By Wongel Dagnachew
August 08/, 2018
Dear Prime Minister Dr. Abiy Ahmed, could you please spare me a couple of minutes to take a close look at some points I am making here? … Your honor remembers that a number of evil, immoral and illegal acts have been carried out in this country of ours. People were kidnapped, incarcerated, tortured and summarily murdered. Mothers have long been crying bitterly over the atrocities perpetrated against their respective family members.
Now, I want you to give due attention to one major issue. Could you please make sure that there will not occur genocide, impartiality and apartheid in the education sector? I don’t have the slightest information whether or not this issue was raised during your recent discussion with university academics. As we are about to start the new Ethiopian academic year, we parents are at the ready to send our children to higher learning institutions. While doing this, we feel a wind of fear. I said this as experiences have taught us a lot in the sector for the past 27 years. We doubt if our young progenies are allowed to get their due placements in colleges and universities as per their academic results on the national school leaving examinations. I feel uncertainty in this regard. What has happened over the last 27 years in higher learning institutions strengthens my doubt.
A detailed study conducted on the issues indicates that students were admitted by favoritism in to higher learning institutions like Addis Ababa Science and Technology University (AASTU). This university, located in Addis Ababa, was founded in 2011 and is a public higher education institution officially accredited by the Ministry of Education. My point is that though students desire to join this university through entrance examinations, only favored ones from one ethno-linguistic community (Tigray) were selected to the contrary of the rules and regulations of any higher learning institutions including AASTU. According to information obtained from an instructor of AATSU, many students from Tigray region have been selected exclusively and given the opportunity to join AATSU. “. . . the overrepresentation of Tigreans both as staff members as well as students is visible. It is a matter of fact. It is not a matter of opinion. I have no clues how either the student groups or the staff end up here with us. In any case Tigreans presence is highly felt both in academia and decision-making organs. Too many things are subtle and unpredictable. No transparence! No openness.” (Ethiopia: Intellectual Genocide in the making?)
Many such incidents are witnessed in another higher learning institutions. A research document (Ethiopia: Intellectual Genocide in the making?) quoted Assefa Negash’s study, ‘The pillage of Ethiopia by Eritreans and their Tigrean surrogates’ as stating that “…out of 60 medical doctors who recently applied for specialization at the department of Gynecology/obstetrics, 15 candidates were admitted. Of the 15, 11 were Tigreans. The department of Pediatrics of the Addis Ababa Medical School was equally ethnically cleansed recently and a Tigrean named as its head.”
Non-Tigrean educated citizens have deliberately been pushed back from making use of their rights to get overseas scholarship and research fellowship opportunities. Students who belong to Tigre tribe have been selected exclusively to enjoy the opportunities of free scholarships. This has happened in our Ethiopia. It is an absolute apartheid! “Out of 52 scholarship grants that the government of the Netherlands gave to Ethiopia at a specific year, about 50 went to the Tigrean region”.
The same document, cited above, states that out of 55 scholarship students who were sent to the Wageningen University (Netherlands) by the regime, 50 are ethnic Tigreans. Most of them were recruited from Mekele University in collaboration with Ethiopian Institute of Agricultural Research (EIAR). The surprising thing is that the criterion for the selection of the students to follow MSc. courses is neither excellence nor academic GPAs. I am ashamed and hurt to know and announce that “ethnic background is the major factor for the selection”.
A lot of evidences show that partiality, unfairness, favoritism, partisanship and deception are clearly seen in the selection of students for free scholarship and fellowship grants. Suffice to mention about students who were pursing training at the university of Haifa, Israel. All students belong to one ethnic group, Tigre, and come from Qalamino Special High School. A few years ago, another group of students solely from one ethnic group have been trained in the same university.
An Engineering student of Ethiopian origin said in an interview given to compile a research paper, ‘Ethiopia: Intellectual Genocide in the making?’ that he had seen exclusively Tigrean students in Haifa university campus for the past two years. According to him, some of the students are at the undergraduate level while others were pursuing their training at post graduate level. “They study civil engineering and irrigation. I think all of them came from Qalamino Special High School. The elites boast that the future leaders of Ethiopian people will emerge out of this school.”
If one moves around in offices in Addis Ababa, s/he confidently recognizes that the majority of the workers who had enjoyed overseas scholarship and fellowship opportunities are the ones selected exclusively from Tigray ethnic group.
Dear Prime Minister, citizens need you to make certain that such way of intellectual genocide will not happen again in our country.
Ermias Legesse, once a state minister of Communication Affairs Office, said in his book, ‘Yemeles Liqaqit’ that 90% of the students at Geology Department of Addis Ababa University are from Tigray Region. As this department was made to be controlled by Tigrean students and instructors, it is nick-named Department of Tigray. Ermias states that Tigrean instructors secretly supply Tigrean students with copies of examinations which are translated in to Tigrigna language. After graduation, Tigrean students from this department will be assigned on permanent basis to different companies of EFFORT (Endowment Fund for the Rehabilitation of Tigray) like: Ezana Mining Development, Biruk Chemical, Mesobo Cement Factory, Saba Emnebered (marble) and Sur Construction. The astonishing thing is that graduates from other ethnic groups are told to look for jobs by themselves or organize themselves and create jobs like coble stone construction…
Dear Prime Minister, I am pleading with you to pay heed to an issue that only qualified instructors and academics should be placed in universities if quality of education is needed to be realized. Moreover, political assignments of citizens must be on the basis of efficiency, excellence or experience. Merit should be given special focus of attention in every walks of life. I hope your government will take this in to consideration. The future of our young progenies depends on what your government is doing in this country. Your positive action is a fuel for the young people who will be encouraged to give due attention to education. Alem Mamo states in his article entitled, “The Disgraceful State of Higher Education in Ethiopia: How TPLF/EPRDF Killed Higher Learning’ that “…merit and qualification has never been TPLF/EPRDF’s strong suit. Starting from senior cabinet positions to all the way to the lowest level of the administrative body they have appointed their cadres to run the country, and, quite frankly, the regime is not going to treat universities in any different way…” This is what we all hate. We bear witnesse to the outcome of the governance of bunch of idiots.
Dear sir, I want you to make sure such things will not happen hereafter in this country. I want this issue to be under the watchful eyes of your honor. I feel your honor will have to follow such developments of the education sector along with the effort you ae putting forth to bulldoze the barrier wall of hatred, disunity, irresponsibility, corruptions, nepotism, racism, ignorance, poverty, malnutrition.
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