In its 6th House of People’s Representatives 2nd regular meeting of the 4th year of office, the house of people’s representatives in Ethiopia, has examined and directed draft proclamations to the relevant standing committee on Tuesday. The draft general education proclamation was among the draft proclamations presented that the house discussed and referred to the standing committee. The draft proclamation was presented by Minister Tesfaye Belejge and then questions, comments and objections were heard.
Among the questions raised by the house members, the first question was that stated the problems of teachers should be solved to bring the quality education. It is said that it is not expected the quality of education will come without solving the problem of teachers and it cannot be effective without increasing the capacity of teachers. Moreover, the salaries of teachers are not paid in time and there are delayances that complained usually and if the teachers demanded they were arrested so those problems should be solved, and the draft proclamation should support those endeavours.
On the other hand, members of the house pointed out that the draft proclamation should play a significant role in bringing back millions of children who were absent from school due to security problems, and expressed their complaint that it should be re-examined before it is sent to the Standing Committee.
Moreover, the draft which stipulates that students should learn three languages, has been strongly criticized by members of the House. While the draft stipulates that the mother tongue should be offered to pre-primary students, it also provides that “one additional local language among the federal working languages” be offered as a subject from grades 3 to 10 at the discretion of the student or parent.
Members of the council, however, criticized the release of the law when the country has yet to approve additional federal working languages. The members of the chouse urged the standing committee to look into the draft bill, especially in terms of the local language of the education system.
It also contains an article that prohibits individuals convicted of sexual assault from working as teachers or setting up private schools.
The House listened to the questions raised by the members and approved the General Education Bill by a majority vote with one dissent and referred it to the relevant Standing Committee for detailed consideration.
