Insights into the State of Higher Education in Ethiopia

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Insights into the State of Higher Education in Ethiopia

 

Insights into the State of Higher Education in Ethiopia

Asefa Belachew[1]

10/12/14

 

In the past twenty years, Ethiopia has opened several “new” universities and revamped old ones. Close to forty institutions of higher learning exist in the country, i.e. universities with undergraduate and graduate programs and specialized institutes. This is a commendable achievement and progress. However, increase in number may have come at the cost of quality. The half full or half empty dichotomy applies here.

Recently, I read several papers on higher education in Ethiopia and listened to a podcast on Wazema where two former Ethiopian academics, Messers Abraham Alemu and Endalkachew Haile-Michael, were interviewed on the state of higher education[2]. The interview provided insights on the state of higher education in Ethiopia in the past and the present. I share most of the views in these contributions. They are mostly factual and a good reflection of the state of the situation on the ground. In this essay, I want to provide my observations and suggestions for future consideration based on my recent experience teaching at one of the “new” universities[3].

To give credit to Abraham and Endalkachew, they eloquently and passionately presented the deficit in educational leadership and in administration, the nature of relationship between the universities and the Ministry of Education (MOE) and the Regional Educational Bureaus, the lack of academic freedom, the state of teacher-student relationship, the distorted nature of student evaluation and credentials and the role of politics in the admission and graduation processes. The deficiency in academic freedom is reinforced by Semahagn. Kalayu also raised several useful points.

I repeatedly hear that the role of a university is teaching, research, and community service. I will not be wrong to say that education is anchored on four pillars; namely, students, teachers, facilities, and administrative support and leadership. I will share my views along these four pillars one at a time.

The students were very capable and strived hard to achieve their goal despite the circumstances. I had fifteen students in the regular program that had been selected on the bases of exams administered by the university. A good number came from academia (teachers at other universities) and the remaining came from Regional Bureaus. These were sponsored by the Federal Ministry of Education and the corresponding Regional Bureaus or Agencies, respectively. Another twenty equally capable students attended the weekend session. These were sponsored by various governmental and non-governmental organizations while some were fee-paying students. I found the contents of the academic program acceptable and favorably compare with MA programs at many high level academic institutions in the US.

I encountered three student-related challenges. The first was the wide diversity in the level of preparedness of students upon entry. These from academia came with solid readiness as most of the subjects were those that they covered in the classes they taught. Those who came from the Bureaus came less prepared but caught up very fast and at the end performed very well. But, balancing the needs and frustrations of the two categories of students with different levels of preparedness was not an easy feat.

The second challenge was the poor communication skills of the students. Writing and speaking in English was a major challenge. Proficiency in English has deteriorated significantly particularly in the public institutions at all levels. There are many reasons for the situation which I do not want to dwell upon at this point.

Deficiency in English is important to note for two reasons. First, English is the medium of instruction in Ethiopia and proficiency in the language will influence the quality of learning and research. Second, in the current international economic environment, proficiency in English gives a country a competitive advantage. India, The Philippines, Israel and South Africa are the preferred sites for IT and out-sourced service industries such as call centers not only because of the competency in IT but also because of proficiency in English. If Ethiopia desires to take advantage of these industries in the future, it will have to prepare the human resources required for them.

The third student-related challenge was the absence of critical thinking. In the 1960s and mid-1970s, students challenged the system. Students were politically and socially very conscious and put the needs of the people before their own. For instance, student demonstrations in support of land-to-the tiller, against the change in educational financing, and against the Unilateral Declaration of Independence (UDI) of the former Southern Rhodesia (currently Zimbabwe) are symptomatic of these stances. Now, however, critical thinking has been relegated to rote learning due to fear on the part of the students as well as the failure of the educational system both during the Derg and EPRDF regimes to foster challenges to the system.

During the Imperial era, there was much academic freedom. As long as student action was limited to the campuses, there was not much fear for what went on inside. This created an environment of debate and dialogue and nurtured fairly vibrant discussions. The only fear was self-inflicted by the students themselves as the radical groups did not provide room for alternative perspectives.

The second anchor for the delivery of education is the existence, in-house, of a critical number of qualified faculty with terminal degrees (PhD) in their field. At the time of my visit, the Graduate Program started with one PhD who happened to be the Dean. Due to pressure from the MOE, the Program started with a view to using visiting Professors from other academic and non-academic institutions in the country. In principle, this is an acceptable approach in the short-run as long as there was a persistent search as well as dedicated (or assigned) personnel to push the effort. For the medium- to the long-run, it required a clear plan of capacity building to have in-house faculty. The absence of faculty took a heavy toll on students as it was not possible to phase the delivery of the program according to the curriculum. Finding visiting professors available for an extended time (at least four months) was hard. When a visiting professor was found s/he would come 2 or 3 times in a semester for 2-3 weeks at a time. Classes would run for 5 to 6 hours a day. This way, students would get the required number of contact hours in aggregate, but the work bunched too much during the visit. In addition once the visitor left, students did not have any other fallback to ask questions or seek clarification.

This has taken a toll on the visiting professors as well. A colleague informed me that almost all of Addis Ababa university senior instructors are involved in block course offerings in the other universities which has created physical and mental fatigue and unavailable of the professors at the mother institution to provide the necessary mentoring to their students. Moreover, the faculty has no time to be involved in research, publication and academic discourse.

On my next visit in 2014, however, the university had hired two Indian professors. This was a significant stop-gap measure provided that the expatriate staff has the necessary qualification and experience.

Around Summer 2011, MOE and the universities had put out an invitation through the different Embassies particularly in the West inviting Ethiopians abroad to assist in the initiative. However, serious attention had not been given to this source. The invitation was more symbolic than serious, but it still remains an excellent opportunity for both the Ethiopian expatriates and the universities.

The third anchor (or input) is infrastructure. Significant investment has been made to build class rooms, dormitories, libraries and laboratories. Building and beautification is still on-going. Unfortunately, the infrastructure is in a poor state of repair: walls are cracking, active electrical wires are in the open, desks and tables are breaking, and the blackboards are in bad shape, etc. At this pace, the infrastructure may not last too long. The beautiful libraries had no books and other necessary facilities. Even text books were unavailable or were in short supply. The problem is not financial resources. If one less building was built, the savings would have gone to buying books and the necessary equipment and facilities. In addition, if attention had been given to consolidation instead of expansion (new buildings), it would have been possible to repair the existing infrastructure and acquire the necessary inputs that are currently missing or in short supply.

Let me give two examples. First, because of repeated electric black-outs, the university had installed stand-by generator(s) that would supposedly kick-start the moment there is power failure from the inter-connected source. This worked very well in the late 2011. Unfortunately, the generators were not functional when I visited in early 2014. The second example relates to printing and copying machines. The Department I served had three of them. Upon my arrival, I was told one of them had been sent for repair. The second was long in the Dean’s Office who was out of office for most of the time. The third heated-up often that faculty had to run from one office to the other to print the tests or exam they prepared. The printer at the repair shop had not comeback by the time I left. These are very simple problems but their resolution will bring significant relief to the delivery of education. Unfortunately, no one pays attention to them. It is disturbing to note why the administration does not appreciate the problems as well as its impact on the delivery of education.

In the area of infrastructure and facilities, the weakest and the most stifling is the IT situation. Accessing the Internet is extremely difficult partly due to the state of the telecommunication infrastructure in the country and failure of the universities to give attention to the issue. International organizations based in Addis Ababa, such as the United Nations (UN), the African Union (AU), and diplomatic missions do not have this problem because of using dedicated satellite connections.  Provided that academic freedom is granted, the technological problem is only a matter of investment as each university or a group of them could have a dedicated satellite connection until the telecommunication infrastructure in the country improves. Having a satellite connection would facilitate the conduct of classes from afar (say a professor residing in the US or UK could run classes without moving to Ethiopia). With appropriate technology such as Blackboard and New Class Room such distance education could be carried out even more efficiently. Easy access to Massive Open Online Courses (MOOC) such as Coursera, edX, iTuneU, as well as YouTube would elevate the quality of education significantly. Unfortunately, this cannot happen today.

The fourth ingredient (anchor) in educational delivery and efficiency is the administrative support and leadership. During my visit I found the administration to be highly centralized and bureaucratic. More attention was given to adhering to bureaucratic requirements rather than the expediency the academics required. For example, normally books and supplies should be procured in advance so that these will be available when school commences. Although budget had been allocated for the procurement of books, the academic units were notified to provide a list of books for acquisition in September. Once the list was prepared, faculty was required to float tender and obtain three bids to make the procurement competitive. This is a standard operational practice where there are many publishers and distributors. In this one town, there was no publisher but one distributor. Then, faculty had to be sent to Addis Ababa to seek quotations from distributors based there. Until the quotations were received and purchase order issued, the semester had already ended without the use of the books.

I have mentioned the absence or the critical shortage of books. For the course I taught, a temporary agreement was made to copy the book from the one or so copies available and provide one copy each to the students. The task was given to the university printing and publishing unit. It took some time to reach such a decision, but once the decision was made, it took the unit about two months to complete the task. To make matters worse, the quality of the copies was very poor, several pages were missing, the remaining were mixed-up and it took a good chunk of time to put things in order. Everything was finally completed just one month before the final exam.

Sound leadership is crucial to make the system function well. Here, I emphasize leadership provided by the higher echelon of the university administration. In my observation, maintaining ethnic balance in assigning the highest positions is obvious. I have also heard from at least one of Vice Presidents (VPs) self-declare his political affiliation. There is good reason to think that a few others were party member too. Of course, many held PhDs in their respective fields of study. Beyond their political affiliation and ethnic origin, of great concern is their inexperience and lack of exposure to educational administration.

Let us look at the profile of the Presidents at the former Haile Selassie I University in order to make a comparative evaluation. The first three Ethiopian Presidents of Haile Selassie I University between the 1950s and mid-1970s were educated in the West (United States and UK) and have had exposure to the administration of education, at least, from the point of view of students. Three in fact had PhDs in their respective fields, of which one was in Education. At the same time, VPs and Dean positions were held with people of similar qualification and exposure. Equally important, at least two Deans of Faculty (Law and Business) and some senior faculty members came from American universities. The Alemaya and Gondar campuses were run along US practices and standard and with US staff. The Ethiopianization effort has been commendable but the approach gave the Ethiopian leadership the opportunity for learning-by-doing.

More importantly, these officials had the enlightenment, foresight and the strong personal character to maintain academic freedom and the campuses’ integrity from political interference. As I alluded to previously, the police stayed outside campus except once or twice (one was Tilahun Gizaw’s funeral)[4]. Although capable in the respective areas of study and very personable individuals, the current leadership has failed to inculcate and assure academic freedom. Many of these people in leadership position were in primary or secondary school during the Imperial time and have not experienced the freedom that existed on campus. For that matter as one autocratic regime was followed by another, they have not experienced freedom on-campus or outside. The individuals deserve utmost respect and gratitude for their service but a lot more is required of them and they could achieve much more with the limited resources provided there is a realization of the situation and good will to bring change.

To finish let me suggest a few ideas for way forward. Some of these may be very simplistic and could be implemented quickly while others would take time and resources to implement. The proposals are preliminary and the details would need to be fleshed out if these are accepted as a point of departure.

First, it is imperative to restore the academic freedom on campus. Young people are industries, vibrant and also rebellious. This should be welcome. Students should be allowed, in fact encouraged, to express their views as long as they respect the views of others. What happens outside of campus should be left to authorities with jurisdiction there. However, the university officials should stand to defend their students even outside of campus when/if their views on campus is explicitly or implicitly used against them. A generation that does not question the past, make its own contribution, and passes the nation to the next generation would be a failure. Students are capable to make positive contribution and could rise to the challenge provided that they are given room. Thus, the leadership should use their political party affiliation to realize this goal as Lij Kassa did during his tenure as the President of Haile Selassie I University.

The second proposal is organizing training seminars in educational administration for the senior officials at home complemented by a sabbatical leave to selected universities abroad so that they could understand the day to day management of the affairs of a university from some experienced and seasoned professionals. At the same time, attaching one or two foreign (or even Ethiopian) university administrators (currently active or retired) to advise the new leadership for a year or so would be highly valuable.

Thirdly, having a critical number of professors in the different disciplines in-house is beneficial. While this takes time, there could be a couple of measures that could be taken in the short run. As alluded to above, using expatriate Ethiopians is a mutually beneficial endeavor. There are many Ethiopian professors teaching in Western universities who would like to serve in the “new” Ethiopian universities during their sabbatical period or on short visits offering intensive training over two or three months. In addition, many of the UN Agencies, the offices of the regional development agencies and Think Tanks in Addis Ababa have personnel with terminal degrees whose potential could be mobilized to run seminars on various issues. In the early 2000, these organizations had over 50 economists and other development specialists willing to help if approached by the universities. These have a good potential as a fallback strategy in the short-run.

Fourthly, a plan for the improvement in the proficiency in communication, particularly in English, with a focus on writing and speaking, should be integrated in both the undergraduate and the graduate programs. Students should be able to express themselves both in writing and orally. Thus, the universities, individually or collectively, could approach the Peace Corp Office in Ethiopia to assign additional volunteers for the purpose. Alternatively, the universities could hire one or two people per university from their own (country) resources or utilize expatriate Ethiopian during their visit to Ethiopia. Proficiency in English could be a venture that would pay for itself in the medium- to the long-run and it may not be a waste if aid or loan is used for the purpose.

Fifth, the IT situation requires a quick attention. Easy and unfettered access to the internet will make a significant difference to the quality of education and minimize or remove some of the challenges in the area of faculty and book shortages.

Sixth, the need for maintenance and up-keep of the existing infrastructure need not be over emphasized. At this point, consolidating the effort already on the ground should receive more priority than building new ones.

Seventh, where would the money come for these initiatives? Lack of money does not stop a good idea from being implemented; it would perhaps delay the implementation. Education, particularly graduate education, is an investment in human capital and should be treated just like the investment in roads, railway, and dams and machinery. The returns come in the future. If there is agreement on this, one source of funding is the annual capital budget allocated for the Ministries of education and Capacity Building. Furthermore, these could be ideas that could be floated to one or the other development partners for funding through aid or loan.

To conclude, as the saying goes the City of Rome was not built in one day. The effort to establish “new” universities and refurbish old ones is a commendable effort. But, in order to improve the human capital situation critical attention should be given to the quality aspects. Academic freedom should be reinstated and encouraged; academic institutions should remain free of political interference; the curriculum should be revamped; a critical number of professors should be made available; and the physical infrastructure should be maintained and updated; It situation addressed, and the leadership provided the necessary capacity to run the institutions. Enlightenment cannot be taught but the leadership should maintain the integrity of the campus even when the student’s view is against their party affiliation.

 

Notes:

[1] Asefa could be reached on asefa.belachew@gmail.com

2 This includes contributions by Kalayu Abraha; Alem Mamo; Aklog Demissie and Million Feyyisa Lenjiso, Semahagn Gashu Abebe; and Wazema Podcast 17 featuring an interview with Abraham Alemu and Endalkachew Haile-Michael.

3 Asefa taught in the Extension Department of Addis Ababa University between 1977 and 1982 and at one of the “new” universities for a semester, and spent about four months in Ethiopia in 2011. He paid a visit and held informal discussions with faculty at two other universities in January 2014. At present, he teaches part-time at two universities where he lives both on-ground and online. Asefa has wide experience in educational policy issues and in capacity building in Sub-Sahara African (SSA) countries.

4 Lij Kassa Wolde Mariam, the first President of Haile Selassie I University (1962-69) should serve as an inspiration to the current leadership. Lij Kassa was a royal in his decent and married to the grand-daughter of the Emperor. Lij Kassa used his proximity and relationship with the Emperor to protect academic freedom and to keep the police at bay despite the fact that the students were attacking the class to which he belonged.



[1] Asefa could be reached on asefa.belachew@gmail.com

 

 



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