An Assessment of Alternative Primary Education Programs in Two National Regional States of Rural Ethiopia
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Date
2000-06
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Addis Ababa University
Abstract
It is now about a century since modem education began in Ethiopia. However, the desire to
universalize primary education and equitable access remained a matter of great concern. Problems
of access, equity, relevance, quality and financial constraints are challenges that characterized the
Ethiopian education system and the hope for UPE in Ethiopia still seems a distant. In spite of the
pledge to ensure the rights of all children to primary education; a great majority of children (about
60 percent) are out of the primary school system.
Against this background and recognizing the limitations of the formal schooling some NGOs have
initiated an alternative primary education programs in recent years. The purpose of this study was
thus, to explore the main features and feasibility of these programs and see whether they can help
to speed up UPE in the Ethiopian context.
The study has made a brief review of the literature and concepts behind alternative paths to UPE.
Then methods of investigation was developed, administered and analyzed up on which findings
were drawn.
Results of the study showed the potential benefits of the alternative approaches and the untapped
areas of partnerships and exploitable resources at the grass-roots . The main features of the
alternative, programs and the non-governmental approaches to primary education were found to be
acceptable and attractive at the grass-root level if cultivated and maintained properly. Low cost
small schools nearer to the home of children, flexible learning schedule, use of local
instructors/paraprofessionals and greater community involvement have been found to increase
girl's enrollment, minimize drop-out rates and was responsive to the opportunity costs of the
student's time. Results of student achievement in grade two on the three core subject areas were
found to be positive in relative terms . Though the number of students who satisfied the agreed
acceptable level of learnmg (75% score) were 46 percent almost about 90 percent of them have
scored a pass-mark (50%) . The obtained estimation results of the upper and lower confidence
interval of the mean revealed that out of 100 similar samples taken from a similar population, about
95% will have a mean value of 61 to 70 percent in language, 63 t073 percent in basic arithmetic
and 72 to 76 percent in environmental science. The obtained result was significant at the
confidence interval of 95% at p-value 0.05. Environmental science was the best subject performed
by the majority of the students while language was the least performed subject area.
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An Assessment of Alternative, Primary Education Programs