Ethiopia Internet Case Study

4.

Information and communication technologies and the nation

Ethiopia has yet to promulgate any

task of upgrading the skills of its

substantive high level national ICT

120'000 primary school teachers and

policies, although a National

14'000 secondary teachers and is thus

Information Policy is now being

concentrating on various teacher

developed. In June 2001, the British

training and capacity building

Council hosted a conference on ICTs

initiatives. In early 2002, the

and development entitled  Ethiopia in

Department of Education awarded a

the Knowledge Age , which brought

Birr 2.1 million tender to four local

together 350 key policy makers in

computer suppliers for the provision

government, development agencies,

of 170 workstation computers,

academics, NGOs and the private

4 servers, 9 laptops and related

sector. The event was supported by

equipment under its Basic Education

the Commonwealth Telecommuni 

System Overhaul (BESO) project. The

cation Organization's Building Digital

equipment, which is funded by USAID

Opportunities programme and a

to support capacity building in teacher

variety of local institutions. The

training and reforms of the primary

participants undertook a thorough

education system, will be installed at

review of the issues and a series of

the Teachers Training Institute (TTI)

important recommendations

and the Teachers Training College

emanated from the conference,

(TTC). The Department is also

including the need for a national ICT

planning to introduce ICT training in

task force and this particular joint

secondary schools.

CTO/ITU case study. Further details

of the recommendations can be found

The UNDP is planning a project to link

on the conference website.

1

400 of the high schools to the Internet

in a USD 6 million proposal. Discussion

4.1

Education

about the use of VSAT for the project

have not borne fruit yet and it is

With low levels of literacy and the

expected that the project will start

limited number of school leavers

with the 30 per cent of the schools

(1999 rates of primary school

that have phone lines. The intention

enrollment are half the Sub Saharan

was to provide community access

average), improving the educational

facilities to offset the operating costs

system is a high priority for

for the schools, but this is currently

Government. In particular, the

constrained by the Telecommuni 

standard of English language

cations Act restrictions on resale of

instruction is low   there are 25 official

services. UNDP is also currently

languages of instruction (with three

providing ICT capacity building for the

different scripts), which makes the use

Ministry of Education, to establish a

of ICTs problematic for many, as these

LAN and WAN at the ministry

scripts are not supported by standard

headquarters and to carry out

software.

training.

The basic education system has so far

The tertiary education system

been virtually untouched by the

comprises 6 national universities and

Internet. Of the 12'000 primary

3 polytechnics with a total of

schools, only 9 had Internet access

approximately 86'000 students, of

at the end of 2001. Perhaps more

which there were 113 IT graduates in

surprisingly, only 10 of the

2001. Addis Abeba University (AAU)

424 secondary schools had access.

is the largest tertiary institution and

The Department of Education is in the

is also host to one of the World Bank's

process of undertaking the massive

African Virtual University (AVU)

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