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Just like other economically vital sectors in the country, Ethiopia's education sector faces problems due to the decades long chronic economic difficulties from which the country suffers.
Major Education Sector Challenges
The current Ethiopian Education System is severely limited. Adult literacy rate stands at 41.5% while youth literacy rate is at 57.4%. Primary school enrollment level is at 51% while secondary school level is 15%. Therefore, raising the enrollment rate is one of the major problems the Ethiopian government must tackle. Except in Addis Ababa, gender disparity also a challenge because girls have a much lower gross enrollment rates when compared to boys; combined elementary and secondary enrollment rate for girls is only 29% while for boys it is 42%. Only 61% of grade 1 students will eventually reach grade 5. (Data from UNDP's 2005 Human Development Index Report).
In the last decade the Ethiopian Government has shown a strong commitment to the education sector development and in particular to the primary education. In order to improve the critical situation, the Government formulated an Education and Training Policy and Strategy in 1994 on the basis of which, the Education Sector Development Program (ESDP) was designed to achieve universal primary education by the year 2015 and to undertake a coherent and balanced development of the education sector. The Program is expected to last 20 years, divided in 4 implementation stages of 5 years.
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