Castigo como solución a la inestabilidad de la cooperación por reciprocidad

3.2.1 Historical overview of the Ethiopian education

A comprehensive examination of the origins and progress of Ethiopian schooling may provide some input for this study. However, discussing a brief evolution of primary schools and its universal quality can serve as ground information to the problems of parental involvement for the management of primary schools in Ethiopia, as a whole and Oromiya in particular. Historically, Ethiopia has an extended and rich history of traditional learning. As Wagaw (1979: 10) states, traditional learning or education in Ethiopia was an enduring course and gradually brought improvement from one age to another age and from generation to generation. The older people were associated with understanding that the seniors were the magazine of knowledge in their communities. Unquestionably, traditional Ethiopian education was effective, practical and relevant to priests and Deacons in their everyday life when serving churches (Wagaw, 1979:11-12).

Traditionally, education in Ethiopia was indigenous and religious. As Wagaw (1979:77) avers, the major objective of religious education was to respond to the existing challenges of the then societies (peasant and lords) and to politicise and influence ordinary farmers in the then society. In Ethiopia, religious education was to familiarise the citizens with spiritual education after World War II when the administration started to highlight modern education for income generation to advance community changes and national development. Moving to the early 1900s, official learning was highly limited to a scheme of spiritual commands system and fell under the ownership of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church (Dhuferra, 2002:60). In the history of Ethiopian education, another constituent of learning in the country was under the control of Islam or Islamic institutions. Arab traditions and beliefs were taken on in much of southeast Ethiopia and they intensively arranged non-formal schools that were well known for advancing the beliefs and religious studies of Islam (Wagaw, 1979:59-60).

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The Islamic education was designed in the form of imparting skills and knowledge of the religious realm within the system, emphasising on the interpretation and recital of Arabic. Similar to the church, the mosque in the Muslim areas had an equivalent meaning in promoting Quranic schools when they opened from the 7th century in Ethiopia. The church schools and the Quranic schools were upheld by the restricted group themselves and there was no external support of any kind (Markokis, 1994:154). Personal characteristics were dissatisfied in the place where learning intended to create a common understanding and incorporate students into the large social group. Casual means were significant in conventional civilisation (Ngaroga, 2006:77). In both church and Quranic schools, people desired to realise and nurture the learners to become reliable people who could take over any social responsibility.

As Wagaw (1979:20) identifies, very few formal schools were present during the Minilik II era in Ethiopia. Because of this in some areas of the country, there were specific teachers who were selected and hired to guide children in regular schooling arrangements. Furthermore, Wagaw makes two critical remarks about the perseverance and vanishing of customary education in Ethiopia. European education controls and displaced indigenous education entirely from Ethiopian societies, and one cannot find general Ethiopian or African education in its innovative form at present (ibid). In this case, the amount of difference or perseverance, however, differs from one zone to another. Customary Ethiopian learning was, therefore, obviously overshadowed by the education that a child received within the home and the large society. Wagaw (1979:23) comments that although untainted traditional learning has been eroded, it has not entirely diminished and given way to modern western schooling. Therefore, modern Ethiopian education is not optional; those customary and European forms of learning are not included and must be mandatory for realising educated and trained citizen. As the result of this and other reasons, the introduction of modern education in Ethiopia was realised. Contemporary learning in Ethiopia was the result of the situation in the nation as the arrival of foreign embassies, organisations of a middle government power and lasting city chair of authority and development of contemporary financial sector situations where the aim circumstances that called for contemporary schooling in Ethiopia.

Following other sectors in development as education, modern schools set up a foundation during the early 20th century, owing to the powers of Emperor Minilik and Ethiopian academicians or scholars who had just returned from overseas. An announcement issued by this also encouraged people to provide further emphasis to modern education. Blaten GetaMahteme Selassie Wolde Meskel (1962:60) made a proclamation, which provided

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grounds for extending current learning in Ethiopia, in 1898. Following this proclamation, the current education in the country legitimately begun in1908 with the inaugurating of Minilik II School in Addis Ababa. The opening of the first modern school marked a heavy footstep in the history of learning in Ethiopia.

Almost immediately after, Minilik opened three more schools, one in the east of the country Harar, northern part called Dessie and Ankober. Subsequently, the local governors of that time also opened schools in the southern part called Yirgalem, in the western part called Gore and Harar. Moreover, there was a challenge because of the resistance of the feudal system and development was very sluggish. However, since the emphasis was on accessing education, parental involvement in education was not given attention ( Shibesh, 1989:34). To sum up this section, however, the then regime tried to expand education; the system did not help to address access and achieve particular outcomes. The system was more advantageous to the clergies and feudalists.