Especially over the past few years after the government had evaluated deeply the implementation of the education policy, there have been marked improvements in many respects of the education sector development program, said the ministry’s international and public relations services head Desalegn Samuel told ENA.

The government over the past 16 years has been mobilizing sizable resources into efforts to revamp the education sector in the country, he said.

Prior to 1991, the country’s education sector had been stagnant to a large measure and the then education policy had been focused on a propagation of the then ideology, he said, adding it never had been one that could instill a culture of work and democracy.

Ever since the change in the country’s education policy, the primary enrolment coverage which had stood at a negligible 19 per cent has now leaped up to 91.6 per cent, he indicated.

Seventeen years ago, he said, the number of students nationwide had been 2,063,000 (two million and sixty-three thousand) enrolled at 8,256 schools.

Now, more than 14 million students are enrolled at more than 21,000 primary schools. The number of teachers has risen to 216,000 from only 68,000.

Similarly, secondary education enrolment more than doubled from 453,000 then to more than a million currently, he said, adding the number of secondary school teachers also grew by more than twofold to have reached more than 23,000.

In the TVET front, there had been about 2,000 students attending their education at 17 institutes, which have now grown to more than 123,000 students and 119 colleges excluding the figures under the numerous privately owned institutions, he said.

Formerly, TVET education had been concentrated to towns and the syllabus lacked practical lessons, he said, adding; now the situations changed with many TVET colleges expanded across the country with students receiving practical lessons enough to enable them find jobs or establish their own upon graduation.

In terms of academic higher learning, the number of students attending degree level education rose from only 2,000 then to more than 56,000 students now, he said. The number of higher learning institutions also rose, excluding private establishments, to 21 from only two.

The government, he said, has been attentive all along to maintaining equitability of and expanding easy access to education, through which female enrolment level has shown marked increase.

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