Educational crisis in Ethiopia since 2020

Educational failure

Like other poor African countries, the education quality of Ethiopia saw a large decline due to the COVID-19 pandemic as well as due to civil war in the country. During the Tigray War, eight thousands schools have been damaged, looted and destroyed since 2021, restricting the right of children to access education. Data from December 2022 indicated that 3.5 million children (50% of which are girls) do not access free education due to war and climate change. Moreover, as many as 2.3 million school-aged children and 1.7 million children are not attending school in Tigray as a result of loss of infrastructure. According to the 2022 UNICEF report, about 3.1 to 3.6 million children are out of school, one of the largest educational crises in the world.

The Ethiopian education has been improving over the past decade, with nearly 30 million students entering primary and secondary education and over 130,000 students entering higher education. Policy experts, researchers and longtime observers believed that the current crisis can lead to problems beyond individual student performance. Students are more inclined to acquire scholarship in international higher education institutions for better quality of education and stability. There is also concern that students are frustrated by rigorous admission criteria for universities and requiring exit exam for acquiring degree after their study.