Ethiopia - Preprimary & Primary Education

In the pre-European traditional educational system, children in primary schools, learned to read and write Ge'ez's 265 characters. Emphasis was placed on rote memorization. Admitted between the ages of 7 and 12, the time required for graduation depended on intelligence, health, and motivation. Elementary pupils had to learn to read, write, and recite the Dawit Medgem (Psalms of David). There are 15 sections, called negus (kings), which normally took two years to master. Next they learned to sing kum zema (church hymns), which took four years, and msaewait zema (advanced singing), which took an additional year to learn. Liturgical dancing and systrum holding required three years. Qine (poetry) and law required five years to learn. The interpretation of the Old and New Testaments, as well as the Apostles' Creed, took four years on average, while the interpretation of the works of learned monks and priests took three years. When a student knew the psalms by heart, he had mastered the "house of reading" and was now considered an elementary school graduate. His family gave a lavish feast to celebrate this achievement. If they could afford it, they gave his teacher property, money, clothes, or other gifts. Many subjects were learned simultaneously as in middle school.

Orthodox Coptic Church schools provided much needed training in reading and writing in preprimary schools. Thus, many children already had basic literacy skills by age six upon starting primary school. The first postwar formal curriculum was a 6-6 structure: six years of elementary school followed by six years of secondary school.

During the early 1930s, 18 percent of primary school age children were in school. By contrast, beginning in the early 1970s and continuing on into 2001, more than 50 percent of primary school age children attended school. The absolute number of primary school students increased from 859,000 to over 2 million. The number of primary school teachers rose from 18,642 to more than 35,000 during this period, but the teacher student ratio rose to 1 teacher for every 90 students. Overcrowding has also led the government to create a three-shift system, to extend the academic year by two months, and to stagger starting dates to accommodate rising demand. Nevertheless, the gains in education are impressive and substantial.

Revolutionaries increased primary schools from 2,754 to 5,800 between 1974 and 1984. They concentrated on building new primary schools in rural areas to end the placement of schools in privileged urban communities. Most new schools were built in under-privileged urban and rural areas. Formally neglected students had opportunities to learn, which were reinforced by quota systems that guaranteed them seats in secondary schools and universities as an additional incentive to learn. Revolutionary curriculums stress vocational studies over academic subjects. Gardening is introduced in the fourth grade. Polytechnic training begins in fifth grade, along with political education and history. The teacher pupil ratio increased from 1 teacher for every 44 students in 1974, to 1 teacher for every 64 students after the revolution because access to educational opportunities expanded.