Traditionally, education in Ethiopia was religiously based and provided in church schools and monasteries to the elite few, mostly males. Modern Western education did not arrive in Ethiopia until the 20th century and developed only slowly. Merely 3.3 percent of the elementary school-age population attended school in 1961 – back then one of the lowest enrollment ratios in Africa. Unlike in other African countries, where European colonial rulers imposed modern education systems patterned after their own, Ethiopia’s education system evolved – technically speaking – indigenously. Discounting a short period of military occupation by Italy from 1936 to 1941, Ethiopia is the only country in Africa that was never colonized.
However, Ethiopia’s education system was nevertheless intrinsically shaped by external influences. To compensate for the lack of qualified personnel in Ethiopia, Ethiopia’s imperial government imported teachers, administrators, and education advisors from countries like France and Egypt. It also invited foreign private schools into the country when it attempted to build a more modern education system in the early 20th century. French was the language of instruction at many Ethiopian schools until 1935.
After World War II, efforts to create a modern mass education system intensified, but this time under the influence of education advisors from Britain and the United States. During this period, school curricula were British, and English was promoted as the language of instruction in secondary schools. Ethiopia’s higher education system, likewise, was initially developed with extensive foreign involvement. Following the 1950 establishment of Addis Ababa University as Ethiopia’s first HEI, a handful of colleges were established throughout the decade, most of them administered and primarily staffed by Western expatriates.[4] It was not until the early 1970s that the higher education system became more “Ethiopianized.”
Under the Marxist-Leninist Derg, education policies became influenced by education advisors from Communist countries like the Soviet Union and East Germany. While the Derg politicized education and used it for ideological indoctrination, it did make progress in increasing elementary enrollment rates. It also launched a large-scale program to increase literacy—the campaign won international praise and decreased the national illiteracy rate despite the civil war.[5] In higher education, by contrast, entry rates declined sharply notwithstanding the opening of more HEIs. Education spending per tertiary student decreased in favor of military spending, and many academics fled the country.[6]
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