Concern over education cost-sharing scheme

Ethiopia’s teachers' association condemned on Tuesday the government’s newly introduced “cost-sharing” scheme where students must foot part of their fees. Dr Taye Wolde Semayat, president of the Ethiopian Teachers' Association (ETA) told IRIN that the policy put Ethiopia on a “slippery slope” towards privatising education. “This government is selling our diplomas and degrees to the highest bidder,” said the former professor of political science at Addis Ababa University. “This is a concept that will take us to privatisation,” added Taye who was jailed in 1996 for 15 years for conspiring against the state – a charge he denies. He was freed last year after criticism over his imprisonment. “It is a very important and crucial issue that money must go into education, but this is not the way,” he said. The government has stressed that students are not paying to learn. “It must be clear that the cost-sharing system is not a mechanism whereby the students are forced to pay to learn,” it says. Ethiopia has witnessed a massive explosion in higher education across the country. In the last eight years enrolment has skyrocketed from 6,500 students to 25,000. The government estimates that some US $1.7 billion - largely funded by the international community – is needed over the next three years to foot the education costs. Officials fear that if the funding is not received, then cuts will have to be made in the budget of secondary schools and in higher education institutions. “Obviously the cost of running institutions of higher learning is enormous. Hence it is imperative for those institutions to become cost effective, efficient and results-orientated," the ministry of information said. “This is why they must introduce and implement the cost-sharing system among the students, the institutions and the government as one of their multifaceted tasks to fulfil their national objectives,” it stated.