Education and Training in Ethiopia An Evaluation of Approaching EFA Goals

population is highly rural-based: about 85 per cent of the population lives in ruralcommunities.Ethiopia is divided into nine regional states along predominantly ethnic lines: Tigray,Afar, Amhara, Oromiya, Somali, Benishangul-Gumuz, the Southern Nations, Nationalitiesand Peoples Region (S.N.N.P.R.), Gambella, and Harar. The municipalities of Addis Abebaand Dire Dawa have a special status as regions. Regional authorities have increasinglywide-ranging financial powers. Under regions there are zones and districts, woredas, whichagain are divided into villages, kebeles.Ethiopia is ethnically and linguistically very diverse. The transitional legislatureformally recognised 64 major ethnic groups, and more than 250 distinct languages areknow to be spoken in the country. The main ethnic groups are the Oromo (40 per cent)and the Amhara (30). Amharic is the lingua franca and English is the second de factolanguage of the state, used also in secondary and in post-secondary and higher education.The population is split quite evenly between Christians (45 per cent, mainly members ofthe Ethiopian Orthodox Church) and Muslims (35 per cent). About 12 per cent of thepopulation are animists.Ethiopia is one of the poorest countries in the world. Its per capita income is USD 100(World Bank, 2000), which is among the lowest figures in the world. Poverty iswidespread and multi-faceted, both in rural and in urban areas, with 47 per cent and 33per cent respectively of the rural and urban population being poor. Measured mainly interms of food consumption, about half the population live below the poverty line. Povertyis linked with low growth and productivity in agriculture, practised mainly at subsistencelevel. Low productivity leads, further, to fragile food security.In 1998/99 origins of the gross domestic product were estimated to be:• agriculture and forestry 44.8 per cent,• industry 11.7 per cent, including manufacturing 4.6 per cent, and• services 43.5 per cent).The three largest export earners in 1998/99 were coffee at 60 per cent, oats at 12.6 percent and hides and skins at 7.0 per cent. Only 15 per cent of the workforce is employed inwhat is known as the formal sector. Accordingly, 85 per cent of the population obtain theirlivelihood in the informal economy.The Human Development Index (HDI) published annually by UNDP combinesmacroeconomic and socio-economic indicators to provide an estimate of the level ofdevelopment in a country. Even though the HDI for Ethiopia has been gradually increasingfrom 1985 to 1997, the figure for 1999 reveals that Ethiopia ranks as the 172nd of 174countries in 1999 (UNDP, 1999) and as the 170 th of 177 countries in 2004 (UNDP, 2004). Todemonstrate that there have been some marginal improvements in the socio-economicsector, it can be shown that between 1970 and 1997 life expectancy grew from 40 to 43.3years. During the same period the infant mortality rate fell from 159 to 111 per 1,000 livebirths while the under-five mortality shrunk from 239 to 175 per 1,000 live births.Access to education is the most limited in the region. Only 40 per cent of the relevantage group in Ethiopia was enrolled in primary education in 1998. The illiteracy rate is15