basic education models; more meaningful selection examination and cut-off
point before Grade 8; increasing non-salary resources available per pupil; providing more information
and incentives to greater more constructive efforts on the part of managers and teachers.
There is scope for much greater use of the private sector in particularly secondary education to relieve
the overburdened state in serving groups who have capacity and willingness to pay more for such
education, as a qualification for entry into a labour market which is growing less rapidly than can
absorb the present flow of ill-qualified graduates of the primary education system.
Source: World Bank 2005
International Perspectives on Primary Education Challenges
It is telling to distil international experience in support to education services and their
capacity. Box 6 below summarises World Bank experience with investments in
primary education over the last 40 years. Key passages are italicised. There is
considerable overlap with some of the challenges and factors emerging above from
analyses of the education system in Ethiopia.
Box 6: Independent Evaluation Group Report on Primary Education Programmes
The IEG of the World Bank have just published their report: Primary Education: From Schooling
Access to Learning Outcomes, an Unfinished Agenda (World Bank 2006c) It assesses Bank support to
primary education internationally from the 1960s to the present, during which period it invested $14
billion. The sample frame for the review was 700 projects which contributed to primary education
(PE), 440 of which were originally within the education sector. 35 were examined in depth, along with
15 from other sectors with large PE components. It draws lessons for countries in efforts to enhance
knowledge and skills for poverty reduction through quality PE.
While expansion and improved access goals were most often reached, and the equity objective for girls
and the poor was also commonly attained, the main conclusion is that there should be more attention to
learning outcomes, and this is how the Fast Track Initiative should be re-focussed. ‘The remaining EFA
challenge is to ensure that all children particularly the disadvantaged acquire basic knowledge and
skills crucial for poverty reduction’.
In the project portfolio examined, only 20% had an explicit objective on learning outcomes (in the
majority of projects quality ‘proxies’ tended to be increasing inputs and better service delivery). But
where such an outcome objective was set, it tended to be achieved. Nearly half the field study
countries repeated measurement of outcomes: but the evidence pointed to pupils’ low mastery levels
compared to national norms. Overall few analytic studies focussed on learning outcomes: thus the
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evidence base on outcomes was often lacking. Here was too little local experimentation with learning
outcome – related measures, and their evaluation.
Lessons included: early acquisition of reading skills were crucial to learning outcomes; explicit
planning for better outcomes, backed up by strong political commitment, helped avoid the usual ‘tradeoff’ between improved access and learning gains; automatic promotion to increase completion rates
will not be reflected in improved knowledge and skills amongst the disadvantaged…indeed many of the
‘Big Bang’ approaches to improving access (double-shifting; abolition of fees) have negative impacts
on learning outcomes and are rarely sustainable.
Regarding WB efforts to enhance sector management ‘outcomes were below expectations’: only in
25% of cases were goals achieved. Particularly weak performance resulted from efforts to improve
central government management: planning, budgeting and M&E. However school-level management
and community participation were more successful in terms of infrastructure, but not necessarily
learning outcomes or teaching quality.
Lessons on the management issue included: better initial assessments are needed of the institutional
context; management incentives appear to be generally weak for qualitative improvements (i.e. it was
easier to chase quantitative targets than engage in the difficult but necessary re-distribution of teachers
or revising curricula). Teachers also lack performance incentives related to learning outcomes. Thus
accountability and supervision systems need to be adapted with more emphasis on learning outcomes.
Re-orientation of investment strategies along outcome-oriented lines and to reach the poorest raises
unit costs. More analytical work is needed on student learning, the effects of local constraints and the
factors or measures which encourage pupils’ learning.
Other conclusions are that efforts to enhance the abilities and effectiveness of head-teachers and
supervisors (i.e. basic ‘traditional’ accountability agents) were associated with better learning
outcomes. Raising the qualification-level of teachers, and providing incentives to their retention in
remote rural areas sometimes had perverse results (few suitably qualified persons made them selves
available; teachers prefer cash bonuses rather than improved housing provision). Recruitment of lesserqualified or unqualified local teachers is also fraught with difficulties: examples cited raised teachers’
concerns over their own job security and career development. The issue of attracting suitable
candidates for remote teaching service has rarely been tackled successfully.
Lessons Learned
The main lessons appear to be as follows:
1. There appear to be few examples of concerted policy discussion, learning, and
subsequent management action being taken on the basis of exhaustive analyses
which were intended to contribute to policy development. This conclusion is
more true at national level: there are some interesting examples of changes
being made at regional level on the basis of local analyses.46 The dearth of
national policy-makers’ attention to the findings of the Learning Assessments
and 2005 World Bank Education studies are examples of this.
2. It appears that there are few established regular forums where sector
professionals and other stakeholders can contribute and compare experience
ideas with a view to evolution of practical approaches to solution of sector and
generic delivery problems.47 The Girls’ Education case in Box 4 illustrates the
difficulty of getting major issues ‘onto the agenda’ at gatherings of
stakeholders. It appears that representatives from academia, the NGO sector
46
For example needs-based budgeting in SNNPR; legal formalisation of decentralisation in Tigray.
The National Education Conference could be such a forum, but the accounts of how it is conducted
indicate that it is more top-down policy direction-oriented than truly consultative.
47
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and private sector would appreciate more opportunities for dialogue with MoE
and REBs.
3. There are no media or regular occasions whereby positive regional
experiences and innovations can be routinely shared, in some depth. The
Ministry’s Public Relations Department does its best to circulate topical
stories in its periodic Bulletins but its resources are very limited, and the
articles are written inevitably from a MoE perspective, not that of managers or
teachers ‘at the coal face’.
4. This relative stagnation of policy development, and dearth of learning
opportunities appear to be factors which have contributed to a serious exodus
of professionals from the sector, particularly at federal Ministry level.
5. Strong policy research, advisory and secretarial support (including
study/document synthesis and summarised, cogent presentation of policy
options) are prerequisites to decisive follow-up of policy studies. The Planning
Department of the MoE is charged with this task, but is under-staffed and
overloaded.
6. It is difficult to draw firm conclusions as to the level of political will for
change and reform in the education sector. This appears to have varied over
time.
7. The role of the MCB (or RCBBs) in stimulating cross-sectoral or crossdisciplinary learning regarding capacity issues or organisational structure
factors has so far been limited. Instead, attention has been focussed on
attempting to get PSCAP ‘off the ground’.
Lessons from Capacity Development Activity more specifically
A considerable amount of ‘capacity building’ (usually meaning training, materials
development (including curricular), workshops, study tours, systems design and
installation and equipment procurement) has been undertaken as an element of the
ESDPs to date. A review was conducted of capacity building approaches to local
government development several years ago (DiP 2003).
The Woreda Capacity Building efforts of AED/BESO and the USAID sponsored MA
level distance education programs of Addis Ababa University, as well as the Teachers
Development Program (TDP) of the MoE financed by six bilateral agencies are very
popular. Of all the trainings, the ELIP, and the summer upgrading courses were
perceived useful and beneficial by the people we interviewed in the field. Mention
was also made of several seminars organized by the regional capacity building offices
and Federal Capacity Building Ministry especially in the areas of civil service reform.
Capacity-building - through training of staff - is a common theme in most of the
documents we reviewed, but clearly the personnel management system failed either to
motivate competent employees or to retain the required numbers of trained and skilled
personnel. The impact assessment made by USAID/BESO indicates that 70% of the
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trainees are retained. But we rarely found those trained personnel in their original
workplace during the field visit.
High rates of staff turnover were reported everywhere. However it appears that the
root causes of instability and staff turnover have never been seriously studied. During
our discussions respondents pointed out likely reasons as follows:












Lack of proper people-management, including interference with the
work of individuals (motivated by both administrative and other
factors)
Comments emerging from informal groups in the work place,
purposely undermining morale of targeted individuals.
Lack of empowered and stable institutional leadership
Inadequate remuneration (uncompetitive salary and fringe benefits)
Lack of proper housing, transfer opportunities, physical hardships and
low social status (these factors were mentioned by teachers especially
in remote rural areas)
Unfavorable working environment and (office space, equipment, and
poor incentive system etc)
Frequent restructuring creates tension and insecurity
Lack of merit-based competitive promotion, training and placement
Individuals’ frustrated needs for further education and growth
opportunities
High workload and strains thus created.
The work of a teacher is regarded simply in terms of actual class
periods taught, which is a narrow definition of the role of a teacher.
REBs and WEOs are faced with lack of institutional memory as the
result of the frequent turnover of staff, making follow-up work and
continuity difficult.
In general, the implication is that if such a trend continues unresolved, training will
not solve the capacity problem especially at woreda level. The main lessons emerging
from this capacity development experience include:
1.
Major systematic training programmes affecting or within the Education
Sector (such as DSA, BESO including WCBP, CGP and the multi-donor TDP)
are expensive; have tended to be effective in terms of skill-transfer to trainees
especially when backed up by simplified procedures and explanatory manuals,
and are difficult for established structures to emulate or implement in future
without substantial external financial and technical support.
2.
Previous training programmes – even the systematic ones - in the education
sector have all fallen victim to staff turnover amongst trainees or the officials
overseeing PTA training activity (in the case of CGP).48
48
The turnover problem is elaborated upon in Section 4 and is addressed in the suggested strategy
along with other measures to address related problems of loss of documentation, records, manuals – all
of which along with personnel are elements of ‘institutional memory’ of the structures this strategy is
attempting to support.
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3.
‘Systematic’ training means that they have:
 tended to put emphasis on trainees’ needs and working-context analysis
prior to training;
 recruited experienced (sometimes retired) nationals with sound knowledge
of realities trainees face as designers and trainer-tutors;
 matched these staff with high calibre international expertise (e.g. on
budget and accounting systems in the case of DSA);
 pre-tested materials ,systems or processes for workability;
 essentially introduced new systems: budget and accounting; education
planning; supervision, and
 geared the training to step-by-step introduction of these new systems via
modular training;
 spent time and money on preparing and then translating attractive wellwritten exercise- and participation-based materials, and on manuals to
guide trainees and colleagues on return to work;
 trained trainers from amongst the group of practitioners or regional offices
of the ultimate trainees’ sectors, thus building ‘ownership’ of the training
regionally;
 trained teams of trainees to enhance the probability that colleagues will be
able to reinforce each others’ work in their office environment (thereby
providing a team-work positive example to colleagues); possibly pass on
their training to colleagues (less self-consciously than individuals would
be), and guard against the loss of a ‘critical mass’ because of the usual
problems of staff turnover (but see below).
 monitored and in one case evaluated the impact of this activity;
 adjusted and added to subsequent course materials and content taking into
account comments from ex-trainees who had returned to work;
 (in the case of WCB) repeated training to some of the same Woreda offices
as originally reached, to new recruits, in order to restore capacities lost
when ex-trainees left the WEO or the public service.
 in retrospect, not made adequate attempts to brief and convince the bosses
of trainees as to the content and merits of their training, and persuaded
them that they should be given to practice their new skills, in supportive
circumstances.
4.
Impact evaluation is the exception rather than the rule. This applies to training
(only one impact study so far, on the Woreda Capacity Building Programme), and to
the bigger issue of learning outcomes from the education system (Assessments 2000,
2004 and planned in 2007). The Teachers Development Programme however
underwent a thorough Mid-Term Review earlier in the year.
5.
There are no immediate signs of the MoE being able to exercise its capacitybuilding role (in the first instance for REBs) in the foreseeable future, because of its
depleted professional staffing status (see Section 4 and profiles of its Departments in
Appendix F).
6.
There are grounds for more optimism as to future abilities of REBs – possibly
with assistance from RCBBs - to take forward Woreda capacity building work.
Consultations during the study indicate an interest in discharging their assigned
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responsibility in this regard. This appears to be driven by – amongst other factors –
growing feelings of accountability to a regional or local constituency, as well as
determination on the part of regional state leadership in certain cases to improve the
regional government’s performance and contribution to regional economic growth.49
7.
On the other hand, the experience of attempts at capacity – and change –
management at federal level50 indicate the problems of inculcating changed
orientation of a range of officials across a diverse group of Ministries and agencies,
without due regard to process and consensus-building factors. One example of
apparently successful changed practices, procedures and delivery performance (and
overall capacity) is the Ministry of Trade and Industry where:
 there was a will to change
 top management was intent on delivering service improvements though
procedural changes;
 external process-consultancy support was invited in to assist (especially with
performance management aspects);
 some change had started before the external (CSC consultant) support was
called in;
 where there was vocal public clamour for improvement (e.g. in business
licensing procedures).
8.
It is likely that the MoE will need external support in putting in place its new
organisational structure. It is not clear whether the conditions above which prevailed
in MCI will be reflected in the future post-reorganisation environment of MoE.
9.
There are indications (from our analysis of capacity issues) that much more
work-organisation-based ‘facilitatory’ capacity building will be needed in future.
There are many hostile (generic) organisational, people-management, communication,
roles-and-relationship, and ‘operational environment’ factors affecting the day-to-day
work of education staff at regional and particularly woreda levels. Graduates of offsite ‘training’ programmes (even if correctly targeted and designed) inevitably find it
49
The impressions we derived from consultations during the second phase of the study are that:
Councils and Councillors are widely seen as ‘rubber stamping’ bodies; they comprise popularly-elected
but inadequately empowered representatives of local communities their ability to play a meaningful
role, in relation to the executive Cabinet (made up of Heads of Bureaux) is limited; Council meetings
occur only quarterly; sector Standing Committees are rare; Cabinets meet more frequently; very little
support has been given to Councillors in the past by way of orientation or training; even in the one
(remaining) development project (UNCDF funded Pro-poor Decentralized Infrastructure and Service
Delivery Project) working with three woreda level governments in North Gonder Zone Amhara Region
no work has been done by the project team with the elected Councillors. One further limitation in
accountability and efficiency in inter-sectoral planning and implementation management is that local
government Department Heads are appointed (and have usually not technicians who have ‘come up
through the ranks’ of their respective sector or agency). They are the members of Cabinets at Regional
and Woreda levels. Any capacity building or consultations at Regional or Woreda levels should
therefore encompass more technical officers than the Heads of Education Bureaux and Offices (since
they are subject to the most frequent transfers and may well not be an educationist by background).
50
Top Management Programme, Ethics, and Performance Management components of the CSRP have
been dogged by limited commitment, limited consensus building or process consultation in an
environment where these concepts were alien. They were also seen by many as potentially threatening.
The readiness of a given organisation to change and take on board such new ‘people-management’
developments was neither assessed beforehand nor a condition of participation in the change
programmes (they were obligatory).
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difficult to relate their training to their office environment, let alone influence
positively working practices. They need intermittent support ‘on-site’.
10.
The ‘supply’ of such organisational facilitators is currently limited in Ethiopia,
(as already noted in an earlier study DiP 2003). Some initiatives in preparation of
facilitators are planned (e.g. in BEN and CRDA) but are as yet un-funded. The
Education Capacity Strategy should take the lead and include support to the
preparation (and field-testing in REBs and WEOs) of a group of facilitators. If
successful, this would produce a group, which could be called upon to support
Regional and Woreda capacity development.
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6.
A STRATEGY FOR EDUCATION CAPACITY DEVELOPMENT
We put forward below a draft strategy for addressing capacity issues in education in
Ethiopia. It is a deliberately long list of ‘candidate’ activities clustered under some
important strategic objectives. While we suggest some priorities (and who might do
what in those cases) in the tabulation at the end of this strategy, it is up to the
stakeholders of the sector to decide what makes most sense, and what is most
important. They are closer to the everyday action than we are. One of the by-words of
capacity development is ‘ownership’. In other words, unless whatever strategy
emerges from a dialogue process is ‘owned’ it will be destined to remain ‘on the
bookshelf, gathering dust’: an unfortunate fate shared by a number of earlier studies
of the sector. Therefore we recommend a stakeholder workshop is held as soon as
possible to discuss, amend and in its modified form ultimately to validate this draft
strategy.
Strategic Goal, Objectives and Activities, in the light of the foregoing
In view of the above survey of capacity issues, past experience of enhancing sector
and organisational capacity, apparent gaps, the following strategy framework is
proposed. The problem which is addressed by each possible element is described, as is
the approach or measure suggested, along with key assumptions on which it would be
based (with comments on their validity or mitigating factors if any). Issues which are
essentially generic are labelled as such. Strictly-speaking, these should be addressed
under cross-sectoral programmes such as PSCAP. Put bluntly, there appears to be few
prospects in the short term of this happening, for a variety of reasons. Therefore we
mention them here, and admit to suggesting some initiatives which ideally should be
launched in conjunction with other sectors, by PSCAP.
Strategic Goal, Objectives and Activities, in the light of the foregoing
Goal of the Strategy
To provide the framework of a process of transformation and strategy for building the
capacity of the education sector such that it is able to implement ESDP at all levels in
a holistic, coherent, participatory manner, in the medium term, reflecting resource
constraints and meeting agreed quality standards.
Strategic Objectives
1: Working environment made more conducive to improved performance and
education service delivery by addressing capacity-destroying issues, practices and
phenomena
2: Improved co-ordination, communication and mutual learning structures and
modalities, within the education sector and between it and other key stakeholders, for
better resource management, informed decisions and stakeholder engagement.
3: Strengthened institutional, organisational and individual capacities, in areas
particularly crucial to delivery of ESDP III
4: Empowered Regional and local structures and improved ownership and
management of local capacity strategies in education
5. TVET institutions (public and private) responding to labour market needs and
providing on a sustainable basis, qualified and competent skilled manpower in
accordance with occupational standards.
6. Autonomously and effectively managed Higher Education Institutions which
produce graduates meeting quantitative and qualitative socio-economic needs of the
country for high-level manpower.
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Strategic Objective 1: Working environment made more conducive to improved
performance and education service delivery by addressing capacity-destroying
issues, practices and phenomena
Rationale: There is little point attempting to build capacity – always an expensive and
difficult process in itself – if it is being simultaneously destroyed or diminished by
practices which are not generally recognised as tractable, or never addressed (because
it is not politically attractive or deemed too risky to be worthwhile). We identify the
following practices, which diminish capacity, and approaches to addressing them.
While it is not realistic – ironically for reasons of limited capacity - to approach them
all, we suggest at least some are taken forward as a matter of urgency in the education
capacity strategy.
Activities:
Collect evidence of the costs and reasons for staff transfers for policy dialogue
purposes
Problem (generic): Apparently random, frequent, sometimes politically-motivated
transfer of professional staff has reached epidemic proportions in some regions; it is
deeply damaging in its effects on capacity. Evidence is usually anecdotal. The
phenomenon is mentioned by development partners, and noted by GoE during policy
dialogue, but remedial measures have not yet been taken.
Possible Strategy Measure Collect evidence of the extent, frequency, causes, regional
variations in both, and measures taken to counteract transfers of key staff. Undertake
objective study to estimate magnitudes, effects, underlying reasons, and costs which
are incurred because of this practice. This evidence would need to be publicised, and
presented in dialogue meetings (including with EPRDF). Discussion of possible
changes, and preparation of an action plan for the future.
Key Assumptions Include that policy analysis and evidence are taken on board by
policy makers. On past experience, this is questionable. The major World Bank
education policy study of early 2005 was almost ignored (at least, there are little
indications of any policy changes having been made since its completion). The most
recent ARM indicated policy maker reluctance to address re-prioritisation of ESDP
targets despite evidence of a major financing gap.
However, the study is proposed as a contribution to gathering of evidence to fuel
policy debate. This may be more feasible if the proposed activities in Strategic
Objective 2 are pursued.
Address other aspects of Staff Turnover: mainly people-management practices.
Problem (i) (generic): Attrition of staff from service: generic problem in civil service:
seems to have been aggravated by protracted and non-transparent MoE reorganisation and ‘atmosphere’ factors; plus a variety of other reasons at regional and
woreda levels (including ‘brain-drain’ due to pay gap with private and NGO sectors).
Possible Strategy Measures: Financial inducements (except possibly remoteness
allowances) are not feasible because of civil service-wide standardisation of
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remuneration structures. However, there is an urgent need to understand and address
underlying dissatisfaction – amongst teachers and education sector staff. Possible
strategies include a survey of attitudes and opinion; more caring people-management
practice; dialogue with key representative groups (including the Teachers’
Associations); enhancement of the content, and of approaches used, in management
training for School Directors; review performance appraisal criteria and the
approaches used currently in assessing teachers’ performance; provide more
recognition in the form of awards, and exchanges. These possibilities are elaborated
under Strategic Objective 3 below.
Assumptions: (i) That these types of measures will have some sort of impact in the
short term. They depend on the co-operation and capacities of a range of players
(especially those involved in training Directors), and therefore (ii) assume firm
leadership on the part of a determined client agency (in this case the MoE). This has
not been evident so far: it depends on which Departments under the new structure are
assigned to take the lead in this crucial field. We discuss below the ‘ownership’
question of the strategy. The resultant ‘answer’ is the department which should be
given responsibility for ensuring that this activity-stream is realised.
Problem (ii) (Generic): When staff move on, they are not generally obliged to fulfil
any ‘handover’ procedure or respect norms relating to office records or documents:
this compounds the capacity ‘destruction’ and diminishes institutional memory. It has
unfortunately become the norm for key documents (including all those received by
participants of courses, who are transferred subsequently) to be removed by staff
members transferred.
Possible Strategy Measure: Introduce some international experience of handover
procedures and record keeping (including secure document storage and recording in
inventories). This is also potentially a major issue useful in consolidating
organisational capacity of REBs and WEOs. However this is a ‘generic’ issue, and
raises (again) the question of the feasibility and desirability of moving ahead in the
education sector alone. The DLDP component of PSCAP should be at least consulted,
and if possible involved in any initiative along these lines.
Assumptions: That (i) this subject is not to be subject to DLDP/PSCAP initiatives in
the near future; (ii) sufficient interest can be generated in adopting more rigorous
record-keeping and handover procedures, after years of neglect and the emergence
correspondingly of a fatalist attitude.
Review ESDP Targets and Financing Formulae (based on field evidence of
chronic under-funding and of pressure on community contributions)
Problem (specific): Several major studies of the progress of decentralisation51, and
comments from authoritative respondents indicate that in many regions quantitative
national targets are ‘cascaded’ down from the centre, disaggregated and reflected in
regional and woreda targets. National targets are not usually built up from woreda and
regional government estimates of what is realistically achievable.52 Furthermore, there
51
See especially Dom/Mussa (2006b) study on Amhara.
The Tigray decentralisation report did however depict a more pragmatic ‘mixed’ approach: see
Dom/Mussa (2006a).
52
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is evidence that excessive ‘cascaded’ quantitative targets for ESDPIII are negatively
affecting the broader dimensions of ‘capacity’ illustrated in the ECDPM study, as well
as the more commonly-acknowledged negative impact on educational quality. (See
Box 7 below for summary of how this process of target-setting risks damaging
broader-definition capacities).
Box 7: Possible Impact of Unrealistic top-down targets on Education System Capacity
There is real danger to the growth of sustainable system/sector capacity, from the top-down
imposition of short-term quantitative performance targets, particularly if they do not take account
of the short-term immutability of key input resource constraints and far exceed current capabilities
to ‘perform’ and to deliver adequate service quality. This appears to be the current position in most
of the regions’ education systems. The current approach to quantitative target-setting is - from the
perspective above - an underlying threat to growth of sustainable system capacity.
The threat to gradual capacity growth arise from the negative effects of pressure to achieve
unrealistic performance targets on not only the over-riding goal (educational quality) but also to
other crucial elements of capacity: sensitive management and leadership practices and the worksatisfaction and morale of staff (reportedly currently low, and reflected in high turnover and
vacancy rates).
There are few opportunities of officials, teachers and communities to learn from their experience
and to relate coherently to colleagues in other functions and at different levels of the system, and to
parents and communities. Studies repeatedly comment on absence of participative reflection and
evaluation of qualitative progress.
There are threats too that legitimacy of the system will be undermined (in that parents may become
disillusioned with the poor quality of education received by their children especially when
compared to the heavy costs they undoubtedly face in terms of community contributions).
Patterns of accountability may become inadvertently reversed in that pressures to perform keep
officials’ attention focussed on satisfying targets set by their superiors, instead of focussing on
pupils’ education. Indeed, vital ‘downwards’ accountability appears weak in part because KETBs
and PTAs where they exist appear more concerned with encouraging school attendance and
pressuring contributions than constructive debate on the quality of education being provided.
Sources: Mission observations in field visits, and personal correspondence with Catherine Dom
and Mohammed Mussa
Possible Strategy Measure: Review consultatively - in ARM 2007? - the emerging
effects of trying to achieve these targets at regional and woreda levels, AND the
manner in which targets are arrived at. Ultimately this would need collection of
evidence to frame a high level political decision on dilution of MDG/EFA goals as
basis for policy.
Assumptions: (i) that this issue is one which is politically acceptable even to raise for
discussion; (ii) that enough officials at various levels would be willing to ‘go on the
record’ and declare how current targets are affecting quality and (iii) the ‘capacities’
mentioned above are deemed sufficiently important for their preservation or
enhancement to be worth considering.
Reduce Waste and Inefficiency at all levels:
There are several complementary options, including:
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Explore and establish mechanisms for providing more technical support to
community-financed construction to increase durability and design of structures. This
would avoid the current tendency – widely observed on field trips during the study –
for huge amounts of community effort and contribution to be wasted on shoddy, illdesigned, ill-constructed buildings with a very short life span. This type of initiative
could best be approached on a pilot (regional) basis. It could be amenable to a VSOtype temporary attachment, and should be closely monitored for later replication.
Study innovative approaches (international and Ethiopian) for reducing costs of
education delivery at school level. JRMs repeatedly stress the importance of lower
costs of delivery, as did the 2005 World Bank Education Study. The latest World
Bank IEG Report (see Box page x) notes several interesting approaches to reducing
costs of delivery at local level. Several ongoing programmes feature similar attempts.
This experience should be distilled as a matter of urgency and the experiences
discussed at the next ARM.
Rationalise text-book standards, formulation, procurement production and
distribution (as part of the planned EC-supported TA inputs in MoE?)
Analyse and rationalise teacher distribution (probably most effective via a national
study). The IEG study (see Box 6 above) notes this as a strategically important
measure in any cost-effectiveness review of the sector. The major World Bank
Ethiopia Education study (World Bank 2005) lays particular stress on the need to
rationalise on the use of what are – in international comparative terms – a very
expensive educational resource in Ethiopia.
Assumptions: (i) that efforts to reduce waste arouse sufficient interest amongst policymakers to be pursued (BUT is not easy or politically attractive or rewarding to pursue
these types of options, especially in view of the lack of incentives for doing so:
identified as a major blockage in the IEG study); (ii) that the management of the
implementation of the strategy is sufficiently developed to drive forward and monitor
several different initiatives simultaneously; and (iii) that innovative participative
monitoring techniques are introduced to bring to light impact ‘as it happens’
(otherwise there is a danger that results are so diffuse the political momentum behind
such initiatives evaporates).
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Strategic Objective 2: Improved co-ordination, communication and mutual learning
structures and modalities, within the education sector and between it and other key
stakeholders, for better resource management, informed decisions and stakeholder
engagement.
Rationale: The manner in which a system inter-relates within itself, with other
national systems and sectors, and with development partners, goes to the heart of the
capacities which are identified as crucial to its survival and successful growth in the
ECDPM capacity study. We have been struck by the number of stakeholders who
have commented (negatively) on the dearth or ineffectiveness of current
communication, information- and experience-sharing and co-ordination structures and
practices within the education sector, at all levels. Without major improvements in
these functions, it is unrealistic to expect improvements in overall system capacity and
sustainability.
Possible Activities:
Enhance Dialogue and Learning in Annual Education Conferences and other
Forums
This is already being addressed: the proceedings of the 2006 ARM are clearer, and
more concise than their equivalent in 2005; they describe and report on more
group-work and presentation activities; the JRM exercise 2005 was more inclusive
of Ethiopian expertise and language groups than ever before.
It is more important than ever, given the speed of growth of the sector, and
therefore of the importance of the role of different players within it, for future
gatherings to be more inclusive of players from the private sector, NGOs,
academia, mass media and the press. Efforts should be made to identify best
practice at school, PTA, KETB and woreda levels, and the individuals who are
responsible invited along and given the ‘space’ (in terms of time during
proceedings, or at least exhibition space (and help in assembling displays) to
present their experiences. Not only would this add to the quality of proceedings
(infusions of reality are always refreshing), but they would confer some degree of
recognition on those responsible: which addresses the elusive ‘people
management’ and motivation problem which appears to pervade the sector
particularly at the lower levels.
It is also important to ‘democratise’ the process of selecting agenda items. The
Oromia Girls Education Case Study (Box 4) illustrates how key issues appear to
fall off agendas. How this should be done should be discussed in the AEC, and /
or ARM! From our analysis in contextual sections of the present study there
appears to be a strong case already for informed53 discussion of at least the
following:
 The National Policy on Education and Training
‘Informed’ implies some sort of special study preceding it, circulated before to all stakeholders, with
key issues identified beforehand, and the opportunity for resource persons to lead discussion when the
topic comes up. MoE representatives should be obliged not necessarily to respond immediately, but to
give a full and considered response by an agreed date thereafter, with their decisions, and reasons for
rejecting any recommendations made in the preliminary studies or discussion.
53
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

The Role of the Private Sector in Education: particularly at secondary
TVET, and Higher Education levels
The Plight of Secondary Education: symptoms, causes, solutions,
resource implications.
Rejuvenate ESDP Steering Committees
From the comments we have heard, these are dysfunctional at all levels. More
disturbingly, their absence is bemoaned more often by development partners in
JRMs and the ARM than GoE stakeholders.54 Yet all the evidence indicates that
important gaps are appearing in inter-sectoral co-ordination at federal and regional
levels (particularly with finance and planning, but also with health and
water/sanitation sectors). There is little hope of stimulating regional or woreda
equivalents if the federal SC is moribund. Ultimate initiative rests with the
Minister with assistance from the new Director of Planning. They should raise for
discussion – in the first instance in the weekly MoE HoDs meeting, and the next
monthly meeting with donors – prospective high priority agenda items for federal
agencies’ consideration. Brief discussion papers should be drafted in the first
instance by MoE or donor partner staff, which draw attention to issues where
more cross-sectoral agreement is needed. These would help focus attention of
other Ministerial colleagues and improve the likelihood of Ministers and senior
officials actually appearing (and not sending junior staff as has been the case in
the past) if a meeting was called. Informal dialogue with the PMO would help
focus other Ministers’ attention on these issues.
Thereafter, the Minister would be in a better position to communicate to Regional
Cabinets the importance of re-instating these meetings periodically. REBs should
be provided by MoE with more information, policy analysis documentation, and
syntheses of key reports with which they can supply background papers to sector
bureaux colleagues.
Strengthen the Professional and Public Information function and professional
networks on Education policy matters, ESDP itself, and professional achievements
(focussed on MoE PR Department and EMA)
The PR and External relations Department of the MoE is currently underresourced and under-staffed (see relevant subsection of Appendix F), but there are
indications that within government the importance of this function is at long last
being recognised.
It is not appropriate or possible to prescribe in detail a capacity strengthening plan
to support the Department in future. Much depends on what it is tasked and
resourced to do, under the new structure (and we have not yet seen the mandates
for departments). However, from the discussions we have had during the strategy
study, it is clear that there is enormous potential for more regular, widelydistributed and -available lively information and features material on education
matters at all levels of the system….both in print and on TV (plasma or domestic)
and radio.
54
Indeed, we understand that several REB Heads do not see the point of Regional Steering
Committees.
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The EMA already has plans for more current affairs coverage (but will need
resources and help to take these plans forward). Nonetheless it represents a hugely
valuable resource which is not currently used to its full potential.
Once the PRERD is staffed, it would be appropriate to attach an experienced
specialist in public relations and communication strategies to it, to work with its
staff on development of options for the future improvement of publications, use of
alternative media (in collaboration with EMA), and expansion of MoE outreach
amongst the teaching profession and related networks. A firm funding proposal –
suitable for appraisal by development partners – would be one of the outputs of
this attachment. Examples of multi-media productions include: ‘distance-learning’
programmes for reaching KETB and PTA members, which might involve:
o adaptation of folk tales (cartoon or drama formats)?
o lively radio shows (soap operas?);
o video/TV case studies (‘A Month in the Life…’)…which could also be
used for Planner and Management Training…all via EMA
There would also appear to be scope for imaginative approaches to encourage
teacher recruitment, and to redressing the unfavourable image of teachers, for
example by combining international professional PR/advertising expertise with
Ethiopian PR professionals in designing and running an advertising campaign to
attract better candidates to education (based on some interesting experience
elsewhere), and providing a subsidy to airing such adverts on ETV.55
Enhance the number, value, and publicity surrounding awards and prizes in
recognition for extraordinary effort or quality work (already pursued but not
necessarily consistently e.g. in Tigray)…and publicise as in 3 above.
From our discussions, it appears that these types of awards add real value to
existing performance appraisal practices, and motivate teachers positively. There
are variants in most regions. Thought should be given to how the MoE can
provide resources and ideas to regions in putting existing schemes on a firmer
footing professionally, and to improving their publicity, diversity and regularity.
This could be part of the ToRs for the attachment to PRERD mentioned above.
Expand number of exchanges, 'twinnings' and visits made between regions and
woredas.
We have also been impressed by the practice of arranging exchanges between
woredas (usually in the same region) to publicise or explain good practice, and
permit stakeholders to meet peers in another area. These exchanges provide
excellent potential ‘copy’ for feature stories, and provide an all-too-rare source of
professional and peer recognition for innovative efforts. The PRERD attachment
should also take this type of practice on board, and make proposals for ‘spreading
the word’ on exchanges and twinnings, regionally, nationally and even
internationally.
55
In UK, this was done by using well-known successful characters reflecting on the importance of their
teacher(s) in their childhoods.
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Conduct impact assessments and disseminate results and lessons from evaluations:
using School Directors’ and Supervisors’ training as a case study?
We have only encountered one impact evaluation of capacity building in
education (of the WCB programme, done in 2005). The Decentralisation Support
Activity has apparently been reviewed (but the report is not yet available). It is
striking how little information and reflection about the results - and their
significance - of the numerous capacity building initiatives in the Ethiopian public
service is available. The MCB is mandated to undertake evaluations but appears to
have other priorities – i.e. getting PSCAP off the ground – at present.
In view of the fact that international experience points to the importance of the
performance of head-teachers and school supervisors as determinants of the
performance of schools, the training and the professional development
programmes provided for School Directors and Supervisors appear to be high
priorities for evaluation and impact assessment. There are numerous programmes
emerging: based in regional universities. However, it is by no means clear that all
these centres have the necessary competence, expertise, experience and credibility
to pursue such crucial cadres’ training of equal quality. The proposed evaluation
should review training centres’ candidate selection criteria (and practices: with
evidence from field cases); current approaches to training including curricula and
capacities of training centres (and the process and criteria for their accreditation);
the feasibility of rejuvenating an Association of Education Administrators
(mooted some years ago); and the existence or potential significance of
professional codes of conduct as a means of ensuring professional discipline.
Learning from experience is an important characteristic of education system
capacity, and it will be important to base this capacity strategy on regular
assessments of progress in future. It is recommended that innovative participative
approaches to capacity building evaluation are considered, and that a pilot project
is launched (probably best in one region initially), to introduce techniques such as
Most Significant Change (MSC) into routine planning and progress monitoring
cycles of the ESDP III.56 The above Director and Supervisor training programmes
lend themselves to participative continuous monitoring in future using such
techniques such as MSC.
Review health, water and sanitation, and agriculture sectors contributions to
education infrastructure and curricula: issues and mechanisms (including planning)
A recent study assessed the contribution of the education to PASDEP, and in the
process identified some of the inconsistencies between the latter and ESDP III in
terms of their financial ‘envelopes’ (Hough 2006). There also appears to be scope
for a study of how regional and woreda planning routines and processes take into
account the inter-relationships and potential contributions of health, water and
sanitation, public works, and agriculture development programmes to the
development of schools and education curricula.
The majority of schools in most regions (and almost all the schools we visited)
have no or inadequate access to water. Given the increasing average size of
56
See Watson (2006) available from the ECDPM website www.ecdpm/dcc/capacitystudy. It appends
descriptions of the characteristics and respective advantages and applications of several such
techniques.
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schools, this is a serious threat not only to the health of children and teaching staff,
the situation also represents a missed opportunity for incorporation of teaching of
water-handling as part of school curricula. Similarly, there appear to be numerous
opportunities for better integration of health and agriculture examples or practices
in teaching – particularly practical teaching – in schools. PTAs sorely need the
sort of technical advice which public works departments could provide in building
inexpensive but durable school structures. In consideration of annual education
programmes in regions’ (or woredas’) annual planning routines, we did not hear of
any efforts to ensure that substantive spatial inter-relationships between the
various sector programmes would be reflected in programme elements or funding.
A brief study could also formulate guidelines for regions and woredas on how
these inter-relationships can and should be considered in future inter-sectoral
planning.
Strategic Objective 3: Strengthened institutional, organisational and individual
capacities, in areas particularly crucial to delivery of ESDP III
Rationale: There is a range of identified capacity deficiencies emerging from the
present study. While the study was too short and geographically limited to produce a
definitive listing, we identify some of the most significant below. We suggest how
they might be tackled as one category of activity in the capacity development strategy.
Once again, the issue of priorities and chronology is best left to the stakeholder
workshop which we suggest should validate this draft strategy.
Possible Activities
3.1 MoE Organisational Development 57
We did not find many officials (elected or expert) who knew much about, or were
enthusiastic about, the new organisational structure for the Ministry and
corresponding assignment of Departmental mandates. Although there are some
standard gatherings which provide opportunities for inter-departmental interaction
(e.g. the Monday morning meetings) all previous studies point to the existence of
a ‘silo’ culture, where there is too little substantive inter-relationship between
Departments and functions, and where common services are unresponsive and
cumbersome. In these circumstances, and in conditions where there are shortages
of expert staff, it will not be easy to operationalise the new arrangements.
We therefore suggest that intermittent long-term organisational development (OD)
consultant support is provided – by CSC or EMI for example – to MoE to work
interactively with a range of departments to encourage substantive dialogue,
rationalisation of routines and procedures, and to explore imaginative peoplemanagement practices which could be introduced.
It would be important for the role and nature of any such assistance to be
negotiated and discussed with MoE Ministers and department heads. The external
consultant personnel should ideally be the same individuals for considerable
57
This assumes that sufficient organisational development process consultants could be found to move
ahead with MoE. There are several initiatives – at an early stage – for producing more OD facilitators .
The education capacity strategy could also usefully support such ongoing initiatives in strengthening
Ethiopian facilitation capacities: in CRDA, and the experiment backed by DFID in SNNPR.
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periods, available on an intermittent ‘call-down’ arrangements (i.e. available when
called or invited for particular assignments). In this way, mutual familiarity would
be built up: this is the key to successful OD practice.
3.2 Planning Department MoE ..complementary inputs to planned Technical
Assistance from the EC
Once the proposed TA adviser is in place, it may well become clear that s/he
could be usefully complemented by additional specialised inputs. Provision should
be made in the strategy for such inputs. It is striking how many policy studies
have been undertaken over the years, yet their findings appear only to have been
considered briefly as they ended, and never re-visited in the light of subsequent
events or changed circumstances. An important task of the TA input will be to
inventorise documentation from earlier studies, and to distil the implications and
policy options from such policy studies. It will also be important to plan for how
the results of major planned studies (including the next Educational Attainment
Assessment planned for 2007) are analysed, debated in an inclusive fashion, and
their results well-publicised. In the light of the findings of the present study on the
significance of textbooks (Box 2) these comments and suggestions apply too to
the textbook specialist TA to be assigned to ICDR.
3.3 Support to (new) HR Department in MoE
Past appraisals of TA support to MoE have assumed that the Planning department
will be the most strategic location for any externally-supported technical advisory
inputs (including in the sphere of capacity building). It remains to be seen whether
the new Human Resources department will emerge as worthy of technical support.
Its mandate is promising – certainly as it addresses the important HR management
functions of the Ministry which have been sadly neglected over the past few years,
with severe results in terms of depletion of key staff. Unfortunately it has only
been allocated three HR experts under the new structure, so may never be in a
position to be handle capacity building co-ordination for the sector.
Provision should be made within the strategy for (as yet undefined) supplemental
technical support to the HR department if it emerges as playing a key role, and
one which merits external assistance.
3.4 Selective support to strengthen project management function (Planning and
Higher Education Departments especially…ie. where current bottlenecks appear
to be the worst)
We have learned that programmes with a value of over $40 million are delayed –
and have been delayed for years – for want of staff with requisite project
management expertise in certain key Departments (Planning and Higher
Education being amongst the most burdened, and constrained, in this field).
Consistent with item (3.2) above, the project management field is one where
special input (in the form of short term TA and or training or coaching) is urgently
needed. It remains to be seen whether the planned TA ex EC will be adequate for
this purpose.
This subject is ‘flagged’ for consideration as part of the strategy, as a separate
item, or in conjunction with other elements above.
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3.5 EMIS institutionalisation: Ministry’s Department AND programme of
enhancement of REB and WEO capacities to analyse and use data for planning
and projections
There are worrying indications that not only the resources needed in MoE to
maintain and operate the EMIS have been underestimated, but that the
supplemental guidance needed by regional and woreda staff to enable them to use
the (hopefully improved) data emerging from EMIS is not yet ‘ on stream’.
There appears to be an urgent need to re-assess the staffing profile of the EMIS
Department in the MoE, but also to take steps – with collaboration between the
UNESCO technical advisers in Addis and the BESO capacity building team to
assess the future needs of, and possible capacity building approaches for, regional
and woreda planners to enable them to use the newly-available data from the
restructured EMIS.
3.6 Measures for taking forward and making sustainable existing major CB
programmes (for Woreda teams in planning and management of education; for
KETBs and PTAs)
The BESO team have begun to discuss with MoE arrangements for the sustained
pursuit of the capacity building activities they have launched. It is difficult to see
how MoE will have the financial or technical capacity to do this without external
assistance in the foreseeable future.
Provision should be made within the strategy for continued assistance to permit at
least versions of the current programmes to be continued. If strategy elements
related to utilisation of EMA and mass communication media come to fruition,
less reliance might be put on expensive face-to-face approaches in future.
Similarly, if measures are taken to address the current haemorrhage of skilled staff
after the study proposed above (see item 1.1), it should become less expensive to
maintain critical numbers of suitably trained staff at woreda level. If regional
‘empowerment’ is pursued (as in the next strategy goal), there is the prospect of
more regional government demand-led training in future.
The Ministry’s absorptive capacity for gradual take-over of functions from
external assistance is as limited now as it was when these programmes started.
Indeed some have argued that the salaries routinely paid by such projects to their
staff perpetuate Ministerial dependency, since key staff are inevitably ‘poached’
by externally-assisted projects. Nevertheless, the investment in materials and
trained trainers at regional level made over the last few years by these
programmes should not be allowed to depreciate. External assistance is
unfortunately still as necessary now as it was when the programmes started.
3.7 In-depth study of community contribution ‘capacity gap’: based on larger sample
of randomly-selected woredas than Mussa Study 2005
Our visits to schools confirm not only the significance of community
contributions (a finding of the Mussa study of 2005) but indicate near-exhaustion
of community capacities faced with pressures not only from the education sector,
but others (including health) for more community contributions. There are real
dangers – political, social as well as financial – if the relentless pressure is not
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reduced. The future foundation of the standard policy of ever-increasing resort to
community contributions – essentially gap-filling between the government
allocation for service infrastructure and what is actually needed – is not better
understood.
The Mussa study only encompassed six woredas in three regions. The author
freely acknowledged its limitations both in terms of scope and in terms of the
probable bias (in that the team was probably directed towards relatively
favourable examples). The conclusion that there was no evidence of compulsion
was sound – but potentially misleading because of the limited sample frame.
It is recommended that another study is undertaken which:
 Samples a greater number of woredas in more regions;
 Selects woredas on a random basis;
 Measures and compares the nature and extent of contributions to all
development sectors;
 Draws conclusions for policy and practice
 Is disseminated and discussed amongst all sector ministries and a selection of
stakeholders in ESDP III.
3.8 Establishing consultatively standards for Teacher Performance Appraisal oriented
to education quality and behavioural factors.
Currently, teachers are appraised along ‘standard’ lines, according to criteria laid
down for all grades and types of staff. Directors and Supervisors are not given any
specialised guidance in how to carry out this function. It became apparent that
certain behaviours of teachers can add considerable qualitative value to the
standard of education services provided by schools: for example in one school we
visited teachers were routinely encouraged to meet all the parents of the children
in their classes monthly. This is not standard practice. It exemplifies a criterion
‘extent to liaison with pupils’ parents’ which could become an element of
performance appraisal, which would encourage constructive behaviour by
teachers.
It is suggested that teacher performance appraisal criteria and performance
evaluation interview practice become key elements of the future training of school
directors and supervisors, and that specialised assistance is recruited to ensure that
these elements become institutionalised in such training as soon as possible.
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Strategic Objective 4: Empowered Regional and local structures and improved
ownership and management of local capacity strategies in education
Rationale
All studies of successful capacity development point to it being an essentially
internally-driven process: one which is owned and adapted by the very organisations
and individuals whose capacities are in question. Inevitably, given the constraints
hitherto on capacity-for-capacity building and the limited awareness of capacity
concepts amongst education sector stakeholders, most capacity-oriented interventions
have been initiated and driven by the centre: including and especially the BESO
‘family’ of projects. We found it refreshing however to find that there was growing
awareness of the importance of some of the subtler aspects of ‘capacity’: the ability to
communicate openly and regularly with peers and other levels of government, or to
reflect periodically on what has been achieved and learned. Given the diversity of
conditions and priorities at regional level in Ethiopia it appeared important – as an
element in any capacity strategy – to permit and facilitate experimentally capacity
initiatives in education at regional level … and to see what happens, with a view to
scaling up and/or making changes before spreading similar practice elsewhere.
Therefore a two-step approach is recommended to achieve the above strategic
objective:
Activities:
4.1 Provide orientation and guidelines to REBs (including representatives from
RCBBs) in the meaning of education ‘capacity’: its various dimensions and
inter-dependencies.
This could be achieved by conducting seminars at regional level, based on
regional and national best practice, which attempt to distil positive concrete
capacity building experiences (as has been attempted in Section 5 of the present
strategy). Thereafter two options could be pursued: either
4.2(a)
Establish on a pilot basis an Education Capacity Development Fund at
Regional level58 where a progressive REB in consultation with WEOs and other
Stakeholders could launch activities such as:
o studies of sectoral / spatial inter-relationships with education
developments (for planning purposes);
o efficiency studies;
o translations and attractive publication of key education policies or
guidelines (e.g. forthcoming new ‘Blue Book’);
o establishing interactive feedback workshops where the opportunity
is given to KETBs PTAs and School Directors so they can feedback realities faced at local level towards woreda and regional
policy-makers;
o exchanges, twinnings, visits and other approaches to stimulating
learning and recognition about 'what works'
o establishing forums for government/non-government and private
sector organisation interaction on education;
58
On the basis of our visits, it would appear that SNNPR would be best placed to take advantage of
such a pilot fund arrangement in the near future.
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o providing resources for education – related research by regional
academic institutions
o replicating successful training formerly provided through federal
support (e.g. the WCB programme)
or 4.2 (b) invite competitive 'bids' from regions in respect of such additional
funding, containing proposed budgeted activities to be considered by a central
adjudication panel.
Possible Objections to the Notion of an Education Capacity Fund:
There are several potential objections to proposals such as the above:
 An education – sector – specific fund complicates or undermines current (unearmarked) funding formulae at regional level;
 Why specifically target education sector capacities? Wouldn’t it be better to
support capacity building across all sectors….at least all those deemed particularly
relevant in poverty reduction in the PBS programme of grants? PSCAP notionally
meets this requirement, but its procurement procedures appear to be too
cumbersome to permit innovative small-scale initiatives to get off the ground
quickly.
These objections are significant but the arguments for an education-specific
arrangement are that:
 It would be simpler to establish such a fund for one sector instead of all;
 It would generate valuable experience in an unfamiliar field quickly;
 It would allow something to happen: which is encouraging and motivating in its
own right, but also thereby providing a useful learning experience (as long as any
funded initiatives were closely monitored).
4.3
Feasibility Study of School Block Grants covering ALL Expenditure
International experience indicates that delegation of spending authority to the lowest
possible level of management (while taking into account capacity constraints),
combined with public information on budgets and responsibilities for expenditure
control, tends to provide the most auspicious environment for accountability and
responsiveness. In discussing how the capacity strategy could reflect this finding, we
were impressed by the number of interviewees who advocated school block grants for
all expenditures. While this formula has its drawbacks (particularly in view of the
currently uneven capacities of school directors and similarly unreliable standards of
training), and major implications (it would mean that teachers would have to be
employed at least with the authority of head-teachers and/or PTAs, if not directly by
them), the formula has definite merits.
We therefore recommend a feasibility study of this proposition.
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Strategic Objective 5: Autonomous TVET institutions (public and private)
responding to labour market needs and providing on a sustainable basis, qualified
and competent skilled manpower in accordance with occupational standards.
Activities
We propose the following activities for taking forward the proposed TVET-capacity
development strategy, in light of past achievements and challenges:
5.1
Develop a Transition Strategy While acknowledging the fact that major works
have been done, a transitional arrangement is an absolute necessity (to move from the
current reality to the desired end state, the how is already in place, the draft strategy).
Technical advice from a senior figure in German TVET development will be
introduced in early 2007 to help MoE and other stakeholders forge a Transition
Strategy.
5.2
Conduct a “retrospective baseline” study to see where public TVET went
wrong, to determine its current status and provide strategic direction for TVET in
future. There is also a need to monitor and formally review progress and outcomes of
the TVET with the adoption and implementation of recommendations based the
outcome of evaluations. Internal monitoring by the MoE, REBs, ideally every three to
six months, as well as independent external reviews midway through the next funding
cycle, and again at the end, are required to measure the TVET achievement of planned
results and to identify the impact of the TVET programs in regional states.
5.3
Making TVET institutions autonomous is seen as essential by all stakeholders
consulted during the study. An innovative proposal on this issue has been developed
by the Ethio- German technical team which could serve as a model. In addition, the
TVET strategy must produce optimum results within the potential funding within the
sector. Diversification of its sources of funding must be top among the priorities, to
overcome overdependence on meager government budget. This could be done by
developing a joint funding strategy for generating internal as well as attracting
external funding. Fair and regulated financing mechanisms that encourage incomegenerating activities and freedom of utilization would take the TVET sub-sector one
step ahead in its internal management functions. Better co-ordination, networking and
integration of the various support mechanisms is needed for synergy and
harmonization of efforts to minimize wastage and inefficiency in overlapping zones
and use of resources. Above all, more responsibility should be given to TVETs in
industry relations, the collection of data, the analysis of the local market and decision
making, in order to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of TVETs. Establishing
skill development and innovation funds should be aimed at continuing education
particularly for girls and those with special needs. It could also be used to finance
studies/pilot innovative development activities at micro levels. Reinforcement of the
management of the TVET systems also necessitates a better coordination of donor
support.
5.4
Consolidation of apprenticeships and establishing a synergy between the
various support mechanisms for TVET. The profile of TVET as observed by the study
team reveals similar situations regarding the place of TVET in the education system,
with regard to operational autonomy and its relations with the world of work. It is
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necessary to make these systems evolve to strengthen linkages between training,
industry and employment. This needs highly targeted support to take it off the ground.
Advocacy, process re-engineering, and concern for total quality management could
serve this purpose. TVET systems in Ethiopia currently ignore the informal and nonformal sectors, especially the artisans’ micro-enterprises. There is a need to take into
account the traditional apprenticeship - in spite of the importance of this sector for the
economy, as well as for self-employment - and the need to improve it.
5.5
Adoption of an holistic approach to TVET development: strengthening
capacities of sector ministries, private training institutions, employers and
professional associations The implementation of an efficient partnership needs to
include reinforcement of the capacity of stakeholders especially the private sector.
This should enable them to conduct surveys amongst their members from which they
might be able to draw conclusions for useful proposals for the improvement of the
TVET system. (to define curriculum, solicit information about labor market,
employment opportunities and trends, qualifications and training needs etc). This
element should include strengthening of SMEs by focusing mainly on
entrepreneurship skills and business development plans is essential to mitigate the
problem of trained unemployment. Topics could include: information on sources of
start-up capital; access to work premises and credit facilities and market information.
Continuous development opportunities could include coaching in business idea
generation; screening of feasible and profitable business ideas; preparation of business
plans; record keeping and office layout.
Strategic Objective 6. Autonomously and effectively managed Higher Education
Institutions which produce graduates meeting quantitative and qualitative socioeconomic needs of the country for high-level manpower.
Activities:
6.1
High-level policy review of the current ESDP III plans for HE in Ethiopia The
principal substantive action recommendation is for a high-level policy review of the
current ESDP III plans for HE in Ethiopia. This should be undertaken by a
representative selection of Ethiopian MoE and higher education policy-analysts, and
senior academic representatives of HEIs (public and private). It should include student
and private sector (employer) representatives, and be supported by a small team of
experts and specialists in international comparative development of HE institutions.
If, however, GoE decides to pursue the current expansionary plans without such a
review, the following measures would marginally improve capacities of the system to
endure the stresses which it will experience over the next few years. This is however
true only if it is assumed that government takes notice of and acts decisively on the
findings of the studies suggested below:59
These suggested measures frequently involve studies or other research. The UAA’s Institute for
Educational Research has an established track record of organising high-level national conferences
with international resource persons, at which education research findings are discussed with policy
makers on a wide range of education issues. We suggest that at least some of the recommended studies
are undertaken in collaboration with the IER and the findings publicly presented and discussed in
representative gatherings.
59
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6.2 A Tracer Study of recent graduates from a selection of Universities (public and
private and disciplines should be undertaken to provide objective evidence on the type
of occupations graduates are able to take, the extent to which self-employment is a
preferred option (there is some anecdotal evidence that it is), and the extent to which
graduates in certain subject areas face greater or lesser difficulties finding productive
economic activity to pursue after university.
6.3
A Labour Market Analysis should be mounted in collaboration with MoLSA
and the National Statistics Agency (with perhaps technical advice from GTZ/ECBP
specialists) with a view to determining the current and likely future growth of demand
for various types of professions and abilities in Ethiopia.
6.4
A series of objective assessments of student academic attainment should be
conducted under HERQA auspices covering both public and private HEI students.
These would help cast light on whether undergraduates’ attainment, objectively
measured, is being maintained despite quantitative pressures on the public HE system.
It could also provide a comparative analysis of the performance of public and private
sector institutions.
6.5
Adoption as a publicly-announced policy commitment the granting of
autonomy to public universities through provision from the start of EFY 2000 of a
Block Grant budget (and preparation by the appointed date of requisite financial
management and monitoring systems at Universities and MoFED respectively).
6.6
Restoration of the autonomy of University Boards and Senates to select their
optimal candidates for top management posts (and thereafter to put the preferred
candidates names forward for formal Ministerial endorsement).
6.7
Survey Academic Staff Opinions and Attitudes on public University
Management Issues. Such a survey would provide insights into how academic staff
feel they are managed currently, and their priorities for changes and improvements.
Autonomous University managements could then be guided I how to nurture and
retain the valuable experience of their academics, and how best to motivate them in
future. It is likely that remuneration and other financial resource issues will
predominate academic staff observations, therefore….
6.8
Prepare a Financing Framework for public universities in future, (including
options and trade-offs available), including exploration of how they could defray
some of their ‘student service’ costs (accommodation, feeding, health services), and
re-allocate resources towards core academic costs: staff remuneration (including
technicians), library facilities and stock updating; teaching facilities, equipment and
materials. This study could build on the foundations developed during the major
World Bank study of HE in 2003. We also suggest consideration as to whether a
financial framework is needed for ESDP III as a whole. We understand that the recent
JRM sounded some notes of caution in terms of ‘drift’ of financial allocations away
from ESDP III plans. The cost estimates made at the inception of ESD may no longer
be representative of true costs illustrated by actual implementation experience, at a
time of extreme public financial stringency.
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6.9
Rapid preparation of an Operational Plan for the establishment of the 13 New
Universities. The magnitude of the planning and project management task facing the
under-resourced HE Expansion and Strengthening Department in MoE is daunting.
Retention of experienced project management consultants could make a major
positive impact in the crucial short-term planning and inception period for these
geographically dispersed projects, and the generation of accurate comprehensive
information as to the state of play in each university project.
6.10 Assessment of the feasibility of putting Distance Learning on a firmer footing
We note that current policies favour relatively high-cost campus-style higher
education. Yet Distance Learning in the private sector is growing in popularity, and, if
properly managed and delivered, offers a much more economical approach to delivery
of higher education. Therefore we recommend an assessment of the feasibility of
putting Distance Learning on a firmer footing in Ethiopia in the immediate future.
One immediate action in this regard would be the resuscitation of the (Distance)
Masters Programme in Education Planning and Management.60
6.11 Address Major Issues regarding Public University students There is a need to
address some capacity issues with regard to public University students: their future
employment, their welfare and well-being, and their gender composition:
6.11.1 There appears to be major scope for more consideration as to how
students’ university experience can include some preparation for the world of
work. Teshome (2006 page14) suggests more public-private partnership in this
regard.
6.11.2 Review existing policies and measures in place with regard to
HIV/AIDS on HEI campuses in the light of HESO recommendations, and take
decisive measures (with development partner technical and/or financial
assistance if necessary) to take forward programmes as a matter of urgency.
6.11.3 The MoE strategy for female participation in tertiary education (MoE
2004) made numerous recommendations on measures to enhance successful
female engagement. From analysis of recent data it appears that objectives are
not being achieved at requisite rates.61 Discussion is needed to elaborate on
measures to address this continuing problem
6.12 Support HE Associations Institutional capacity analysis indicates that
encouragement of communication, information and career development exchanges
between professionals, and indeed between institutions, is not only a feature of
capacitated environments, it adds to the coherence of advocacy voice on the part of
the associated individuals or institutions. Therefore we suggest that two types of
associations are financially and technically supported as part of the education
capacity strategy:
60
This programme ran for three course groups between 2000 and 2003 for a total of approximately 50
Students. Materials were generated by the AAU’s Department of Education Administration (as it was
called then) with BESO support. These materials are not only still available, they have also been
adapted for use on routine degree programmes in the Department.
61
ESDP II aimed at 30% female undergraduate enrolment by 2004/5…in fact it was only 18.3% that
year. More worryingly still, in the same year, female students accounted for only 8.4% of graduate
programme enrolment: which will in part be the source of future HE teaching staff. Coincidentally,
women accounted for almost exactly the same proportion of public University academic staff in
2004/5.
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6.12.1 The embryonic Professional Association of Education Administrators
was formed one year ago, is now formally constituted, and legally certified. It
will be housed in the Department for Educational Planning and Management
of the College of Education at AAU. Its full members have degrees or formal
qualifications in education planning and management. Associate members
work in the fields, but without formal qualifications. It plans training
programmes, seminars, bulletins, a journal and applied research. Its
membership are in influential positions within Universities as well as REBs
and WEOs, and are a key target group for education sector capacity building.
6.12.2 Facilitate discussion of the potential creation of an Association of
Public Universities to become the counterpart of the existing private HEI’s
Association. Such an association could provide forums where academic staff
as well as management staff could explore issues of mutual interest and lobby
government in dialogue on policies affecting public universities.
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Summary Of Strategic Priorities, And Implementation Modalities
We have specified indicative priorities for the strategy, to guide discussion in what
should be a consultative workshop on the draft complete education capacity
development strategy.
Table 2 below summarises the respective priority we attach to main strategy elements,
and indications of how they might be taken forward.
Our preliminary conclusions on programme management are:
a) Planning and ESDP Co-ordination Department of MoE should in the first
instance manage the capacity development programme.
b) It should be given additional assistance to do so (beyond that already
programmed under the EC’s support package). The precise definition of what
this should involve should await the inception report of the EC TA personnel
(approx March 2007).
c) A Ministerial decision should be taken thereafter which Department should
take it forward in the medium term: i.e. whether responsibilities for driving the
CB strategy should be passed to the new Human Resources department. It
appears that the HR Department will not be resourced adequately to sustain
this programme, unless its currently-proposed staffing (see Appendix G) is
reviewed.
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Table 2: Summary Of Strategy Elements’ Priority, And Implementation
Modality
No.
1
1.1
1.2
1.3
1.4
2
2.1
2.2
2.3
2.4
2.5
Strategy Element
Working Environmental
Improvements
Collect evidence of costs and
reasons for staff transfers, for
policy dialogue purposes
Address other aspects of staff
turnover: mainly peoplemanagement practices
Indicative
Priority
High
Medium
Review ESDP Targets and
Financing Formulae (based on
field evidence of chronic
under-funding and of pressure
on community contributions)
Reduce waste at all levels:
1. Technical support to
community-financed
construction
2. Study innovative
approaches to low
cost education
delivery at school
level
3. Rationalise aspects
of text-book
management
4. Analyse and
rationalise teacher
distribution
Improved Co-ordination,
Learning and
Communication
Enhanced learning and
dialogue in various forums
Medium
Rejuvenate ESDP Steering
Committees
Strengthen professional and
public information function
and networks (focused on
MoE PR Dept. and EMA)
Awards and Prizes
Exchanges, twinnings and
visits
Medium
High
Medium
Medium
Medium
Implementation
Modality
Consultancy Study
- Attitude survey
amongst education
staff & teachers
- Dialogue with
Teachers’
Association
- Consultancy on
document handling /
handovers
Open to discussion
in next ARM
Dialogue
MoE/Public
Works/NGOs
National
symposium?
…. open to REB
dialogue asap
Part of planned EC
TA inputs
High
High
Medium
Medium
82
Open up for
discussion at
planned National
Dialogue (planned
for early
September?).
Ditto
Ditto
As per 1.2
As per 1.2
Comments
ToR drafting by
Planning
Department; CB TF
reviews
Liaison with DLDP
PSCAP essential
Planning
Department to
initiate.
CBTF to consult
donor networks for
international
experience:
synthesize via
short-term
consultancy: input
to national
symposia
National CB
strategy consultants
present main
findings: focus on
this element?
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No.
Strategy Element
Indicative
Implementation
Comments
Priority
Modality
2.6
Impact assessments: e.g.
Medium
Consultancy Study
Liase with TDP and
School Director and
BESO
Supervisor Training
Medium
Short term TA on
Introduction of Most
MSC
Experienced MSC
Significant Change approach
practitioners are
to M&E
available.
2.7
Review other sectors’
Medium
Consultancy study
Investigate extent
contributions to education
of spatial and sector
integration in
regional and
woreda planning
3
Institutional, Organisational
and Individual Capacity
Strengthening
3.1
MoE Organisational
High
Ministerial contact
Consultation
Development
with MCB?
necessary with CSC
and/or EMI
3.2
MoE Planning Department
High
Probably TA : ToRs This schedule
would have to
(effectively
depend on an
March/April 2007)
assessment of the
poses difficulties
situation postfor the
inception of EC
implementation of
TAs.
the present strategy,
given current PD
capacity
constraints.
3.3
MoE HR Department
Low
Depends on how it
Decision should
will be staffed and
await outcome of
its role established.
PD deliberations
(ie. 3.2)
3.4
MoE Project Management
High
Urgent recruitment
This function will
of national
not be adequately
consultancy?
addressed in the EC
TA.
3.5
EMIS institutionalisation : at
Medium
Invite UNESCO to
MoE, REB and WEO levels
design and prepare a
project proposal.
3.6
Pursuit of Major Ongoing CB
High
Ask BESO to design
Programmes
and prepare a project
proposal.
3.7
In-depth study of Community
High
National
PD initiative:
Contribution Capacity
Consultancy
CBTF to review
Draft ToRs
3.8
Teacher Performance
Medium
Part of both outcome CBTF to review
Appraisal
of 2.6 and General
and distil
Education /
international
Programmes Dept
experience?
tasks
4
Regional Structures’
Empowerment
4.1
Orientation and Guidelines to
Medium
Await emergence of
REBs on CB
PD as ‘driver’ of CB
strategy.
4.2
Pilot Education Capacity Fund
Low
Must follow 4.1
4.3
Study on Feasibility of School
Low
Follows experience
Block Grants
in 4.2 and with PBS
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No.
Strategy Element
Indicative
Implementation
Comments
Priority
Modality
5
TVET
5.1
Develop a TVET Transition
High
Senior German TA
Already planned for
Strategy
inputs
February 2007
5.2
Conduct a ‘Retrospective
Medium
Literature review
Possible Ed CB
Baseline’ Study of TVET
and interviews via
Pool Funding?
Consultancy
5.3
Make TVET Institutions
High
Integral part of
Includes funding
Autonomous
Strategy
diversification,
networking, and
donor co-ordination
5.4
Consolidate Apprenticeships:
High
Review of practical
This is consistent
establish synergy between
modalities for inwith so-far-agreed
TVET mechanisms
and non-formal
strategy
sector support
5.5
Holistic TVET: Strengthen
Medium
Consultative needs
ministries, private TVET
analysis in private
institutions and associations
sector and SMEs.
6
Higher Education
6.1
High level HE Policy Review
High
MoE, MoFED,
International
Universities, private specialists in
HEI association,
comparative HEI
supported by….
systems
6.2
Tracer Study of recent HE
High
Consultancy
GTZ TA?
graduates (public and private)
IER to organise
conference on
results
6.3
Labour Market Analysis
High
Consultancy under
GTZ TA?
MoLSA and
IER to organise
Statistics Agency
conference on
supervision
results
6.4
Objective Assessments of HEI
Medium
Consult BESO on
IER to organise
student attainment
sources of expertise: conference on
same time (2008) as
results
next planned Gen Ed
assessment?
6.5
Public commitment to HEI
High
Facilitated dialogue
Ed CB Pool
Block Grants by EFY 2000
MoE / MoFED/
Funding for
Universities
Facilitation?
6.6
Restoration of University
High
Requires public
Board autonomy over top
policy statement
management appointments
6.7
Survey of Public HEI
Medium
PR Consultancy
Ed CB Pool
Academic Staff Opinion
Funding
6.8
Preparation of a Public
Medium
Resurrection and
University Financial
revision of the
Framework
frameworks of the
2003 Bank Study?
6.9
Preparation of an Operational
High
International Project Ed CB Pool
Plan for the 13 New
Management
Funding
Universities
Specialist
Consultancy
6.10 Feasibility Study on Distance
Low
Involve PACT with
Learning
OU UK?
6.11 Address Public University
Development of
Student Issues:
Careers Officers;
1. Preparation for
Low
Facilitate employer
World of Work
forums in Unis?
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No.
Strategy Element
Indicative
Implementation
Comments
Priority
Modality
2. Review HIV/AIDS
High
Rapid situation
policy and resources
assessment
3. Review status of
comparing policy to
measures for female
practice.
engagement in HE
6.12 Support HE Associations:
Request proposals
Seek additional
1. Professional
Medium
from Association
contributions to Ed
Association of
CB Pool Fund
Education
(arguing potential
Administrators
benefits to all
2. Facilitate dialogue on
Medium
IER to explore
segments of
creation of
international
education sector)
Association of Public
comparators?
Universities
85