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Political
Socialization in the era of Globalization in Ethiopian Schools
Desta,
Asayehgn, Ph. D. Sarlo Distinguished Professor of Sustainable Economic
Development
Abstract:
In
contrast to other socialization agencies such as the family, peer groups,
religious institutions and the tribal elders, and mass media, there is no
doubt that schooling commands nearly undivided attention of students for
long hours over many years and remains the most controllable channel for
important cognitive and affective political socialization. During Haile
Selassie’s regime (1930-1974) in Ethiopia, in addition to regarding
education as one of the major players for training and the development of
human resources essential for economic growth, the overarching goal of
public schooling has been to build national pride, a strong common
national identity dominated by one ethnic group, obedience to rules and
laws, and the development of respect espousing legitimacy for government
and the political institution. In
keeping with the socialist slogan pursued by the Military Junta from
1974-1991, Ethiopian schools, under the threat of the gun, were assigned
to instill Ethiopian nationalism in order to create socialistic-minded
Ethiopians under their authoritarian, military rule. Galvanized
by the mass terror in Ethiopia under the leadership of the Derg,
eventually, the various ethnic groups, preserved through decades of
cultural persecution, economic, and socio-political marginalization,
coordinated their struggle and managed to form an umbrella of an Ethio-national
front, known as the Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Front (EPRDF) . The
EPRDF dismantled the Derg and its functionaries from the Ethiopian power
structure in 1991.
Contradicting the hallucination of the Derg that Ethiopia should
universalize education, based on one language to create an Ethiopian
socialist majority and a homogenous
national identity, the
EPRDF in 1994 strongly recommended that the educational system,
curriculum, and contents of each region in
Ethiopia should develop the cultures and languages of the various peoples,
nations and nationalities
of Ethiopia. Regional Governments, set up by the proclamation No. 7/1992,
were given the authority to formalize the visions and mission of the
educational policy of their regional states. Therefore, the focus of
citizenship training in multiethnic Ethiopia has been tailored to serve
the needs of regional states and foster the practice of democracy. Over
the years, however, tensions
and contradictory messages have surfaced that have
precipitated
many new challenges and galvanized many opposing groups that view
the new form of civic training given in the Ethiopian regional states as
myopic and parochial and
that they may actually limit the Ethiopian youth in their development of
empathy, appreciation, and respect for other cultures. In rebuttal, it has
been argued that the aim of political socialization needs to instill
pan-Ethiopian national identity, to empower Ethiopian youth to have a say
in their lives and develop global awareness to meet Ethiopia’s future
cultural and national challenges.
Introduction:
In
contrast to other socialization agencies such as the family, peer groups,
religious institutions and the tribal elders, and mass media, it quite
obvious that schools command nearly undivided attention of students for
long hours over many years and remain the most controllable channel for
rendering important cognitive and affective means of political
socialization of their learners. As
stated by Coleman (1965), political socialization refers to that process
by which individuals develop feelings towards the political system and for
their role in it. It includes cognition (knowledge and the ability to
analyze and interpret data about political institutions), emotion (how one
feels about the system, including loyalty and a sense of civic
obligation), and one’s sense of political competence (what one’s role
is or can be in the system). In short, in countries that can offer
schooling for children, schools are assigned the task of citizenship
training through a) teaching civic education to the young b) selecting,
recruiting, and training political leaders, and c) integrating the
community or the entire society.
The
purpose of this study is to provide an historical document of the
political socialization process in Ethiopian public schools from 1930 to
2013. The first part of the paper deals with the socialization of
Ethiopian youth during Haile Selassie’s era. The second part of the
paper focuses on the attempt of the Military regime to bring about the
integration of multi-cultural Ethiopia through socialist ideology and
indoctrination. The
third part of the paper narrates the transformation of Ethiopia from a
turbulent command economy to ethnic federalism, and then assesses the
roles of Ethiopian schools in bringing about national identity and global
awareness.
Methodology
Research
for this brief article relied on many sources, including a literature
review of the World Data on Education, the Constitution of the Federal
Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, various documents from the Ethiopian Ministry of Education, publications by the World Bank, and informal
interviews with some former teachers and administrators of the Ethiopian
educational system. Even though there is considerable anecdotal
information about civic education in Ethiopian schools, there is limited
systematic research on the socialization process and its impacts on the
learners.
The
Political Socialization Process of Ethiopian Youth during Haile
Selassie’s Period
During
Haile Selassie’s era (1930 to 1974), the central role of civic education
in Ethiopian public schools was to build national pride, national
identity, to instill obedience to rules and laws, to develop respect and
legitimacy for the government, political institutions and established
authority. To reinforce these belief systems, students in Ethiopian public
schools were required to recite the national anthem every day before going
to their respective class rooms, and were also made to recite and
demonstrate in writing their mastery of the national anthem while taking
the Eighth Grade National Examination. Also,
teachers of public schools were obligated to be the conveyors of consensus
values that were needed for the reproduction of existing social relations.
Thus, public schools in Ethiopia were tailored to serve a one-way flow of
information and were established to transfer the above stated cardinal
contents of civic education from the school to the society.
In
short, during the Haile Selassie regime, formal citizenship education, or
political socialization in Ethiopian public schools, was tailored to
a) instill
national pride that could bind the Ethiopian people together despite the
existence of political strain based on ethnicity, language, etc.,
b) cause learners passively to obey government officials and the
law without actively involving themselves in politics, and c) promote
acceptance of government rules, authority and policies
as God-given and without question. Unlike
in Western countries where the
basic tenets of political socialization are generally measured by
political efficacy, political trust, citizen duty, political
participation, and knowledge (see Massialas, 1970), the politically
socialized Ethiopians were regarded as well-versed if they could align and
exhibit confidence in the outmoded oligarchy, regarding the government
functionaries as caring about personal lives of the Ethiopian citizens.
In
contradiction to the assumption that political socialization in Ethiopian
schools can only produce obedient and loyal citizens, given the prevailing
social conditions in the world (for example, in Vietnam, China, Latin
American and African countries, etc), starting in the 1960s, Ethiopian
public schools were found not to be producing passive students, thoroughly
socialized to accept the continuation of the existing social relations,
but instead the public schools were producing
students that were alienated from their society and government . To
mention only a few, in 1965, university and high school students in and
around Addis Ababa demanded land reform.
In 1966, students protested against governmental treatment of
beggars. In 1967 the students demanded the affirmation of the right to
public demonstration and assembly. In 1970 Ethiopian university students
and high school students demanded that the various nationalities in
Ethiopia be allowed to have inalienable rights to exercise their
self-determination. In 1973, students forcefully agitated over the famine
in Wello and Tigrai
province. In 1974, public school students in Ethiopia violently
demonstrated throughout the nation in collaboration with urban workers for
price control on gas, and high school teachers’ standing against the
government’s proposed education reform, also known as the Education
Sector Review, designed with the assistance given by the World Bank, (see
Desta, A. 1977).
In
short, the naïve observer might have been impressed that Ethiopia before
the military takeover of the government in 1974 offered free education to
its youth up to the university level. However, that public schooling in
Ethiopia was available to only a small minority of the population. For
example, in 1974, schools were mainly concentrated in urban areas. The
participation rate of primary school age children was approximately 20
percent. The participation rate for the secondary schools was about 5.0
percent. Furthermore, inequality in education existed between rural and
urban areas and between male and female enrollment. It
could be said that during Haile Selassie’s regime, the education system
in Ethiopia opened its doors to some sections of the population but the
doors were closed to others and many were left unaware that such doors
existed (See for example, Desta, 1977).
Though
Ethiopian schools were geared to maintain the class structure and
socialize the sons of the nobility and urban residents to respect the
existing order, after many years it became crystal clear that unlike what
was envisaged, public schools became the source of accentuating conflicts
between students and the government. In
1974, for instance, student
unrest supported by large group of workers, along with the official
cover-up of the catastrophic drought and famine in Wollo and Tigrai
regions and widespread corruption accompanied by economic recession, all
contributed to the collapse of the Haile Selassie regime.
Citizenship
Education in Ethiopia during the Military Rule
With
the downfall of Emperor Haile Selassie, the Provisional Military
Administrative Committee (the Derg ) came to power and inherited the oligarchy of the ancient
regime. To
eliminate student unrest, the Military Government, in the name of
“development Through Cooperation Campaign” dispersed all university
and junior and senior high school students and their teachers to rural
parts of Ethiopia. Before restructuring the existing format of the
government and without critically examining the relevance of the socialist
model to Ethiopian culture, on December 20th, 1974, the
Military government delivered a proclamation for Ethiopian socialism (or
Ethiopia Tekdame-first) as its slogan to initiate patriotism, and then
instituted the most atrocious authoritarian type of government. More
specifically, as if the military government were not a gate keeper,
protector and functionary of Haile Selassie’s regime, using new
political philosophy and singing Ethiopia Takedam
(Ethiopia first) the
Derg declared
that it
would a) maintain the unity of Ethiopia, b) envision all Ethiopian
inhabitants living together based on equality, fraternity, harmony, c)
eradicate poverty, and d) allow the masses to exercise the right of
self-administration at the local level, arriving at responsible
decision-making processes that would be fair to the Ethiopian society.
In addition, the Military Junta adopted the Marxist-Leninist
orientation with a strong emphasis on pan-Ethiopianism, strongly rejecting
the right of session doctrine as advocated by the Ethiopian Student
Movement (See Habtu, 2003).
Also,
after the Military Junta seized power, as if it has not been part and
parcel of the earlier government, the Military Junta started condemning
the existence of parasitism and exploitation in Ethiopia. By
decree, the Military Junta nationalized all banks and insurance companies,
and it abolished private ownership of farm lands (December, 1974). However,
though the measures taken by the Military Junta amounted to some type of a
socialist revolution and the workers and peasants were promised much, the
end result accorded nothing to the then exploited masses
and workers. In a cynical and telling way, it will not be an
exaggeration to say that the Derg’s
socialist rhetoric was demagoguery. The Ethiopian masses got nothing, and
in denial of the existing culture, like what is used in Western cultures,
they were required to add their grandfather’s name to their
identification cards to mirror international working class solidarity.
In
the area of education, in order to eradicate the existing outmoded
concepts and to equalize and reeducate the school children, the
Provisional Military Government declared that education in Ethiopia needed
to be based on equal distribution of schools. It also pompously publicized
that socialist education would make all Ethiopians free from ignorance.
Though later it was found to be untrue, the Derg
verbally stated that Ethiopian schoolchildren would be well-versed in
“Ethiopian heritage” and fully equipped with socialist morality
(Ministry of Education, January 1975).
Without
modifying the bureaucratic organization that it inherited and by not
adequately retraining the existing teachers to improve social relations
among their students, nor integrating academic subjects with practical
experience during their socialization process, the Military Junta
threatened with guns to force schools to impart and create a fully
developed (i.e., not staffed with one sided and fragmentary knowledge),
well-rounded and highly disciplined socialist Ethiopian. Also, schools
were instructed to give more emphasis to sciences, engineering, health
science and less stress to liberal arts or the social sciences. In 1979,
the military regime initiated a National Literacy Campaign in 15 languages
and literacy was offered to adults to insure the inculcation of the
military-designed socialist ideology; the emphasis was tailored to build
character and to inspire Ethiopian patriotism and nationalism. Though the
outcome was dismal, in its civic education program, the Military regime in
Ethiopia organized a deliberate indoctrination for about seventeen years,
sowing the seeds of militancy, nationalism, and devotion to its pseudo
socialist thoughts through the existing schools. For example, while the
Military government in Ethiopia imitated the literacy programs to be
conducted in local languages and also encouraged ethnic folk music and
dance to promote cultural pluralism, the irony of the matter is “…the
regime waged a military campaign against ethno-nationalist armed groups”
(Habtu, 2003, p. 11).
In
the economic sector, the economic record of the seventeen years of Derg rule in Ethiopia was full of unmitigated disaster. By almost
every major index of economic growth, the country manifested a regression
in its economic growth footprints (Eshatu, 1991). Partly, the economic
disaster manifested in Ethiopia during the Derg’s
era could be explained because
the most productive intellectuals left the country to avoid the Derg’s “… campaign of terror—the RED Terror—that resulted
in the jailing, torture, and death of untold thousands, in an attempt to
stem rebellion against its policies promoting a unique nationalism through
suppression of ethnic diversity” (World
Bank, p. 3).
After
Ethiopia was submerged in financial crises and fully mortgaged to the
former Soviet Union, (which was then economically slumbering and
dismantling itself into pieces of various nationalities,) Colonel Mengistu,
the head of the Derg fled to Kenya for shelter by the Mugabi Government of Zimbabwe.
In short, the Military regimes’ failure in its political socialization
process could be attributed to a) its indulgence in a scattered planning
and implementation process, 2) the economic recession the country faced
because of the breaking up of the country’s major financier, the Soviet
Union, and 3) the various ethno-nationalist movements that the Derg attempted to suppress
in favor of its centralist policy, based on mono-lingual and mono-cultural
identity, regarding the “national question” which Ethiopian students
were asking as a taboo (Markakis, 2003 as quoted by Regassa, 2004).
Socialization
for National Identity and Global Awareness
With
the dethroning and collapse of the Derg
in
1991, a coalition of the Amhara Nationality Democratic movement (ANDM),
the Oromo People’s Democratic
Organization (OPDM), the Tigray Liberation Front (TPLF), the Oromo
Liberation Front (OLF), Western Somali Liberation Front (WSLF), Ogaden
National Liberation Front (OLF), Afar Liberation Front (ALF), the
Southern Nations, Nationalities, and Peoples (a merger of 5 regions), Afar
, Somali, Harari, Gambella, Benishangul-Gumuz, and the multi-cultural
national residents living in Addis Ababa and Dired
Dawa got
together to actualize and reconstruct the Transitional Government of
Ethiopia (see for example Habtu, 2003). The basis for the formation of the
federal state structure in 1991 was to subscribe to ethnic-based
territorial units, because the Transitional Government of Ethiopia (TGE)
believed that mobilizing the ethnically based groups was a formula for
establishing equal representation and further integration of Ethiopia as a
federal state (see Maru, M.T. (2004).
Therefore,
unlike its long history of centrist rule, and the imposition of
assimilation into one homogenized and hegemonic culture as tools for
maintaining a forced unity and identity advocated by the ancient regime
and the military rule, the Transitional Government of Ethiopia created an
ethnic-based federalism as a framework for resolving issues of ethnic and
regional autonomy. To
suggest that Ethiopia is composed of a singular culture defies the rich
histories of the various peoples residing in Ethiopia.
In other words, the TGE acted as a conduit for the transformation
and a means of healing ethnic hostilities to create peace and stability in
Ethiopia, which was ravaged by ethnic-based wars during the military era. The
TGE allowed the rights to self-determination, including the rights to
session as the only way that could make Ethiopia march forward into the
foreseeable future (see Habtu, 2003 and Regassa, 2004).
Based
on this concept, the outcome of the 1995 Federal Ethiopian Constitution,
heavily engineered by the Ethiopian Peoples’ Revolution Democratic
Front, (composed mainly of ANDM, OPDM, TPLF, the Southern Nations,
Nationalities, and Peoples), was formalized by and large to fulfill the
desires of the former ethno-linguistic groups that toppled the
authoritarian military regime.
As argued
by Regassa (2004), “the pursuit of homogenization as an effective
safeguard for maintaining the unity and territorial integrity of the
country was viewed as too oppressive to a host of forces that launched a
liberation struggle since the 1960’s until they eventually succeeded in
toppling down the last of centralist governments in Ethiopia’s modern
history…”.
In
line with article 46(2) of the 1995 Constitution, most regional states
were encouraged to meet language, identity, settlement pattern, and the
consent of the representatives of the people in the region. Thus, Ethiopia
pursued ethnic federalism. It established itself as a federation of
multi-ethnic nations, and political parties were organized along ethnic
lines. The constitution was also crafted with the principles of self-rule.
By and large, it aspired to achieve ethnic autonomy and equality while
maintaining ethicized federal states where ethnic units coincided with
regional units as was practiced following the corporate pluralist western
countries of Switzerland, Belgium, and Canada (Mattei,
1995, Habtu, 2003, Ragassa, 2004).
In
view of the new constitution of 1995, Ethiopia embarked Ethno-linguistic
triangulation based on language pluralism and formed autonomous regional
governments. That is, based on proclamation, No. 7/1992, the Ethiopian
People’s, nation, and nationalities
became administered by an elected state council (the highest organ of
state authority that defines the region’s policy and has all
legislative, executive, and judicial powers over the affairs of the
region), and a State Administration (highest organ of executive power) to
formalize the functional responsibilities and constitutional powers of
these levels of government (World Bank, 2005, p. 4).
In
other words, to counter its past history, based on the domination of
ethno-linguistic groups and the unitary system of cultural homogenization
through state centralization and one-language policy that prevailed;
article 39 (3and 5) of the Ethiopia’s Federal Constitution of 1995 fully
endorsed that the Nation, Nationality, and Peoples of Ethiopia to have the
rights of self-government, and establish institutions of government in
their ethno-cultural communities. Also, the Federal Constitution was fully
committed to the free exercise of the right to self-determination,
including cessation (see for example, the constitution of the Federal
Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, 1995).
Over
the last twenty years, under the leadership of the EPDRF, Ethiopia has
undergone structural changes. It has achieved steady economic growth with
a remarkable up trend in social development programs. Though land was
nationalized for state farm purposes during the Military era, the EPRDF
has widely redistributed land to the rural masses, where its political
power was completely cemented. Preventive
health services have been made available throughout the country. Some
infrastructure facilities, such as roads, air transport, telecommunication
services are better engineered than during the previous regimes. In order
to achieve Ethiopia’s socioeconomic development, the government has
initiated developmental plans but their implementation has been lagging
behind because of the lack of capital and structurally intertwined
bureaucratic administration. Though it is a paradox for democracy and
developmental state to coexist, the EPRDF had promised to pursue good
governance. Elections are regularly conducted every five years. However,
opposition groups feel that the outcomes of elections held thus far have
been fraudulent and based on intimidation by the police force of existing
ruling party.
The
Derg held that an education in Ethiopia based on one language would create
a homogenous socialist state. It
even went so far as to declare that ethnic groups who do not speak Amharic
are not Ethiopians. In opposition to the notion held by the previous
regimes, Proclamation No. 7/1992 gave the Regional Governments of Ethiopia
the authority to formalize the
visions and mission of the educational policy of their regions by choosing
their local languages for instruction in primary schools.
Despite opposition by some intellectuals
that the EPRDF’s policy would eventually disintegrate the
Ethiopian nation, concurrent with its vision, the
EPRDF, in 1994, endorsed that the educational system, curriculum,
and contents of each region in Ethiopia to be restructured to meet the
cultures and languages of the various peoples, nations and
nationalities of Ethiopia. Thus,
within the framework of federal Education Sector Development Program, each
regional state led a bottom-up educational development plan to re-
homogenize and make each ethnic groups fully appreciate their cultural
values.
In
line with the Proclamations of the Constitution of the Federal Democratic
Republic of Ethiopia of 1995, the Ministry of Education was given the
power only to formulate the country’s educational policies and
strategies. However, the main objectives and goals of education as stated
by the Federal Ministry of Education, proclamation No. 41/1993, (for
example, the Educational and Training Policy (ETP) of 1994,) the Education
Sector Strategy of
1994, and the Education Sector Development Program (ESDP1 OF 1997/98), was
heavily focused on decentralization of the management of education;
people/community participation; equitable
distribution of educational services, and the development of local culture
(World Data on Education, 2006/07). Specifically, the Federal Ministry of
education allowed each region to formulate its curricula and formulate its
education to emphasize the development of basic skills in literacy,
numeracy, and communication with the use of mother tongue in primary
schools (World Data on Education, 2006/07).
In
quantitative terms it is possible to assert that the Ethiopian primary
school system is in the process of achieving universal education. For
example, for almost all households in the country there is at least one
primary school available within a distance of less than 10 kilometers
(World Bank, 2005). The gross enrollment ratio for females and males
enrolled in primary schools (grade 1 to 8) has increased from 37 percent
in 1996 to 91 percent in 2011. Also, there is an equitable representation
of males and females in the Ethiopian primary schools. Student’s
enrollments in urban areas are almost 100 percent as compared to 86
percent in rural areas. It means that Ethiopia has started universalizing
its primary education. But, it remains to be seen that the
universalization of primary education is tailored to meet the educational
needs and that the curriculum protects and guarantees that students are
exposed enough to their culture. In addition, when universalization of
primary schools is discussed as a policy issue, not only quantity but also
quality of education needs to be taken into consideration.
In
terms of quality, it is unbelievable to note that each teacher in public
Ethiopian schools must teach about 60 to 70 students in one class room. As
a result, the classes are highly congested. The
teacher-student ratio in private schools is relatively low, the classrooms
are better equipped, and the teachers are well paid. In addition, a
sizable number of teachers in public schools don’t meet certification
standards. Since most of the students in primary schools are from
well-to-do parents or relatives, it is unfortunate to observe that private
schools in Ethiopia are becoming class-based and are reproducing
inequalities in order to maintain the emerging new class structure (see
Desta, A. 2012).
In
terms of political socialization, unlike the previous regimes where public
schools focused on producing loyal citizens, building national identity
and endowing learners with allegiance to Ethiopia as a homogenous nation,
the current regime concurrently with the federal constitution has proposed
that the educational arrangements of each region recognize and accommodate
cultural diversity. Teachers,
according to the ethnicity of their students use different
epistemologies and styles of interactive educational patterns.
As
if the Ethiopian environment is conducive to political participation, the
principle of self-rule rooted in the federal constitution of each
ethnically-determined regional state is given the mandate to formulate
education for democratic citizenship. For the students to be empowered and
have a say in their in their own education and to develop awareness to
meet Ethiopia’s future cultural and national challenges, the schools
need the facilities and offerings for participation in extracurricular
activities like sports or gardening activities. Meanwhile, the world is
moving towards becoming more engaged in physical activities and in the
greening of the environment, now extracurricular activities and gardening
are seen in Ethiopian schools as a luxury of the past.
The
fact that teachers are paid poorly, they use their free time to run
immediately after classes to work part-time jobs, if available, in the
towns where they teach. Otherwise, because they teach in over congested
classrooms, they run to their houses to relax, to prepare lesson
plans for the following days, correct
the homework of their students, or work as political cadres for the ruling
party.
It
is obvious that the education given at the primary level is in the local
language and the civic education lessons are likely to focus on the
ethnicity and government of the region. By using local languages as a
medium of instruction, schools, particularly at the primary levels, are
expected to reflect the needs and aspirations of the ethnic group which is
central to political socialization or civic education lessons. Given the
training level of the teachers in Ethiopian primary schools, it is
possible to argue that the culture of other ethnic groups may never be
discussed, let alone to be considered for accommodation. For example, some
of the teaching methods practiced in Ethiopian schools are too parochial
and don’t attempt to lay the solid foundation needed for the
reformulation of the federal constitution. The failure to integrate
nationally will hinder Ethiopia’s integration into the rising global
culture.
As
currently practiced, schools have a regional-based curriculum and the
medium of instruction is the local language. Thus, without revitalizing
the languages of instruction and
laying the infrastructure necessary for creating shared values, it
is impossible to attain what is stated in the Education Sector Development
Program- ESDP2
( 2002/ 03 -2004/05) that Ethiopian schools could produce good citizens
who understand, respect, defend the Federal and Regional Constitution, and
develop sense
of citizenship to participate in and contribute to the development of
community and the nation (World Data on Education, 2006/07).
Part
of the reason a number of students in public schools have been left with
parochial thinking is that most school leaders are political cadres of the
ruling party. They may receive a monthly salary from the treasury of the
school districts but emotionally they have a strong bond with their party.
They know that they will be rewarded handsomely by their political
party once their political party is in power. Instead
of provoking volatility in their schools; they spend a large part of their
time outside of school talking and promoting the greatness of their party.
Schools taught by these types of political cadres serve as a ladder for a
promotion in the political arena.
Given
this kind of school environment, it is possible to argue that learners
through their teachers and principals learn more about his/her own region
and the political party in power than they learn about other ethnic groups
let alone knowing in detail about their Federal Government. It
has also become clear that students cannot effectively interact or
correspond with the bureaucracy because their language capability is
fractured, because schools are compartmentalized and are exclusively
restricted to teaching in their own mother tongues. Students in the
various universities (universities generally recruit multi-ethnic
students) have an acute problem of interacting effectively among
themselves. In addition, since graduates of regional schools are trained
in their local languages, it is less likely that they have the capability
to articulate in the nation’s working language, Amharic, for example,
while applying for jobs in Addis Ababa or leave alone to work in other
ethnically-based regional centers.
Thus,
if cross-cultural communication among the Ethiopian students in a
globalized world is desired, in addition to ethnic languages, an official
language needs to be taught in primary schools because in addition to
local language, national language is a pillar for preserving intercultural
exchange and creates mutual understanding. Above all, a national language
in a multi-ethnic society like Ethiopia is essential for national
integration and is likely to promote multiculturalism among the peoples of
Ethiopia. Of
course, the value of learning a national language or an operating language
is essential for political and economic concerns. For
example, researchers, policymakers, educators, employers, etc., have
arrived at the conclusion that multi-lingual teaching to children as early
as possible can benefit the learners to be creative, solve complex
problems, and survive effectively in a competitive world. It further
benefits society because it enhances economic competitiveness and brings
about global understanding (Marcos, K, 1998).
Finally,
since globalization has become an indivisible part of the Ethiopian
society, it would be naïve not to assume that learning a predominant
universal tongue, such as English would be a Western incursion. Mastering
English is not likely to promote western devaluation of Ethiopian culture.
Recorded
history has shown that Ethiopia has successfully rebuffed and challenged
European colonial attempts that started balkanizing the African continent
starting in the 15th century. In
a globalized world, the legacy of building the Ethiopian nation depends on
preparing its youngsters to learn English starting at the primary level.
If
taught English early, Ethiopian graduates of public schools could become
global entrepreneurs, like the sons and daughters of the privileged
emerging classes. It is not too late for the Ethiopian government to give
the same opportunities to public school students as are provided to those
of private schools. Thus,
Ethiopia’s political education system needs to be re-designed to rescue
the country from some of the malaise that has separated it from actively
participating in the global world.
Conclusion
In
1991, the EPRDF removed the Military regime (Derg)
and its functionaries from the Ethiopian power structure. Contrary to
the Derg’s means of forming a
homogenous national identity, the EPRDF in the 1995 Federal Constitution
of Ethiopia strongly endorsed an educational system, curriculum, and
contents for each region in Ethiopia in order to encourage the
continuation of the various cultures and languages of the diverse peoples,
nations, and nationalities of Ethiopia. The Regional Governments, set up
by the proclamation No. 7/1992, were given the authority to formalize the
visions and mission of the educational policy of their regional states.
Therefore, the focus of citizenship training in multiethnic Ethiopia has
been tailored to serve the needs of regional states and actualize the
practice of democracy.
Of
course, schools in Ethiopia need to develop empathy, appreciation, and
respect for the various ethnic cultures in their region. However, as is
observed in Ethiopian schools, if students are expected to memorize their
own ethnic values uncritically, it is doubtful that schooling is
empowering them to affectively and effectively participate to meet
Ethiopia’s future cultural challenges in the fast moving era of
globalization.
Thus,
changes to the education system must be accelerated, damage must be
repaired, and Ethiopia’s economy transformed for the twenty- first
century, to involve young Ethiopians who can make a difference. It is by
designing and adopting workable strategies that a number of emerging
nations have substantially changed their economic structure and
institutions. Therefore, it is evident that in order to reform the
political structure in line with the globalization that is flourishing;
Ethiopia’s political education system must be re-designed to rescue the
country from a malaise that has separated it from active participation in
the global world.
Over
the years, tensions from contradictory messages have surfaced,
precipitating many new challenges and galvanizing opposition groups that
view the new form of civic training given in the Ethiopian regional states
as myopic and parochial, which may limit Ethiopian youth in their
development of empathy, appreciation and respect for other cultures.
Moreover, it has been argued that the aim of political socialization needs
to instill pan-Ethiopian national identity and empower the Ethiopian youth
to have a say in their lives, and have global awareness so that they are
able to meet Ethiopia’s future cultural and national challenges.
The EPRDF Party has already laid the foundation for the Peoples,
Nations, and Nationalities of Ethiopia to know and realize that they are
equal to other groups. Now is the right time to critically examine areas
lacking success and determine what is needed to expedite moves towards an
even more democratic, inclusive society and polity so that Ethiopia can
vigorously and actively participate in the fast moving global arena.
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