Mother tongue-based primary education in contemporary Ethiopia

Abstract

The article deals with the issues of mother tongue-based primary education and teacher training in present-day Ethiopia. The theoretical study is based on secondary data (i.e., written documents) from various sources such as legal articles, constitutions, journal articles, and dissertations. It focuses on analysing the similarities and differences between the regional policies and the guidelines of the Ministry of Education regarding mother tongue education at the primary level, as well as the consistency of the regional primary teacher education programs with the guidelines mentioned. The results show that only the Oromiya region and Afan Oromo streams in the Amhara region are fully compliant with the federal policy as Afan Oromo is used as the medium of instruction throughout the primary level and first-and second-cycle teacher training programs. The Tigray and Somali regions are almost in line with the policy as they use the mother tongue as the medium of instruction for the 8 years of primary education. However, both regions have adopted English as the medium of instruction for the second cycle, although teachers will teach in the mother tongue. According to the secondary data, other inconsistencies exist in the Amhara, Dire Dawa, and Harari regions, as well as in the Amharic Streams in the Somali region. In Addis Ababa, mother tongue instruction has been completely eliminated from the curriculum for grades 7-8. Finally, least in line with a federal policy are the Gambella and Southern Nations, Nationalities, and Peoples’ Region, where there is no mother tongue instruction in the second cycle of primary education, and Afar and Benishangul-Gumuz, where there is no mother tongue as the medium of instruction.