埃塞俄比亚中小学教育性别不平等问题探析

在埃塞俄比亚中小学教育中,无论是教育过程还是教育结果,女生都明显处于弱势地位。其中既有经济原因,也有社会性别观念和暴力等因素。要有效减少教育中的性别不平等问题,埃塞俄比亚需要从以下三方面去努力:第一,积极采取措施发展经济,增加教育投入,提高人们的教育支付能力;第二,提高家长的受教育水平并使人们认识到女孩接受教育的重要性;第三,采取有效措施减少针对女童的暴力行为。     

Participatory Plant Breeding with Traders and Farmers for White Pea Bean in Ethiopia

Abstract

Purpose: This research, conducted in Ethiopia, involved select stakeholders in the variety evaluation process early: to identify a greater number of acceptable varieties and to shorten a lengthy research and release process.

Design/methodology/approach: A Participatory Plant Breeding (PPB) approach was used in both on-station and community-based trial evaluations. Farmers, traders and processors evaluated bean varieties for promotion, considering field performance, culinary characteristics, market value, and canning acceptability.

Findings: Within four years, two varieties were identified and recommended for release which were high performing, had excellent consumption and cooking characteristics for local foods, fetched high local market prices and met international canning quality standards.

Practical implications: (1) Ethiopian men and women have distinct criteria for evaluating white pea beans, the former putting emphasis on marketability, with women focusing on food security issues. Both groups might be involved in the selection process. (2) Key characteristics cited by farmers, for instance, use for forage, may not be taken into account in the formal breeding process. Expanding the criteria used to determine which varieties should be released would make economic sense. (3) Farmers screened for local product acceptability before researchers put forward lines for testing by the export and canning industry. Local acceptability need not necessarily conflict with market chain acceptability—if the right processes are followed.

Originality/value: The context was unusual: a) the region was drought-prone; and b) the crop had to meet rigorous canning requirements, plus local preferences. The involvement of traders and processors was novel, as was the use of a ‘participatory framework’ even when the product had to meet stringent market requirements.     

Rural Child Labour: Views of Extension Agents in Ethiopia

Abstract

Purpose:

Whilst children working in agriculture and domestic work is an inherent part of growing up and essential for survival, if boys and girls lose out on education they are less equipped to respond to inevitable environmental shocks and to negotiate agri-food value chains. This article investigates views of extension agents on children working.     

School closures and educational attainment in Ethiopia: Can extra classes help children to catch up?

School closures impact children's attainment adversely, but understanding the effects of closures on children's attainment in lower-income countries is still limited. Addressing this deficit, this study examines how past school closures have impacted children's educational attainment in Ethiopia. The study uses individual student-level data from the Young Lives School Survey and standardised test scores in mathematics and language recorded at the start and end of the school year to model children's attainment. Multiple regression with propensity score matching is used to analyse how attainment over the school year is impacted by school closures for a matched sub-sample of 4842 students. The effectiveness of additional classes to make up for lost learning is also evaluated. Past school closures have had a detrimental effect on attainment in mathematics, but not literacy. Extra classes, specifically those that families do not pay for, have helped children in the past to recuperate lost learning and could serve this function post-Covid-19. Inequalities in learning outcomes, measured by Gini coefficients in educational attainment, are widened by school closures. Applying these results to the extensive school closures under Covid-19 furthers our understanding of the likely effects on academic attainment and can inform policy to mitigate the impact.     

Insights into E-information Resources (E-journals) Access Models in Higher Learning Institutions in Ethiopia

This study overviews access models in the Higher Learning Institutions (HLIs) of Ethiopia made accessible through different partners, publishers, and/or aggregators. The study revealed that accessibility of e-information resources (e-journals) in the HLIs of Ethiopia is on the rise despite access barriers. It is also confirmed that users' information need, practical situations of universities, and the motives of access models/initiatives are different. The study recommends that awareness creation campaign is needed to maximize the benefits of access models for individual users, universities, and the society at large. Similarly, information literacy training is needed to increase accessibility of access models.     

Rebirth of library and information science education in Ethiopia: Retrospectives and prospectives

This paper traces the history of Library and Information Science (LIS) education in Ethiopia, since its inception in 1959, reviewing both the retrospective (historical background) and prospective (rebirth and future direction). A comparison of the curricula of Jimma and Haramaya Universities demonstrates the transition from a traditional, closed model of librarianship to the contemporary, open model and the changes in programs’ names from Library Science to Information Science. Internationalization of the programs, incorporation of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) related courses, and information literacy programs are enhancing the transformation of LIS education. The author recommends continued reorienting of programs to meet rapidly changing needs, expanding the academic as opposed to vocational only dimensions, and increased marketing.     

Haramaya University Library and Information Services: Looking back to look forward

Over the last decade, a number of trends and paradigm shifts have been witnessed in academic libraries worldwide. This paper reports on the history and current status of an Ethiopian academic library, Haramaya University Library and Information Services (HULIS). It explores bold issues, trends, and paradigm shifts that have been accruing worldwide with respect to HULIS and attempts to envision HULIS in the not-too-distant future. Finally, it sets forth future directions that can serve as a road map to transform HULIS in particular and Ethiopian university libraries in general.     

Sexual violence,schooling and silence: teacher narratives from a secondary school in Ethiopia

Sexual violence is recognised as a public health and human rights problem worldwide. Although schools are expected to be safe places for young people and are envisaged as institutions that challenge social injustices, they are increasingly identified as sites where disproportionately high levels of sexual violence occurs. This study seeks to understand how sexual violence in schooling contexts is conceptualised and interrogated by teachers with a focus on lived experiences, the consequences and the underlying causes. The study is based on qualitative research conducted at a secondary school in Ethiopia. The findings point to overwhelming evidence that sexual violence pervades in secondary schools, with a wide range of adverse consequences on girls’ wellbeing and educational attainment. The study demonstrates how nature, culture and society are included in conceptual thinking about the causes of sexual violence and explores teachers’ agency in addressing the phenomenon.     

Improving teacher training in Ethiopia: Shifting the content and approach of pre-service teacher education

Teacher education in Ethiopia has undergone multiple reforms, yet primary students still struggle to learn to read. The USAID-funded Reading for Ethiopia's Achievement Developed - Technical Assistance project aimed to reform the primary school curriculum and teacher education to improve instructional approaches to teaching reading and writing. We examine the process and effectiveness of the project's pre-service teacher education component. Impacts on teacher educator pedagogywere observed at Colleges of Teacher Education, including less lecturing and greater use of student-centered teaching and learning approaches. Sustainability depends on the government's efforts to invest in long-term solutions and promote student-centered pedagogy.