Educational crisis in Ethiopia since 2020

Although the Ethiopian education system historically was in a state of crisis for a long time, a major educational setback has been documented by numerous sources since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic and civil conflict in the country.

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.

National exam failure
Since 2021, the Ethiopian National Exam quality was under the worsened condition, where 97% students failed to pass the grade 12 exams known as "entrance exam". In October 2023, the Minister of Education Berhanu Nega disclosed the catastrophic failure of student in national exam. 43% of students reported that they have failed to pass the grade 12 secondary school exams in the 2022/23 school year and 96% of students scored less than 50%. Only 3.3% of students who took exam in 2022 scored 50% and above, which was the minimum requirement of to enroll in higher education. Similarly, only 3.2% (845,099 students) achieved the score in 2023.