On Results of the Reform in Ethiopia's Language and Education Policies

This publication reflects the results of the Ethiopian education reform as well as the exceptional efforts that multiethnic Ethiopia undertakes in order to cope with the challenges arising from the population explosion. More than 55 per cent of the 77 million Ethiopians are under the age of 18 years. The great social and political changes started in Ethiopia at the beginning of the 1990s have resulted in the substitution of the educational system based on Amharic and English by one which uses a multilingual approach. According to the Ministry of Education 22 out of the 84 languages spoken in Ethiopia are now used as media of instruction in primary schools. The book presents the lectures delivered at the workshop "On the Results of the Reform in Ethiopia's Language and Education Policy" held at Addis Ababa University in April 2006 by Ethiopian education experts and a German research team. Their contribution has facilitated a subsumption into the historical context and has given insight into the analyses of the use of 8 Ethiopian languages in primary schools in different regions of the country.