Oromia Region

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For the zone of this name in the
Amhara Region, see Oromia Zone.
Flag of the Oromia
Region
Oromia (sometimes spelled Oromiya
and spelled Oromiyaa in the Oromo
language) is one of the nine ethnic
divisions (kililoch) of Ethiopia. Map of Ethiopia highlighting the Oromia region
Covering 353,632 km² from the east to de jure Addis
the southwest of the country, its Capital city Ababa[1]
population was estimated in 2002 at de facto Adama
about twenty-four million, making it
the largest state in terms of both Official languages Oromo
population and land area. It includes Recognised regional
the former Arsi Province along with Oromo
languages\Dialects
portions of the former Bale, Hararghe,
Illubabor, Kaffa, Shewa, Sidamo, and
Welega provinces. Its current capital is Adama; other important cities and towns include
Ambo, Asella, Debre Zeit, Dembidolo, Fiche, Gelemso, Gimbi, Goba, Jimma, Metu,
Negele Boran, Nekemte, Shashamane and Waliso.

Historically, the Oromo people migrated from east of the Great Rift Valley into the
Omotic-speaking areas of western Oromia. In this sense, eastern Shewa and all zones
west of it are zones of Oromo colonization.

Prior to 2000, the Regional capital of Oromia was Addis Ababa, also known as
"Finfinne" (the original name in the Oromo language). The relocation of the regional
capital to Adama sparked considerable controversy. Critics of the move believed the
Ethiopian government wished to deemphasize Addis Ababa's location within Oromia.[2][3]
On the other hand, the government maintained that Addis Ababa "has been found
inconvenient from the point of view of developing the language, culture and history of
the Oromo people."[4]

On June 10, 2005, the Oromo Peoples' Democratic Organization (OPDO), part of the
ruling EPRDF coalition, officially announced plans to move the state capital back to
Finfinne.[5]

Oromia shares a boundary with every Region of Ethiopia except for the Tigray Region.
This boundary has been disputed with Oromia's neighbors in a number of cases, most
notably between Oromia and the Somali Region. One attempt to resolve the dispute
between the two Regions was the October, 2004 referendum held in about 420 kebeles in
12 woredas across five zones of the Somali Region. According to the official results of
the referendum, about 80% of the disputed areas have fallen under Oromia
administration, though there were numerous allegations of voting irregularities in many
of them.[6] The results led over the following weeks to minorities in these kebeles being
pressured to leave. In Oromya, estimates based on figures given by local woreda and
kebele authorities suggest that a total of 21,520 people have been displaced in different
border woredas, namely Mieso, Doba, and Erer in the Mirab and Misraq Hararghe Zones.
On the other hand, Federal authorities believe that this number may be overstated by as
much as 11,000. In Doba woreda, the Ministry of Federal Affairs put the number of IDPs
at 6,000. There are also more than 2,500 displaced persons in Mieso.[7] In addition, there
were reports of people being displaced in the border area of Moyale and Borena zones
due to this conflict.[8]

Contents
[hide]

• 1 Demographics
• 2 Economy
• 3 Presidents of the Executive Committee
• 4 Zones
• 5 See also
• 6 References
• 7 External links

o 7.1 Media

[edit] Demographics
Based on the 2007 Census conducted by the Central Statistical Agency of Ethiopia
(CSA), Oromia has a total population of 27,158,471, consisting of 13,676,159 men and
13,482,312 women; urban inhabitants number 3,370,040 or 11.3% of the population.
With an estimated area of 353,006.81 square kilometers, this region has an estimated
population density of 76.93 people per square kilometer. For the entire region 5,590,530
households were counted, which results in an average for the Region of 4.8 persons to a
household, with urban households having on average 3.8 and rural households 5.0 people.
Ethnic groups include the Oromo (87.8%), Amhara (7.22%), Gurage (0.93% - some of
Sebat Bet Gurage, Soddo Gurage, and Silt'e); the remaining 4% constitute other ethnic
groups. 47.5% were Muslim, 30.5% Orthodox Christians, 17.7% Protestants, 3.3%
followers of traditional religions and 1.1 all other religious groups; in urban areas,
Orthodox Christians constitute 51.2% of the population, followed by Muslims at 29.9%,
Protestants 17.5%, and all other religious groups at 1.5%.[9]
In the previous census, conducted in 1994, the region's population was reported to be
18,732,525, of whom 9,371,228 were men and 9,361,297 women; urban inhabitants
number 621,210 or 14% of the population. 44.3% were Muslims, 41.3% Orthodox
Christians, 8.6% Protestants, and 4.2% followers of traditional religions. The remaining
1.6% constitute other religious groups; in urban areas, Orthodox Christians constitute
67.8% of the population, followed by Muslims at 24.0%, and Protestants 7%.

The major ethnic groups within the State were the Oromo (85%), Amhara (9.1%), and
Gurage (0.98%); 4.6% constitute all other ethnic groups. However figures of full ethnic
background are disputed, since many ethnically mixed Ethiopians are difficult to
categorize. Particularly, Shewa Oromos and urban Oromos are known to have assimilated
with ethnic Amhara and others, while southwestern Oromos have mixed with the Sidama
and other ethnicities. The census and the general system of governance has remained
controversial and related to the politics of the country. For instance, mixed Ethiopians
with Oromo father and Amhara mother are registered into the census using only their
father's ethnic label.

Oromo (Oromiffa), presently written with Latin characters, is the most commonly spoken
language, constituting 83.5% of the spoken language. Other major languages are Amharic
(11%) (especially in eastern Welega and northern Shewa), Gurage languages (Sebat Bet
Gurage, Soddo, Silt'e), Hadiya, Gedeo (0.98%), especially in western and eastern Shewa;
and Tigrigna (0.25%). Omotic languages are spoken by significant minorities in Jimma,
Illubabor and western Welega; and some Nilo-Saharan languages (including Komo,
Majang, Gumuz, and Berta) are spoken in communities scattered in the west.

According to the CSA, as of 2004, 32% of the total population had access to safe
drinking water, of whom 23.7% were rural inhabitants and 91.03% were urban.[10] Values
for other reported common indicators of the standard of living for Oromia as of 2005
include the following: 19.9% of the inhabitants fall into the lowest wealth quintile; adult
literacy for men is 61.5% and for women 29.5%; and the Regional infant mortality rate is
76 infant deaths per 1,000 live births, which is about the same as the nationwide average
of 77; at least half of these deaths occurred in the infants’ first month of life.[11]

[edit] Economy
The CSA reported that for 2004-2005 115,083 tons of coffee were produced in Oromia,
based on inspection records from the Ethiopian Coffee and Tea Authority. This represents
50.7% of the total production in Ethiopia. Farmers in the Region had an estimated total of
17,214,540 cattle (representing 44.4% of Ethiopia's total cattle), 6,905,370 sheep (39.6),
4,849,060 goats (37.4%), 959,710 horses (63.25%), 63,460 mules (43.1%), 278,440 asses
(11.1%), 139,830 camels (30.6%), 11,637,070 poultry of all species (37.7%), and
2,513,790 beehives (57.73%).[12]

According to a March 2003 World Bank publication, the average rural household has
1.14 hectares of land compared to the national average of 1.01 hectares, 24% of the
population is in non-farm related jobs compared to the national average of 25%.[13]
in the twenty-first century, like science and technology;
(ii) there is too much emphasis on academic theory, and
the curriculum is heavily overloaded with content which
is unrelated to reality in the country; (iii) new policy
initiatives have not been completely assimilated by the
teachers-some of them still use the old curriculum and
methods of teaching; (iv) and the professional level of
the teachers is very low. At school level, the following
problems have been identified: (i) a systematic and
didactic approach to the curriculum is lacking; (ii) also
missing is a lack of content on proper theory to justify
the basic philosophy and objectives; (iii) the school
syllabus lacks structural unity and continuity; (iv) an
interdisciplinary approach to teaching does not exist; and
(v) textbooks are of poor quality and teacher training is
inadequate.
II. SOLUTIONS
In Eritrea, people believe that the role of the curriculum
is to raise productivity and improve the social structure.
It is important for the curriculum to promote society’s
wishes by making education more equitable. T h e
curriculum should be focused on the betterment of
human society through local and internal diversification
and local va r i a t i o n s—thus, there is a need for the
structure of the school system to be unified. T h e
democratization of the curriculum will help to secure
community participation; for instance, the use of local
languages at primary level is a way of encouraging
people to support education and schooling. As far as textbook
production is concerned, authorship of books has to
be to opened up to universities and individual academics.
There is also a need for more emphasis on school-based
examinations and continuous assessment rather than
external examinations. Another solution would be to
have national assessments based on competence tests in
targeted areas.

5. Ethiopia
Dereje Terefe Gemechu
The Ethiopian education system is characterized by the
lowest access to education in sub-Saharan Africa. The
enrolment ratio for girls is 40.7%, while for boys it is
60.9%. Participation rates vary significantly between
regions. The country has developed an Education Sector
Development Programme covering a period of twenty
years, by which time universal primary education should
have been achieved. Performance targets for the short-,
medium- and long-term scale have also been set.
I. PROBLEMS AFFECTING
THE EDUCATION SYSTEM
First of all, the education sector in Ethiopia is
characterized by low enrolment at all levels. Fo r
instance, only 51% of the school-age population attend
primary school, whilst secondary education is accessible
to only 10% of the age group. Thus, higher education is
only available to a small fraction of those who manage to
complete secondary schooling successfully. Secondly,
the low and declining quality of education at various levels
has led to high drop-out and repetition rates, especially
for girls. This poor quality is influenced by a lack
of adequate teaching materials, inadequate teacher training,
and curricula that do not respond to regional, cultural
and linguistic diversity. Thirdly, schools are unevenly
d i s t r i buted among different regions and rural/urban
areas. Hence, there are inevitable disparities among
r egions, between genders and levels of schooling.
Fourthly, the schools have the following outstanding
problems: (i) poor infrastructure; (ii) delayed distribution
of teaching and learning materials; (iii) slow
dissemination of new ideas and educational innovations;
and (iv) out-of-date attitudes to monitoring schools’
performance, while professional management strategies
are lacking.
There are also some problems related to the
curricula because they have undergone a series of
changes. During these changes, the following problems
have come to the surface: (i) due to the decentralization
process, there has been a lack of professional expertise in
curriculum design, materials development, monitoring
and evaluation; (ii) the newly adopted media of
instruction have little or no literary stocks, such as
dictionaries, glossaries and other printed literature; (iii)
the recent curriculum is more demanding on both
teachers and students, while teachers and school
administrators have received little support from the
central services; (iv) teachers are resistant to the new
changes; (v) school timetables have become over-loaded,
particularly with the arrival of new concepts to be taught,
e.g. HIV/AIDS, gender issues, etc.; (vi) there is minimal
co-operation and participation by parents in schooling;
and (vii) financing is very poor for schools.
II. SOLUTIONS
Solutions to these problems require continuous research,
planning and determined execution of planned activities.
The Education Sector Development Programme could be
a strategic solution for most of the problems, since it
addresses the human, professional, material financial and
managerial demands and expectations at all leve l s .
Another strategy would be to raise public awareness, in
order to mobilize the support of the people in ensuring
the success of education and training programmes. There
is also a need to create a common mindset among professionals
and the teaching force. Problems regarding the
curriculum can be counteracted as follows: (i)
continuous capacity-building at regional, local and
school levels; (ii) preparing teacher to introduce
curricular innovations; (iii) improvement in the schools’
infrastructure; (iv) improvements to the school timetable,
the pupil/teacher ratio and the distribution of teaching
materials; and (v) continuous evaluation and review concerning
the implementation of the curriculum.
51
III. EDUCATIONAL REFORM
Ethiopia carried out its most recent educational reform in
the 1990s, which introduced two major developments:
(a) the education system has been decentralized; and (b)
responsibility for the curriculum has been decentralized,
particularly to primary schools. The medium of
instruction at the primary level has become the local
language(s) that each regional/zonal council approves.
The federal language, Amharic, is introduced as a subject
at grade three in non-Amharic zones or regions, while
English is used as a medium of instruction from
secondary education onwards. The education and
training policy reforms have also presented an
implementation strategy known as the Education Sector
D evelopment Programme. How eve r, it immediately
became clear that there is a lack of reading materials in
local languages and a shortage of teaching staff. The use
of local languages is an attempt by the government to
recognize the rights of different ethnic groups since it
will help them to develop their culture. This political
initiative has created an impression of cultural restoration
and of national identity among the wider public. It
has had a positive effect on school participation rates in
all primary schools and has increased community
participation, as well as contributing to a sense of
partnership and of school ownership.
N evertheless, there is a need for more studies,
research and capacity-building measures in the area of
language instruction. The learners’ competence and
mastery of the English language still leaves much to be
desired. Textbook production is also a major problem in
terms of quality, timely distribution, the number of textbooks
per student and the availability of a fully fledged
publishing policy. Some problems have also been
experienced with the implementation of the reforms
since: (i) the curriculum has been reviewed several times,
and the textbooks have also been reviewed and reprinted;
and (ii) there is a need for in-service training so that
teachers may move away from teacher-centred learning
strategies; and (iii) the school timetable is heavily
overloaded a situation that could be avoided through
interdisciplinarity.
IV. SPECIAL ISSUES
Ethiopia has the second largest population in sub-
Saharan Africa, yet access to education is one of the
l owest in the region. The education sector is
characterized by low enrolment at all levels; as
mentioned, only 51% of the school-age population
r e c e ives primary education. The recent curriculum
reforms introduced a situation in which twenty national
languages became the media for instruction either in
lower primary (grades 1 to 4 or 1 to 6) or in full primary
(grades 1 to 8) schools. The problems related to the use
of so many languages include the standardization of the
languages themselves, the availability of printed
materials and sometimes a lack of teaching staff .
Nonetheless, the government hopes that this policy will
result in some form of cultural restoration and recognition
for national identities among the wider public.

6. Kenya
J. Kiptoon
Kenya, like any other developing country, faces the challenge
of providing quality education to its growing population
against the backdrop of dwindling resources. The
problems and the challenges are mainly related to issues
of access, equity, quality and relevance of education.
Kenya’s people belong to different tribes. Thus, the
Kenyan education system has been designed to cater for
and foster national unity and development, economic
and social needs through individual development
and self-development, social equality, respect and development
of a cultural heritage, as well as raising awareness
of an international consciousness. However, like
most African countries, Kenya has educational problems
that are listed below.
I. PROBLEMS WITH THE EDUCATION SYSTEM
One of the major problems facing the school system and
curricula is related to access to formal education, whose
problems revo l ve around enrolment, retention,
transition, completion, drop-out and repetition rates. To
illustrate this point, in 1990, the gross enrolment rate at
primary level was 101%, as opposed to 86.9% in 1999.
Out of 8 million children aged between 6 and 13 years,
only 5 million were enrolled in primary schools in 1999.
Another problem results from the fact that the
community is responsible for the recruitment and
payment of teachers, most of whom are not well trained
and are relatively poorly paid. Further problems include
the following: (i) education is expensive, hence some
households cannot afford to send their children to school,
while in some schools facilities are limited; (ii) the
inflexibility of the education system and the curriculum;
(iii) the impact of poverty, HIV/AIDS and drug abuse;
(iv) insecurity in some areas where children may be
attacked on their way to school; (v) poor access to
educational services in remote areas; and (v) inequitable
d i s t r i bution of learning and instructional materials
throughout the country.
Before the implementation of the 8+4+4 curriculum,
the previous 7+4+2+3 curriculum had become irrelevant
and inappropriate to the needs of learners and society. If
we look at the quality of education in the 8+4+4 curriculum,
the following problems have been identified: (i) the
practical, skills-based curriculum is too expensive for the
government, parents and communities to maintain; (ii)
inadequate teacher training and poor fa c i l i t i e s ,
equipment and teaching/learning materials; (iii) weak
resource management; and (iv) poor monitoring and
evaluation of the new curricula. There are also some
problems related to the relevance of the education
provided to the Kenyans, which include a mismatch
52