Attempts at Educational Reform in Ethiopia: A Top-down or a Bottom-UP Reform? ·

Abstract

It has now been close to a century since modern education was introduced in Ethiopia. Ever since then some attempts have been made at educational reform. However, to date there is hardly any effort that has been made to critically examine these attempts. This pape first provides a brief background on the
development of education in the country, so as to enable the reader to appreciate the attempts at reform. Next, on the basis of a conceptual framework jt tries to assess criticaly the three major attempts at educational reform: the Education Sector Review, the Evaluative Research on the General Education System in
Ethiopia and the Transitional Government's Education and Training Policy. Finally, in drawing a conclusion, it views the attempts so far made to have many of the characteristics of a topdown rather than that of a bottom-up reform.