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From: Berhane Habtemariam (Berhane.Habtemariam@gmx.de)
Date: Tue Aug 31 2010 - 14:32:25 EDT
Ethiopia Bans Distance Education, Cracks Down on Private Universities
Peter Heinlein | Addis Ababa 31 August 2010
Ethiopia has banned off-campus education, and ordered private universities
to close degree programs in law and education.
A directive issued by Ethiopia's Education Ministry describes distance
learning at off-campus sites as "unnecessary at this stage" and orders all
such operations to stop enrolling new students immediately. The
proclamation also prohibits private universities from accepting new
applicants in teaching or law degree programs.
The ruling will affect 64 private institutions, most of which have sprung up
in the past 15 years as the government opened higher education to the
private sector. The distance education ban also includes Ethiopia's 23
public universities.
Educators estimate there are roughly 75,000 students currently enrolled in
distance education programs, about one-third in undergraduate programs and
the rest in technical and vocational training. The rules allow them to
complete their course work.
Education Ministry spokesman Abera Abate Abebe says the directive was issued
in the interest of maintaining education standards. He says several private
institutions were more interested in profit making than in providing quality
education.
"When the purpose is collecting money, it is not a good purpose," said
Abera. "The only issue some universities have is collecting money."
The directive has drawn outrage from private educators.
Wondwosen Tamrat founded St. Mary's College in Addis Ababa 11 years ago with
37 students. Today St. Mary's has 7,000 undergraduate students on its main
campus and more than 10,000 others enrolled in a nationwide distance
learning program. He says the directive is a crushing blow to institutions
like St. Mary's.
"To begin with, two-thirds of the students are in the distance education
division," said Wondwosen. "If you are not offering this program, it would
mean we would be losing what we have been working for the last 11 years. We
have 140 distance education centers all around the country. We have people
in all of these centers. We would be losing these."
Wondwosen says closing distance education, plus the loss of the teaching and
law faculties, will force the layoff of more than 800 of the university's
1,200 employees.
He acknowledges there are disreputable private Ethiopian universities that
grant degrees to anyone who pays the tuition. But he says St. Mary's
students, who pay the equivalent of about $1,000 for a three-year course of
study, have been driving national standards in some areas.
He says the new directive will undo all the good the government did 15 years
ago when it overturned a ban on private education that had been in effect
during the rule of the Marxist dictator Mengistu Haile Mariam.
"They are spoiling what they have already done," added Wondwosen. "All this
access the public is having through an expanded public system or a newly
created private system has been the making of the government. I do not see
any reason why government decides to go back on its own practice and tell us
it is no longer possible to do these things."
Education Ministry spokesman Abera says the directive will be strictly
enforced. But he suggests the rules could be eased once institutions
issuing worthless degrees are forced to close.
"It may be a short period of time," explained Abera. "It is not for a long,
it is not the end. Maybe [when] education is going straight on a track that
is quality."
Wondwosen says the growth of private universities in Ethiopia has
contributed to a five-fold increase in the country's gross higher education
enrollment ratio. A decade ago, one percent of Ethiopians went to college,
as compared to an Africa-wide average of six percent. The latest survey
indicates the figure for Ethiopia has risen to 5.1 percent.
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