| Abstract: | The new direction of education chosen for Ethiopia promises the country’s development
and poverty eradication to be ascertained by the development of large army of trained
citizens in science and technology fields. Some three years have passed since the
implementation of the 70:30 policy comes into effect. This paper tries to assess how
realistically this direction is being pursued in general and what the preparedness of
physics teachers for the best attainment of the goal looks like. Using government
documents, a general overview of the reality of Ethiopian schools in relation to science
education has been presented and the existing dilemma has been established. The
dilemma is larger proportions of students are directed towards the natural science
direction while their achievement in science is very low. Therefore, the majority of the
students, as high as 90% of them, are below the policy minimum in one of the central
subjects in science and technology. Then, by way of resolving the dilemma and assuring
progress in the 70:30 direction; well qualified physics teachers have been suggested.
These qualified teachers needed are those which are more than ordinary to work in the
grim conditions of students’ achievement and reverse the declining trend. However, the
existing professional readiness of physics teachers as demonstrated with selected case
study5 researches is alarming in both their subject matter as well as professional
knowledge. Finally, the paper concludes with suggestion of revisiting, diversifying and
deepening physics teachers’ training which focuses on both the basic physics subject
matter knowledge (SMK) and the pedagogical content knowledge (PCK). |
