An Investigation in to the Relevance of the Ethiopia an Senior Secondary School Education : the Case of Jimma And Illubabor Zones of Oromia
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Date
1996-06
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Addis Ababa University
Abstract
The examination of an educational system at anyone
level can be made possible through a profound investigation
of its development process, its implementation and its
ultimate pertinence. In view of this, the purpose of this
study is to determine the extent of the Senior Secondary
Level Education's relevance or irrelevance to the needs of
Ethiopian rural and urban communities' with a particular
focus on communities of the former Illubabor Administrative
Region - presently, Jimma and Illubabor Zones of Oromia.
To achieve this purpose, five senior secondary schools
(one from each AwrajaJ are purposively selected from the
total of nineteen senior secondary schools found in the
region. From these schools, seventy-two teachers and fourhundred
and sixty-five students are randomly selected as
respondents. In addition, twenty-five community
representatives are purposively selected from the
communi ties where each school is located and interviewed.
The contents of eighteen text-books that are currently in
use in the Senior Secondary Schools are also analyzed.
In order to obtain the necessary da ta from these
sources, both qualitative and quantitative research
techniques are employed . To this end, different data
gathering tools such as questionnaires, semi-structured
interviews, class-room observations, text-books content
analysis and document studies are used. The data procured
through these instruments are tabulated, interpreted and
analysed.
The results indicate that the contents of the Senior
Secondary Level Education are quite relevant to serve the
needs of the Ethiopian rural and urban communi ties in
general. They consist of knowledge and practical skills
that are closely related to the real needs, demands and
problems of both the rural and urban communities. On the
other hand, teachers' instructional performances are
observed to be far removed from implementing them . The
greater majority of the teachers observed are not seen to
make any efforts to relate the contents of their lessons
either to the day-to - day and future lives of their students
or to the overall lives of the communities.In general, the results show that the Education of the
Senor Secondary Level is well prepared at its development
stage. However, due to the poor conditions of the schools
and due to the poor instructional performances of the
majority of teachers, it is poorly implemented at the
schools level. Moreover, as the study indicates, lack of
employment for the graduates from this level is the major
factor that casts shadow on the relevance of the education
of this level, for it is resulting in high rate of student
drop-out.
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Investigation in to the Relevance