Eritrea

The Ministry of Education, the body responsible for administering the schools and setting and implementing the national curriculum, consists of three departments: General Education, responsible for early childhood through secondary education; Technical and Vocational Education, which includes adult literacy; and Research and Human Resource Development, whose responsibilities include teacher and staff training. At the regional level are six regional offices, which have autonomy to manage educational matters within their geographical area. Sub-regional offices are responsible for direct management of schools within each sub-region.

At the end of 1999, the Ministry of Education installed its first computer network, making information on all aspects of school administration available to all departments. The network extends to most district offices in all regions of the country, but in 2001 was still too slow in functioning to be of much use outside of the Asmara offices of the Ministry. When it is functioning efficiently, the network will aid decentralized decision-making in regions and sub-regions.

Education expenditures as a percent of the government's total expenditures grew from 4 percent in 1993 to more than 9 percent in 1997 (education accounted for an average of 38 percent of yearly social service expenditures in that period). As a percentage of GNP, education increased from 2 to 4 percent over those five years, a significant investment compared to many sub-Saharan African nations and a testament to the government's commitment to education. In 2000, salaries, nonsalary recurrent expenditures, and capital cost totaled 115 million, 38 million, and 77 million nakfa respectively; international donors provided 66 million nakfa applied to capital expenditures.