‘From School to Adulthood’? Young People's Pathways Through Schooling in Urban Ethiopia

Abstract

This article presents a case study of a rapidly evolving urban community in Southern Ethiopia drawing on survey and qualitative data from Young Lives, a long-term international study of two cohorts of children growing up in poverty (born 1994-1995 and 2000-2001). It uses this to set visible changes in aspirations and experiences of schooling over time in their political and economic context. The article illustrates the value of mixed-methods approaches within international development research by juxtaposing individual and household level data, both survey and qualitative, with data collected through school-and community-based research. This enables analysis of processes of power and social change taking place in contemporary Ethiopia and reflected in changing attitudes towards education and employment. Finally, the chapter highlights the challenges for the Ethiopian education system in meeting children's aspirations, in the context of rapidly declining economic opportunities after leaving school.Cet article pre´sente une e´tude de cas d'une communaute´urbaine en É thiopie du sud caracte´rise´e par un changement rapide et constant. Cette e´tude s'appuie sur des donne´es qualitatives et d'enqueˆte tire´es de 'Young Lives', une e´tude internationale de long terme mene´es aupre`s de deux cohortes d'enfants grandissant dans des conditions de pauvrete´ (et ne´s en 1994-95 et en 2000-01). Sur la base de ces donne´es, ce travail situe dans leur contexte e´conomique et politique l'e´volution des aspirations et des ve´cus scolaires des enqueˆte´s. L'article illustre ainsi la valeur des me´thodes mixtes pour la recherche sur le de´veloppement, juxtaposant des donne´es de me´nages et d'individus a`la fois qualitatives et d'enqueˆte avec des donne´es tire´es de recherches sur les communaute´s et le syste´me scolaire. Ceci permet une analyse des processus de changements sociaux et de pouvoir se produisant dans l'É thiopie contemporaine, et qui se refle`tent en particulier dans l'e´volution de comportements vis-a`-vis de l'e´ducation et de l'emploi. Enfin, ce travail met en e´vidence les de´fis auxquels le syste`me e´ducatif e´thiopien est confronte´pour satisfaire aux aspirations des enfants, et ceci dans un contexte plus large d'une diminution rapide des opportunite´s e´conomiques pour les jeunes quittant l'e´cole.

Lessons from the ‘new’ sociology of childhood: how might listening to children improve the planning of education for development?

“…In line with other research with children and young people in Ethiopia, this research found children in Hawassa children to value education as essential to their current and future wellbeing (Boyden, 2013;Camfield, 2011). Participants had clear ideas about why they wanted go to school, and about how education was and would help them in the present and in the future.…”

“…Children's narratives about their education were analysed in order to explore their motivations for going to school and where these motivations came from, and to identify potential functions for education in this context. They were not taken as 'truth' in terms of what education was and would actually achieve for these children, and in many instances children's high expectations, for instance for prestigious and professional employment outcomes, were likely to remain unfulfilled (Camfield, 2011;Tafere, 2014).…”

What Inequality means for Children

“…While these shifting expectations are observed for all four countries, they are especially marked in Ethiopia, where unemployment is as high as 50% in some urban areas, and employment opportunities for girls in the formal skilled labour market are particularly scarce (Camfield, 2011). Perceptions of social risk result in further constraints for girls Camfield, and Tafere, 2011).…”

Formal Education and Migration Aspirations in Ethiopia

“…The current generation of Ethiopian youth is the first to receive access to primary education on a wide scale; net enrollment rates increased from 21 to 93 percent over the last two decades (UN ). This rapid educational transformation seems to coincide with another important shift: an aspirational orientation away from rural, agrarian livelihoods toward urban, professional futures (see Abebe ; Tadele and Gella ; Camfield ; Maurus ). Although Ethiopia remains one of the least urbanized countries in Africa—with some 80 percent of its population living in rural areas, compared to an average of 62 percent in sub‐Saharan Africa—the country is urbanizing quickly, at a rate of 4.9 percent (2010–2015 estimate), and the economic, educational, and demographic transitions unfolding in Ethiopia augur significant shifts for the movement of its populations.…”