Mezemir Girma, mezemir@yahoo.com
Debre Birhan
Sunday, September 23, 2018
Debre Birhan
Sunday, September 23, 2018
A few years ago American volunteers lived in Debre Birhan. One of them couldn’t believe us when we told her that the students at the university do not pay for the service they get. She was really amazed to learn this. “These guys are enjoying free education!” was what she said in amazement. For us, Ethiopians, this issue was not a big deal then. Only this year the same idea struck me.
Who am I to write this?
Oh yes! I should say how I feel I am the one to voice my views on this issue. First of all, I am a taxpayer who is older than most of the students at our universities. They should have worked to generate money for the nation as they are at the strongest age of their lifetime. I also feel that I should not pay tax to educate a youth most of whom do not take learning seriously. Most of them do not care about what they are learning. They do not invest their time and energy on education. This is from my observation. Interested researchers may find it a fertile area of research. I have spent the last few years at Debre Birhan University teaching English Literature that I think I know how education is not valued as much as it should be. Pupils come, pupils go. You just go cover your class duties. You teach, but no one cares. No love for learning, no interest. Not only at the English department, but across the other fields too. We teachers discuss this bitter fact when we meet. How long should this continue?
Here everyone complains. Teachers seem the most affected ones. I hear teachers complain every time at the lounge, class, office, meeting and everywhere. For the last few years the same thing continued. They feel bad about being here. The major causes of this seems the lack of interest from the students’ side. Seeing that this affects learning and its outcome the idea came to my mind. And I believe that it should be implemented as soon as possible.
This week the nation is having a discussion on the new roadmap to education. Tomorrow we will have a discussion at my work place. Even if I have some ideas on what the meeting is about, I am not informed in detail about it. We will learn the details when the time comes. However, I think that this should be considered in the roadmap. Therefore, here is my idea.
Higher education accommodates more than a million students in Ethiopia. If we consider the health colleges, teachers’ colleges and universities, this is real. What are the youth doing at these places? Are they learning the way they are expected to? The problems we hear from every corner of the country verify that students seem not to take learning as seriously as they should. The cause for this is that they are not paying for it. My reader may raise the issue of cost sharing. That is just cost sharing, but they do not feel that they are paying. It is their country that feels the pain. The way they would feel it is if they pay like the students at private colleges do. Paying in advance will make them feel that they should take what they are learning seriously. All other benefits like dormitory and cafeteria should be stopped. Who will pay for them? The student!
The benefit of paying to me is that they would care for what they are paying for. They would choose what they should pay for and how they approach it. If we go the way we are doing now, millions of students may graduate from universities and the same problem will continue.
When the students worry how to pay, they will create jobs. What they generate from the jobs will drive the economy. The huge budget that is assigned to universities will be responsibly used in the other sectors. Universities will also generate ideas on how to run themselves. That will also create a sense of self-reliance and competition among the universities. Quality will also come as a result of this. If not, university will be a place that exploits the tax payers and donors. University should rather be a place that teaches self-reliance and hard work. Innovation should be what university is known for. Universities are expanding across the nation. Thousands are graduating. But, what is the fruit of all this? They may be there for political purposes. However, if the nation thinks this over and considers the ideas raised above, we may get the most out of it.
Who am I to write this?
Oh yes! I should say how I feel I am the one to voice my views on this issue. First of all, I am a taxpayer who is older than most of the students at our universities. They should have worked to generate money for the nation as they are at the strongest age of their lifetime. I also feel that I should not pay tax to educate a youth most of whom do not take learning seriously. Most of them do not care about what they are learning. They do not invest their time and energy on education. This is from my observation. Interested researchers may find it a fertile area of research. I have spent the last few years at Debre Birhan University teaching English Literature that I think I know how education is not valued as much as it should be. Pupils come, pupils go. You just go cover your class duties. You teach, but no one cares. No love for learning, no interest. Not only at the English department, but across the other fields too. We teachers discuss this bitter fact when we meet. How long should this continue?
Here everyone complains. Teachers seem the most affected ones. I hear teachers complain every time at the lounge, class, office, meeting and everywhere. For the last few years the same thing continued. They feel bad about being here. The major causes of this seems the lack of interest from the students’ side. Seeing that this affects learning and its outcome the idea came to my mind. And I believe that it should be implemented as soon as possible.
This week the nation is having a discussion on the new roadmap to education. Tomorrow we will have a discussion at my work place. Even if I have some ideas on what the meeting is about, I am not informed in detail about it. We will learn the details when the time comes. However, I think that this should be considered in the roadmap. Therefore, here is my idea.
Higher education accommodates more than a million students in Ethiopia. If we consider the health colleges, teachers’ colleges and universities, this is real. What are the youth doing at these places? Are they learning the way they are expected to? The problems we hear from every corner of the country verify that students seem not to take learning as seriously as they should. The cause for this is that they are not paying for it. My reader may raise the issue of cost sharing. That is just cost sharing, but they do not feel that they are paying. It is their country that feels the pain. The way they would feel it is if they pay like the students at private colleges do. Paying in advance will make them feel that they should take what they are learning seriously. All other benefits like dormitory and cafeteria should be stopped. Who will pay for them? The student!
The benefit of paying to me is that they would care for what they are paying for. They would choose what they should pay for and how they approach it. If we go the way we are doing now, millions of students may graduate from universities and the same problem will continue.
When the students worry how to pay, they will create jobs. What they generate from the jobs will drive the economy. The huge budget that is assigned to universities will be responsibly used in the other sectors. Universities will also generate ideas on how to run themselves. That will also create a sense of self-reliance and competition among the universities. Quality will also come as a result of this. If not, university will be a place that exploits the tax payers and donors. University should rather be a place that teaches self-reliance and hard work. Innovation should be what university is known for. Universities are expanding across the nation. Thousands are graduating. But, what is the fruit of all this? They may be there for political purposes. However, if the nation thinks this over and considers the ideas raised above, we may get the most out of it.
