Ethiopia’s Ministry of Education said on Aug. 21, 2019 that it would start replacing the 8-2-2 school structure with a 6-2-4 system in the next academic year, borkena reported.
Elementary school pupils at a school in the Semien Mountains of northern Ethiopia, photographed on March 24, 2016. (Zelalemgizachew / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0) [file photo]
Education Minister Tilaye Gete announced the decision at a press conference with local journalists, according to the Ethiopian News Agency, which borkena cited. Under the new structure, pupils spend six years in primary school, two years in junior school and four years in high school.
Students would sit a regional exam at the end of grade 6 and a national exam in grade 8, the minister said. The grade 10 national exam would be cancelled and replaced by a national higher education entrance exam in grade 12, and students meeting the criteria could choose a technical and vocational stream.
“35 newly identified proposals have been incorporated into the road-map during the preceding consultation meetings, out of which 12 items will be implemented in the next academic year,” ENA quoted Tilaye as saying.
The outgoing 8-2-2 system, in place for more than two decades, had pupils spend eight years in primary school, two years in general secondary school and two years in preparatory school for higher education.
In the same week, the Higher Education Relevance and Quality Agency closed 18 colleges in Addis Ababa over poor-quality education, Wazema Radio reported, citing Ethio FM 107.8. The agency had also closed institutions in the regions on similar grounds.
The change took effect from the 2019–20 academic year, with regional exams after grades 6 and 8 and the grade 10 certificate exam dropped, according to the U.S.-based credential evaluation group AACRAO.
In October 2022, the ministry moved the grade 12 school-leaving exam from secondary schools to public universities to curb cheating and paper leaks. About 937,000 students sat the exam on university campuses, University World News reported.
Sources: borkena (Aug. 22, 2019), AACRAO EDGE: Ethiopia, University World News: “School exit exam needs universities’ active involvement” (Nov. 2022)