Indigenizing the Educational System of Ethiopia

Abstract

This paper tried to show how the Ethiopian educational system was sidelined in favor of western system of education, and it calls for the need for re-Ethiopianising it. In the analysis of the historical evolution of the educational system in Ethiopia , we can witness about the existence of indigenous educational system that had left its imprints in the socio-economic and political facades of the Ethiopian society. However, the system was eventually superseded by religious schools (church schools, mission schools, Quranic schools” and finally by western schools under the guise of modernization. Due to the quest for absorbing western modern values, in the late 19th century western school system initiated by missionaries who plan to use it for religious proselytizing became dominant. Thus, Ethiopia had imported western education by sidelining its traditional education system instead of creating at least a synthesis. Therefore, the country failed to create a uniquely Ethiopian system of education. Hence, the educational system was de-Ethiopianised and there by produced intellectual dependency that triggers many social evils and served for colonization of the non-colonized state.