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Professor Berhanu Nega Almost Saved Ethiopia and Then He Changed His Mind

The Minister of Education is Berhanu Nega former head of the exiled anti-Ethiopian Peoples' Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF)
The Minister of Education is Berhanu Nega former head of the exiled anti-Ethiopian Peoples’ Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF)

Yonas Biru, PhD

Tribalism is primitive and degenerative by nature. It brings savagery out of perfectly fine human beings. That much has been recorded throughout human history. Professor Berhanu Nega’s contribution to human development is providing evidence that tribalism stupidifies and ደነዝifies.

In 2022, nearly 900,000 Ethiopian high school students took college entrance standardized tests and only 3.3 percent got a passing grade of 50/100 or better and qualified to enter college as freshmen. In other words, 96.7 percent failed. What has not been reported is what percent of the students got a grade of “F”. Mind you the passing grade is 50/100. In most universities 50/100 is at best the bottom floor for a grade of “C” or at worst a “D”.

In the past, each tribal land was allowing students to cheat or even providing them with cheat sheets including answers to the tests to help them enter college that is financed by the federal government. The problem was so rampant that three days before the test, the government had to cut connections to the internet throughout the nation to mitigate sharing of the cheat sheets.

In 2022, the new minister of education (Professor Berhanu Nega) made it difficult to cheat and the results bore witness to the systemic stupidification and ደነዝfication of the entire next generation.

As dismal as it is, the 3.3 percent passing rate is not the most important story. The most important stories are in the details. Ethiopians need to see two separate detailed reports by region.

  1. Regional test results, showing what present of the students got A, B, C, D and F before 2022 and in 2022.
  2. Percent of students who passed the standardized tests year by year before 2022 next to the 2022 results.

In my mind the only way this level of the stupidification and ደነዝification of the entire next generation can be explained is by the primitive and degenerative inherent nature of tribal politics. We need detailed data to show this. I would venture to predict two outcomes:

  1. Regions where tribal extremism ran rampant will fall near the bottom of the totem pole in the first data set.
  2.  Regions where tribal extremism is normalized will register proportionally less students in the 3.3 percent passing cohort in the 2022 results.

If Professor Berhanu Nega makes this information public, the parents of the next generation students will speak up and save their children from the vagaries of tribal politics.

 

Laundering the Failed Educational System with Political ፀበል

The problem Ethiopia has is that the universities and colleges have capacity to accommodate 130,000 incoming freshmen. If only the students who passed their exams are accepted, there will be 100,000 empty seats.

Considering the capacity of existing universities, the solution Professor Berhanu suggests is accept 130,000 students into two groups. The nearly 30,000 students who scored a grade of “50/100” or above will enter college as freshmen. The remaining 100,000 or so will be expected to take college-level remedial courses for a year and those who passed will start as freshmen next year. There are so many problems with this.

  1. Many of those who passed with the minimum 50/100 or close to it need remedial courses.
  2. As to those who got below 50/100 possible including those who possibly got grades of D or even worse, accepting them into college in any form is rewarding miserably failed students.
  3. Those in the pipeline (currently in high school) will not perform any better next year and the year after and the year after that. Assuming the problem is deeply rooted and affects elementary schools, we cannot assume the problem can be fixed in the next 10 to 12 years.
  4. The problem with poor pre-college education is attributable to poor education by regional governments. Is the federal government expected to finance five years of college education for the coming 10 to 12 years, incorporating a remedial year just to fill empty seats with failed students?

How can a nation that is governed with such policy of sustaining a failed system of tribal politics expected to develop? If there is a need for remedial courses, let the regions who screwed up the students pay for it and let the students retake college entrance examination next year. For now, the best solution is to close some of the low performing colleges and universities and focus on the 30,000 who passed their exams.

The recommended remedy to fill empty seats with failed students is a political decision to conceal the systemic stupidification and ደነዝfication of the entire next generation.

Put in the vernacular, trying to remedy a totally failed pre-college education with a one-year remedial college program is no better than putting lipsticks on the proverbial pig. Tribalism with lipsticks still remains primitively degenerative. All else is a cruel satirization of an already satirized generation.

Only 3% of Ethiopian Students Score Above 50% on National Exit Exam

Assessing Higher Education Exit Exam in Ethiopia: Practices, Challenges and Prospects

 

4 thoughts on “Professor Berhanu Nega Almost Saved Ethiopia and Then He Changed His Mind”

  1. monetary agenda in the name of church and one synod

    Education during kinjit supremacy is now declining .It is Very promising
    leadership. Prof Birhanu nega is doing great favor for the future of Ethiopia and next generation.

    “Ethiopian Church kicks off three days of prayers ” these bishops of EOTC never prayed at all, they declared 3 days of prayers superficially. Our forefathers were praying for several days before excommunicating Arius at Council of Nicaea in 325.

    How could you tempt yourself into swallowing this fake excommunication against bishops who curious to fully exploit their language for the purpose of spreading the gospel. There are many mafias controlling millions belo,ng to the church. And they are running this campaign against newly elected bishops.There is a strong network of people who benefit from controlling every diocese and parish church. Your heart knows that fact that mahibrekidusan and others speaking and crying as if they like and die for the church.

    genocidal and warlike synod has no power to condemn bishops who stand in their faith and respect the doctrine of the church.

  2. Obbo Berhanu Nega, PhD seems to be doing the best he can to make something out of a jumbled up education system he inherited, a system that has been in disarray since 1974. But this result is not only infuriating but also embarrassing. Now that bigot Satoshi Kanazawa is gonna have a field day. He would say ‘I told you so’. Okay, out of an estimated 990,000 student who took the exam 957,000 of them have failed. Now what? Let’s see what this well read capable man has up his sleeves to transform it. This is a national disgrace and all our education experts should come together to come up with a doable remedy. This shameful disaster is not confined to specific regions but it is every where. Bigots have been distracting the youth from its schooling duties. They kept the youth busy at political rallies using it as cannon fodder for their evil objectives. Those of you over there and here among us who have been helping in this cursed scheme, shame on you. You left him/her with this utter failure that will leave him ashamed and dejected. You knew this is gonna happen because a student dedicated to his education would be a tough cookie for you. Congratulations you conniving smart alecks. You brought a national dilemma upon that country. You have caused mothers and fathers to feel ashamed and devastated at the dreaded news. It is going to take monumental effort to salvage this wasted national treasure. I wish you were not even born.

  3. Yetesfa Chinachile

    This is the result of a ruin political-education system that evolved quite 30 years back, starting in 1980 E.C. and has became more worst in EPRDF regime. This a breakthrough and use as a turning point for the generation come, however changes shouldn’t come overnight. It is almost a miracle as more than 1000 schools unable to score a pass mark, 50/100 at least a student. This infers that no school has at least top 5 or 10 students or all these schools and students were have been below standard or average.

    Mostly school administrators are liable for this catastrophic result as most teachers have been encouraged group work and cheating in which at the end of the day when truth prevail they are ashamed of all mistakes they did. My other point is that I think those students who were good performer lost their confidence and courage due to this controlling system. May be Prof. Birhanu shall assign a research team to investigate and examine the psychology students as a field research as it gives an input for next time. Though these result show a great loss in young and productive age group, in stead of upgrading the skill and knowledge of those students who get nearest to pass mark, 50/100 for a year and arrange to take the exam a gain on next year, it may be good if these nearest students take an entrance exam in colleges or universities (shall be administered again by Ministry of Education) and pave the way to join colleges, otherwise the consequence of these failed students become a disastrous outcome for a nation. It doesn’t mean they need support but it would be a policy issue that a government has to take an assignment on improving the deteriorated political-education system. So great work Prof. Birhanu, more has to be done on changing the system provided that a big psychological work also need on these active, young and productive age group.

    Damn, Damn, Damn group work and cheating!!!

  4. Yetesfa Chilanchile

    This is the result of a ruin political-education system that evolved quite 30 years back, starting in 1980 E.C. and has become worst in EPRDF regime. This is a breakthrough and uses as a turning point for the generation come, however changes shouldn’t come overnight. It is almost a miracle as more than 1000 schools unable to score a pass mark, 50/100 at least a student. This infers that no school has at least top 5 or 10 students or all these schools and students were been below standard or average.

    Mostly school administrators are liable for this catastrophic result as most teachers have been encouraged group work and cheating in which at the end of the day when truth prevail they are ashamed of all mistakes they did. My other point is that I think those students who were good performer lost their confidence and courage due to this controlling system. May be Prof. Birhanu shall assign a research team to investigate and examine the psychology of students as a field research as it gives an input for next time. Though these result show a great loss in young and productive age group, instead of upgrading the skill and knowledge of those students who got nearest to pass mark, 50/100 for a year and arrange to take the exam a gain on next year, it may be good if these nearest students take an entrance exam in colleges or universities (shall be administered again by Ministry of Education) and pave the way to join colleges, otherwise the consequence of these failed students become a disastrous outcome for a nation. It doesn’t mean they need support but it would be a policy issue that a government has to take an assignment on improving the deteriorated political-education system.

    So great work Prof. Birhanu, more has to be done on changing the system provided that a big psychological work also need on this active, young and productive age group.
    Damn, Damn, Damn group work, cheating!!!

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