The purpo se of thi s study is t o analyse wh e ther the Ethiopian Curri culum of primary schoo l i s work-oriented or no t. To ach i eve thi s a im, t e xtbook co nt en t analysis and qu e st i onnai res have b een used as data co llect ion instruments. Four s t eps have been f o ll owed i n ana ly s ing t he conten t of th e t ex tbooks . Th e first step i s concerned wi th text book selection. Th e second step involves defining the research prob l ems in t e rm s o f categoriE's in relation t o the thE'sis bas i c qUE'st i ons. Th e th ird s t ep deals with ide n tif y ing the t ec hnique of mea surement or uni t o f content. The last step identifies th e system o f enum e rati o n. Th en . da t a obta ined from text bo ok ana lysi s and questi onnaire are int e rpreted and summari zed. The results of the analysis show th a t thirty- seven p e rcpnt of thp co nt ents are work - rpf ere nced. Of th ese wo rkfc, fer"nced paragra ph s , thirty - ti1r f'E' percent are hIlle - c o llar refe r enced and four per cent are ,.- h i te - co l l ar - l'io r k-referenced, TIle quest t o find n llt thp students ocrupational aspirations has r evealed that con t rary t o th e cnntpn t s of the t ex t books, their occupational aspira tion is i ncl ined to wh ite-c o llar categ o ri es o f occupat i o n s . On th e basis of the results. it is co n c luded that, in mos t aspects, th e present content of th e Ethiopian e lementary sc ho o l t ex tbooks do n o t co nt ai n a ba lan ced pr opo rtion o f co ntents which r e fl ec t wo rk orientation . Thoug h the f e ..work- or i en t ed paragraphs re f l ected a blue-collar ca t ego r y of " ork b ia s , th ey fail t o develop on s tu de nt s pos i tive att itude t oward s ma nual work,