School dropout rate in Oromia is increasing than ever.

By Abera Oluma

The Oromia School bureau recently confirmed that the number of students leaving school is than ever increasing. According to the bureau expert, who did not want to be named because he was not authorized to speak out the allegation mentioned that the official indicators usually released in the beginning of the year showing a rise in school enrolment were deceiving, for most of the students who showed up then will have left school, and for various reasons.

According to the expert, more than half of the students leave school before the end of the first semester exam, due to personal reasons attributed to the cultural and traditional practices on top of the social and economic problems.

Consultation and experience sharing workshop was prepared at Adama town last Wednesday 25 April 2006 in commemoration of the Global Action Week which brought Basic Education Network, BEN members together.

Ephrem Motbainor, Administrative head of Aberash Memorial Development Organization, AMDO a local NGO engaged in alternative education practices among others, also confirmed the above information. He says their organization has been aware of the problems of dropouts.

He said their organization has been working on Alternative education at regional states with respect to minimizing the rate of dropouts.

"Schools should be built very near to the village where children live so that the risk of abduction and rape and its fears which forbid children from going to schools could be eliminated." Wondimagegnew Mecha Melka, A/ Executive Director of Kind Heart Child Aid Development Organization, KCADO, another local NGO working on Basic education working on training high school dropouts in auto mechanics, embroidery and tailoring skills realizing and responding to the increasing number of school dropouts year after year.

The Basic Education Network is composed of more than 52 member NGOs who are working on basic education whose aim is building technical capacities of NGOs, working also on advocacy and lobbying on key policy issues.

The Global Action Network is celebrated every year from April 23 - 29 globally, since 1987 and since 1999 in Ethiopia.

It seems that the concerned bodies didn’t want to come up with the main cause, which is the burning issue for the dropout of the students in Oromia schools.

The economic problems they tried to emphasise as a cause is the result of the bad government policy of Ethiopia.

The so called Ethiopian government, TPLF school policy is not well functioning. It is only applicable in Tigre region. The government is facilitating all necessary materials and gives especial focus to the Tigre region students.

But in Oromia region the students who are interested in school are obliged to pay especial school fees on top of high accommodation charges, which is unaffordable for parents. So the students are forced to dropout the school because of such inappropriate and unchallengeable government actions.

Oromo students who try to resist all such obstacle problems and resume their education will face another and more complex problems to stay in the school peacefully. They are always under civil surveillance on their daily activities.

Oromo students will be killed in their schools if they try to disclose their problems in peaceful demonstration.

Students from elementary up to different Universities levels were killed and imprisoned for no crime committed, only by being an Oromo. So this deliberate & inhuman act of the TPLF government is the main causes for the school dropout. Their family do not want their children to be seen killed for there no reason. So it is no surprise if the family insist them to stay at home.

To point out some most recent and real evidences on hand, two brothers Oromo students; Gemechis Bulcha Buli and Lalisa Waqgari Buli were brutally murdered by the Woyane armed security agents on 01/03/07 evening in Gimbi town of Western Wollega Zone, Oromia regional state. The two brothers, who were students of Guddattuu Guyii School, were shot dead while they were studying their school lesson at their home.

The TPLF regime dismissed more than 350 Oromo students from Addis Ababa University and jailed them with out any crime they committed in year 2004.

Frome Gonder collage more than 40 Oromo students dismissed and the others detained in year 2006.

One Mekele University Oromo student killed and in the same year also more than 40 Oromo students deprived their certificate after they graduated.

September 6, 2006 more than 42 Oromo students have been dismissed from the Haramaya University.

Student Shibiru Demissie was murdered in cold blood after electric power on campus was cut off on a doorstep to his dormitory in Tigray’s Mekele University on November 4, 2006. Shibiru Demissie was a third year history student. Another student, Sime Terefe was murdered earlier at the same place for being an Oromo. His corpse were taken outside Mekele town and dumped into a river. These are some concrete causes for the number of students leaving school in Oromia.

All these factors happened because of the ruling regime school policy which intends to eliminate the Oromo students from education field. Its intentionally designed to eliminate Oromo students from school.

So once again the writer urge the world community and all concerned bodies to take an appropriate action and save the innocent Oromo students’ life from deliberate genocide of the TPLF government.