Femi-Education Policy Plan
Background
Education is the biggest asset that parents can provide for their children. However, the sector faces many shortcomings. One of the problems is the issue of girl child education. In the history of the world, the education sector overlooked female students, an issue that led to various social inequalities as most young females would not find empowerment. The Femi-Education program focuses on education for female students beginning from preschool to university. The organization advocates for equal chances at school for female students, and the focus will be on female education in Ethiopia. Through years of research, the organization realized that girls in Ethiopia face many challenges that hinder their access to education; therefore, there was a need to provide opportunities for such disadvantaged groups.
Vision
Femi-Education envisions an environment where every person, including women, have the best possible education. The organization wishes for protection and respect, where society values females to reverse the poverty trend among women.
Statement
Education is the most effective tool for eradicating poverty. Femi-Education increases the opportunities for education among female students to empower young women to become effectors of change across the globe. Femi-Education mainly focuses on girls within Ethiopia, who face numerous challenges and need empowerment to take up their rightful position in society.
Key Demographics and Findings on Ethiopia
The democratic republic of Ethiopia is a country located in eastern Africa, specifically in the horn of Africa. The state borders Eritrea, Djibouti, Somali, Sudan, South Sudan, and Kenya. As of 2019, Ethiopia was the second most populated country in Africa and the second most populated landlocked country in the whole world (Marcus, Crummey & Mehretu, 2019). With 1.1 million square kilometers in total area, the country has 109 million inhabitants (Marcus, Crummey & Mehretu, 2019). Like other African nations, the state did not experience colonization, which could be the reason the government lags in education (Bishaw & Lasser, 2012). The country’s capital city is Addis Ababa, which is also the capital of the African Union. The nation lies close to the East African Rift Valley, which divides the country into two sections, namely, the Nubian and Somali tectonic plates.
Trends in Education in Ethiopia
Education in the Past
Despite being the second-most populous country in the African continent, Ethiopia is among the least developed countries in the world. According to a 2018 ranking by the United Nations Human Development Index, the state ranks 173rd out of the 189 countries around the globe (Roach & Trines, 2018). With a swiftly rising population, the nation encounters several challenges in developing an effective and all-encompassing education system. Underdevelopment, low participation percentage, and quality are some of the most significant shortcomings of the Ethiopian education system (Roach & Trines, 2018). The situation is this way in part due to the slow economic progress of the country. The challenges facing the country, such as armed conflicts, humanitarian crises, and famine, have continually impacted on the education sector for much of the 20th century.
Conventional learning in Ethiopia was based on religion with monasteries and religious organizations owning learning institutions that mostly served the elite, primarily males. In the 20th century, Ethiopia adopted modern culture, although it developed the system at a slow rate. By 1961, the country had the lowest rate of school enrollment in Africa (Roach & Trines, 2018). One of the main reasons for an adamant adaptation to modern education is that unlike other countries, Ethiopia did not experience colonization. Even so, the education system was under foreign influence as the government imported teachers from France and Egypt (Roach & Trines, 2018). The foreigners compensated for the low numbers of qualified professionals in the country.
Current Trends in Education
Locals in several districts administer education in the country. This move aims to accommodate the needs of every group in the provision of training. The regional governments and the federal government share the cost of education (Kahsu Hailu & Nagaraja, 2017). The federal government provides performance targets and restructuring policies through several development agendas for better management. The ministry of education also provides a standardized national curriculum framework for all schools. The department, located in Addis Ababa, also oversees the whole system by regulating funds while a federal TVET agency oversees the technical and vocational education and training program (Kahsu Hailu & Nagaraja, 2017). The official languages of instruction in Ethiopian schools are English and Amharic. However, since only 30% of the population uses English, other languages such as Oromo, Somali, and Tigrinya apply in regions that are not predominantly English speaking.
The academic calendar begins in September through the end of June or early July. Higher education institutions, on the other hand, follow an annual school calendar consisting of two, 16 week semesters (Kahsu Hailu & Nagaraja, 2017). The school calendar follows the traditional Ethiopian calendar. The school system supports an eight-year elementary program divided into two four year programs. After this, the students then attend four years in the high school divided into two-year programs (4+4+2+2) (Kahsu Hailu & Nagaraja, 2017). There are free public elementary schools and fee-charging private schools with better facilities. There is also an alternative primary education system that serves children from underprivileged communities, such as nomadic children.
Religion in Ethiopia
Ethiopia has a secure connection between Islam and Christianity. According to Evanson (2018), Christians make up about two-thirds of the population, while Muslims make up about one third. During the national census in 2007, there were 43.5% orthodox Christians, 33.9% Muslims, 18.5 Protestants, and 3% traditional animalist beliefs (Evanson, 2018). The rest identified with other religions such as Catholicism. Orthodox Christians particularly have a long history with the nation having conformed to Christianity even before some European nations. Ethiopia was among the first countries to make Christianity a state religion in 33CE (Crummey, Assefa Mehretu & Marcus, 2019). Since the country observes religion, many households denounce apostasy. However, people are tolerant of religious diversity in the nation. In places where Christians and Muslims live together, the relationship is mutual even with churches and mosques located nearby.
Human Development, Poverty, and Inequality
Ethiopia has a challenge with fostering economic growth to alleviate poverty among the citizens. Despite rising expectations through economic developments in the last decades, the country’s growth pattern eludes the principals of macroeconomics. Social, financial, and political developments do not reflect in terms of poverty and disease eradication. With a per capita GDP less hardly reaching 100 USD, the World Bank categorizes the country to be below the international poverty threshold (Cornia & Martorano, 2017). As a developing country, Ethiopia has a burden of reducing poverty, which is pervasive both in urban and rural areas (Bekele, 2018). In the last decade, there have been tremendous improvements in the country. According to (Pankhurst et al., 2018), the wealth index in rural areas still trails urban areas despite a reduction of the margin separating the two regions. The country also enjoys improved access to clean water, electricity, and other social amenities despite the presence of disparities between rural and urban areas (Pankhurst et al., 2018). There are also intergenerational differences with current generations exhibiting better academic performance and owning better households than former generations.
Gender Disparity in Education
Ethiopia is among the ten less literate countries in the world, with the literacy levels of girls trailing that of boys. According to a 2015 report by UNESCO, Ethiopia conforms to an observed trend in Africa whereby fewer girls finish secondary education than boys. In 2015, only 31% of females were in high school, and only 47% of females aged 15-24 were illiterate (Thelwell & Peterson, 2018). Compare to this figure, 63% of males of the same age were literate. However, data in 2014 showed that 39% of girls completed primary schools as compared to 37%. This number demonstrated that more girls than boys completed primary school. According to Thelwell and Peterson (2018), the enrollment level of girls in primary school also increased in 2015 at 60% up from 19% in 1990. One of the factors affecting female education is the limited number of female teachers. With the low numbers of females enrolling for tertiary education, the country produces a small number of female teachers. The high rate of early marriage and teenage pregnancy affects female education in rural regions (UNESCO, 2013). The Benishangul-Gumuz region experiences one of the highest gender education disparities in the country.
Currently, various non-governmental organizations help to promote female education in the country. UNESCO, under the Global Partnership for Girls’ and Women’s Education, inspire teachers to be gender-sensitive and encourage girls to pursue higher education (Thelwell & Peterson, 2018). Partnerships between UNESCO and other organizations such as the African Union International Centre for the Education of Girls and Women in Africa to improve female education in vulnerable areas (Thelwell & Peterson, 2018). The Better Life Better Future Project also partners with the Hainan Chiang Foundation Group to promote gender-sensitive projects (Thelwell & Peterson, 2018). For example, this partnership helped build three higher learning institutions and 12 upper high schools.
Femi-Education Prospects
The organization hopes to help further education equality in the country. From the statistics, female education is still a challenge in Ethiopia, especially in rural regions. The organization, through a detailed study, realizes that female education will help empower women economically. In turn, this move will improve the general economy of the country and aims to get support from the functionalist sociological perspective. The functionalist perspective states that all aspects of humanity are interdependent, which contributes to the functioning of society (Cliffnotes, 2020). Therefore, the provision of education for female students in Ethiopia will empower the whole community. Femi-Education plans to introduce a new strategy to achieve its aim. The first approach will involve working directly with the ministry of education to work according to proven education statistics in the country. The organization also aims to partner with specific disadvantaged families and communities. The organization will also partner with local authorities to discover underprivileged families and help them financially and by providing other resources required by girls to complete education. Regular community training will also be undertaken to prevent teenage pregnancy and early marriage.
Possible Barriers to Success
The organization expects to face obstacles in its operation. One of the possible impediments is the economic status of families in rural areas. With a sizeable financial challenge among rural families, the organization will have to prepare adequately financially to realize the set objectives. The organization will, therefore, partner with donors to collect sufficient funds to further the mission. Another obstacle is nomadic families. Moreover, monitoring the progress of female education among nomadic families will be another challenge. As such, the organization will cooperate with the families to make appropriate visits to monitor progress. The organization plans to work with a few girls from selected schools in all regions for two years as a pilot program to establish the expected challenges further. After assessing the whole situation, the organization will then roll out a full program to cover all girls in the country.