The Ethiopian curriculum development and implementation vis-à-vis Schwab's signs of crisis in the field of curriculum

Ruptured school trajectories: understanding the impact of COVID-19 on school dropout, socio-emotional and academic learning using a longitudinal design

“…This could include establishing dedicated offices to develop approaches for mainstreaming SEL within education, including during crises and closures; designing and implementing specialised teacher training to share practical pedagogies and methods for promoting SEL; reviewing curricula, syllabi and related documents to ensure that they align with teaching approaches to foster SEL in schooling, which could include specifying standards and strategies for integrating SEL into academic subjects and the wider school culture; and committing additional resources to timetabled extracurricular activities that nurture SEL, such as clubs and safe spaces for girls. It could also support arguments for 'self- contained classrooms' during the lower primary years in Ethiopia and elsewhere, whereby one teacher guides and oversees children's learning and progress across all domains of development, rather than rotating between classes to instruct different subjects (Melese and Tadege, 2019).…”

Practitioners’ Curriculum Conceptualization and Their Professional Participation in Curriculum Development and Implementation in Ethiopia

“…In the context of the Ethiopian education system, it is conceptualized that the trends of the objective model of curriculum development reduce practitioners’ autonomy by giving emphasis to the top curriculum experts at the level of the ministry with a top-down approach of curriculum development (Solomon & Sintayehu, 2020; Solomon & Aschalew, 2019; Seyoum, 1996). Largely, the process of curriculum development has been taking place through top-down approach without taking into account the views of the practitioners.…”

“…Challenges associated with the conception of a curriculum as a technical procedure are in line with the nature of practitioners’ participation due to the reflection of the prescriptive nature of the conception that reduces freedom of practitioners like teachers. In the name of curriculum standardization, the state agents are maintaining the status quo, which largely ignores local knowledge and self-empowerment of practitioners (Solomon & Aschalew, 2019; Pinar, 2004). It is something imposed by authority from the top officials to maintain the standard and to make teachers’ competency based on the stated prescription (Solomon & Sintayehu, 2020; Solomon & Aschalew, 2019; Ornstein & Hunkins, 2009).…”

Decolonising Epistemologies: The Paradoxes of a Self-Colonised State

“…The inequalities in education opportunities in the past had to be evaluated. Bishaw & Lasser, 2012:60 The Future of Ethiopian Education Melese, Tadege & Agosto (2019) claim that Ethiopian education system was influenced by the French, Italian, British, American, and socialist countries. Furthermore, this French-oriented system sought the learners to master different languages hence critics were against labelling these schools as simply language schools and nothing more.…”

“…Currently, Ethiopia has put in place plans to transform their education system to address some of the gaps they find, including the decolonisation of education. Melese et al (2019) point out that the government has now developed a new education and training policy with new major and specific objectives. These authors state that the important qualities of the policy include the reorganisation of the curriculum and the introduction of indigenous languages as medium of instruction.…”