DECEMBER 13/1999 

                        ETHIOPIA:VIOLATIONS OF THE RIGHT TO EDUCATION 

               "Art. 13 : The State Parties to the present Covenant recognize the right of everyone to education. They agree that education shall be directed to the full development of the human personality and the sense of its dignity, and shall strengthen the respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms." International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, UN, January 1976 Art. 28 : "State parties recognize the right of the child to education, and with a view to achieving this right progressively and on the basis of equal opportunity..." Convention on the Rights of the Child, UN, September 1990 The EPRDF government headed by Prime Minister Meles Zenawi has put in place an ethnic based politics which has over the years led to discrimination and repression on the basis of ethnic identity. The ruling group comes from the minority Tigrean group which is represented by the Tigrean People's Liberation Front (TPLF) making up most of the body known as the EPRDF. The government's discriminatory politics against non-Tigreans is nowhere evident than in the field of education, a sector that has fallen to the pits since the present group came to power in 1991. Not only are children and entire ethnic groups virtually denied any access to education, but schools are also being used to fan ethnic differentiations, hatred and eventual civil strife. Observers sum up the whole situation by saying "it is a if a whole generation is being systematically and deliberately being kept away from education." Most of the schools opened in the last eight years have been in the region of Tigrai where students benefit from scholarship grants and adequate educational facilities. In many areas, parents had insisted that their children be taught Amharic, the official language, but the government has tried to oppose this by depriving Amharic teaching schools blackboards, chalks, desks, books etc... No such schools have been opened in Tigrai up to now. Books of one kilil (ethnic based region set up by the government- 9 kilils in all for Ethiopia) cannot at all be used by another; While Amharic was designated to be taught from Grade 5 onwards, English is now being taught from the first grade. However, in Tigrai, students learn all subjects in English from Grade 5 onwards, in Addis Abeba from Grade 7 and in Gambella from Grade 3, and others learn in English starting from Grade 9. Many learn from Grade 1-8 in their own mother tongues. The national examination for the secondary school leaving certificate is in English at the end of Grade 12. Evidently, many non Tigrean students are disadvantaged and do not make it to the university. There is also the question of fees which hampers non Tigreans from purusuing their education while the State helps students in Tigrai to cover the required fees. The government is spending millions of Birr on useless projects such as preparing educational materiel in the so called "Wogageda" language (arbitrarily made up by the government to combine four southern languages) which has received no acceptance by parents or students of the designated areas. The government has illegally taken computers, typewriters, books, copying machines, etc from schools all over Ethiopia and installed these in schools in Tigrai. The elements chosen to prepare school materiel (for secondary schools for example) are not qualified people but mainly those chosen on grounds of political loyalty and ethnic identity (Tigrean). Complaints by teachers on the uselessness of such materiel have been ignored up to now. Teachers are being forced to teach on Saturdays (without additional pay) and more. What emerges from the whole educational scene (budget for education has been reduced this year) is that the government is deliberately: 1. practicing discrimination and denying millions their rights to education; 2. trying to discourage anyone wanting to study Amharic; 3. is favouring its own ethnic region (Tigrai); 4. is depriving a whole generation of non Tigeans the right to education.                      The minister of education, Genet Zewde, ia a political appointee (she is a central committee member of the ANDM formed by the TPLF itself) who has in the past proven to be totally insensitive to the plight of teachers and students and is generally regarded as a partisan of the ethnic politics of the government in the field of education. The government has also taken repressive actions against the representative and autonomous Ethiopian Teachers' Association(whose chairman Dr. Taye Wolde Semayat is in prison, the secretary general forced into exile and other leaders jailed or killed) and has replaced it with another loyal to the State. The right to education is a fundamental internationally recognized right. The EPRDF government has denied Ethiopians this basic right. UNESCO and all other concerned bodies should take up the issue and condemn the practices of the government in Addis Abeba. The insidious plan to educate one ethnic group while denying education to all others should be exposed and stopped.

SOCEPP