By Dr. Richard Pankhurst:-
Pre-war’s Ethiopia’s educational system began to take shape after the Emperor Haile Sellassie’s coronation in 1930.
At that time a Ministry of Education and Fine Arts was established
under Blattengetta Sahlu Sedalu, a former graduate of the Menilek
School. The Ministry’s First Secretary was Ato Kidina Mariam Aberra. The
Ministry, according to Zervos, was then allotted 2 per cent of the
Treasury’s revenue, besides the special education tax mentioned in a
previous article.
Other action was also taken. The Emperor is reported by his Swedish
advisor Eric Virgin to have given orders that soldiers should learn to
read and write, and that priests should instruct the youth.
A University Plan
A plan for a University was later drafted by the Ethiopian
Government’s American educational adviser, Ernest Work, formerly of
Muskingum College, in the United States. The plan envisaged a system of
six years
primary education, six years high school, and four years
University education. Special attention was to be paid to
teacher-training and agriculture. The basic problem, Work explained,
was, however, that there were no trained Ethiopian teachers available to
implement the plan.
Notwithstanding the immensity of the problems facing the country, significant advances were made in the next few years.
In 1930 the Lycee Haile Sellassie I was founded. It was decided that
it should give technical and linguistic training to some 100 students.
Instruction was in French, and the subjects studied included
mathematics, physics and chemistry, civil engineering, veterinary
science and modern languages.
Girls’ Education
The modern education of Ethiopian girls may be said to have begun in
the following year, 1931, when Empress Menen founded the girls’ school
which bore her name. Students followed their courses in French, and had a
succession of French head-mistresses: Mme. Garricoix, Mme. Havard, and
Mme. Garrigue, the last of whom commenced her duties in August, 1935,
little over a month before the Italian fascist invasion.
Subjects studied at the Menen School included science and
mathematics, as well as household management, dressmaking, and physical
training. Students sat annually at the French Legation for an
examination qualifying them for the French Certificate of Primary
Studies – and if any reader has such a certificate they should give it,
for the sake of history, to the Institute of Ethiopian Studies!.
Report on the school is provided by Mrs Sandford. Writing of the
period immediately before the war, she says that some 80 girls were at
the school. The Hungarian journalist Farago describes the institution’s
installations as the “most modern” in the
capital, and adds: “the dormitories impressed me most of all. They
were hygienic and tidy, and a Swiss pensionat could not have been more
comfortable.”
How to Educate a Daughter
The importance of the Menen School for Girls may be seen from the
fact that it was established in the face of strong opposition to women’s
education. Dr Merab, always a good observer of the Addis Ababa scene,
noted in 1928 that very few even among rich families, were willing to
employ a priest to educate their daughters. Popular opinion, he says,
believed that an educated woman would not took after the house, while
prejudice held that the husband of a literate wife would not live long
as his spouse would resort to curses and other wicked practices to kill
him. Merab, on asking one of his Ethiopian friends why he did not
educate his only daughter, received the following reply, “Where have I
the money to pay a priest or dabtara [i.e. lay cleric] to educate my
daughter, and to buy a eunuch to supervise the priest or dabtara.
St George’s School
Several other schools were also established in the years immediately
before the Italian war. St. George’s school, situated near the cathedral
of that name was opened in September 1929. It under the direction of a
Swiss, M. Bloch, who was later succeeded by an Ethiopian, Ato Akale: it
had five teachers and about 200 pupils. Instruction was in French, and
provided entirely free of charge.
School of the Redeemer
The School of the Redeemer for Orphans was founded by the Emperor in
1932. Situated at Gulale, on the north-western outskirts of the capital,
it was run by an Ethiopian headmaster, Ato Haile Mariam Gezmu, and
seven other teachers, including a Lebanese, Frederick Kamal, and later
by an Ethiopian assisted by a Greek. About a hundred exclusively male
students were lodged and taught free of charge. Instruction was in
French and Amharic. Subjects of study included science, mathematics,
shoemaking, blacksmiths’ work, and other trades.
Teacher Training and Boy Scouting
A Teachers’ Training School was established in 1934, with a view to providing teachers for provincial schools.
A Boy Scouts’ School was also founded in the same year, and was
directed at first by the above- mentioned Frederick Kamal, and later by
all Ethiopian assisted by a locally born Greek. Instruction was given in
French, and included all primary subjects, as well as typical Boy Scout
activities.
Fine Arts
The Imperial School of Art was established under the direction of Ato
Agagnew Ingida, who had studied in Paris at the Academie des Beaux
Arts. Interviewed by Farago, on the eve of the war, he declared: “I owe
everything to His Majesty. He enabled me to study, and now he is my only
patron”.
Falasha Students
Another interesting school in the capital was the School for
Falashas, or Beta Esra’el students, founded in 1924 by the French Jewish
scholar, Jacques Faitlovitch and his sister. Sponsored by the American
Pro-Falasha Committee, its director was Professor Tamrat Emanuel. The
school had three successive sites in Addis Ababa, First established near
Ras Makonnen bridge, it was later moved to Felwaha, and finally to
Gulale, on land provided by the Emperor. The school, according to a
traveller of this time, Hermann Norden, catered mainly for the children
of Falasha families employed in the city.
From the above outline we may fairly say that modern education, by 1935, had advanced considerably since Emperor Menilek’s day.
Provincial Education
The foundations of primary education were also laid at this time in a
number of provincial towns, where fourteen primary schools were
established between 1928 and 1935. It was of course impossible to set up
secondary schools until students had first passed through primary
school!
Dessie
Two schools were established in 1928: a French language school at
Dessie, founded by Princess Sahine, mother of Empress Menen, and an
English language school at Gore, called after Tafari Makonnen. The
British mining engineer Bartleet, who visited this latter school, says
it had cost 40,000 Maria Theresa dollars to build, and that this had
been collected by a 2 per cent. ad valorem export tax. The institution
had two Syrian and two Ethiopian teachers, and fifty pupils, who studied
Amharic, French, English, mathematics, and geography.
Three schools were set up in the following year: the Tafari Makonnen
school at Jijiga, and the Haile Sellassie school at Lekempt, both of
which gave instruction in English, and a school at Dire Dawa where both
French and English were used.
1930, the year of the Emperor’s coronation, witnessed the
establishment of a second school at Harar, which in 1933 was united with
Menilek’s old school, under the name Ecole Ras Makonnen.
In 1931 an English language school was founded at Asba Tafari by Dr. Worqneh Martin.
In 1932 a Haile Sellassie school was established at Ambo, and a Medhane Alem school at Jimma. Both gave instruction in French.
Two English speaking schools were set up in 1934: one at Gondar; the other at Debra Markos.
The last three pre-war schools, founded in 1935, the year of the
fascist invasion, were at Adwa and Makale, both of which were based on
English, and at Salale, on French.
By this time there were eight English language schools, situated on
the periphery of the Ethiopian Empire at Maqale, Adwa, Gondar, Debra
Markos, Lekemti, Gore, Jigjiga and Asba Tafari; five French language
schools, more in the heart of the country, at Harar, Dessie, Jimma, Ambo
and Salale, and one at Dire Dawa, where both languages were used.
Foreign Community Education
Several foreign communities also contributed to the furtherance of
Ethiopian education, in many cases through the medium of missionary
societies.
The French community ran several schools under the auspices of the
Alliance Francaise which served the education of youth irrespective of
nationality. By 1935 the Alliance had 450 students enrolled at its Addis
Ababa school. In Dire Dawa it had two schools: one for academic
studies, directed by M. Bonhomme, with 200 students, and another,
directed by Brother Galmier, which taught handicraft trades to about 30
students. Another 200 students, supervised by M. Maurel, were enrolled
at the Ras Makonnen School at Harar.
French Roman Catholic missions were also educationally very active.
Besides the Brothers of Saint Gabriel, who ran the Alliance Francaise
schools, there were Capuchin and Lazarist Fathers and the Franciscan
Sisters. The Capuchins, whose headquarters were at Toulouse, France, ran
educational projects in various parts of the country. In Addis Ababa
they had a small school for 20 pupils and an orphanage for 30 boys,
educated at the mission’s expense. Village schools were also operated at
Dobba, Sure, Lafto, Bilalu, Midagduu, Lafto-goba, Endeber and Enemor in
Gurage, Wassera in Kambata, Dubo in Walamo, Mine and Daga-dima in Arsi,
and Metcha in Shawa, and a small orphanage at Asba Tafari. The
Lazarists also ran a school and orphanage at Gulale, and a school at
Mandida, also in Shawa.
The Franciscan Sisters of Calais also played a modest role in girls’
education. In the capital they had a school for 30 pupils at the railway
station, another for 120, mainly day-girls, near the market, and two
orphanages with 25 and 70 inmates respectively. These missionaries also
ran an orphanage for 40 girls at Harar, a girls’ school and orphanage at
Dire Dawa where 70 day-girls and 40 boarders were taught music, design,
sewing, typing and shorthand, and an orphanage for 40 girls at Dobha.
Source: http://www.linkethiopia.org
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