FILE – On May 31, 2024, observers noted temporary shelters near Awlala Camp in Ethiopia’s Amhara region. UNICEF announced on January 7, 2025, that a staggering 4.4 million children in Amhara are out of school, a consequence of disasters and unrest. (Photo by Alfatih Alsemari via Reuters)
Across Ethiopia, an unsettling reality unfolds: over nine million young ones are absent from classrooms due to violence, conflicts, and the havoc wreaked by Mother Nature. The United Nations reveals that more than 6,000 institutions for learning have been forced to shut their doors.
In a fresh report released recently by the United Nations Children’s Fund, often referred to as UNICEF, it was disclosed that the Amhara region bears the most significant burden with 4.4 million children out of school. Oromia follows closely, haunted with 3.2 million deprived of education, while around 1.2 million Tigrayan children face the same fate.
The very frameworks of Ethiopia’s educational sector have taken a heavy blow because of turmoil, calamities, and mass displacements. The report reads, “More than 10,000 schools, accounting for 18% of all schools nationwide, have been damaged due to ongoing conflicts and adverse climate conditions, shrinking the number of secure, functional environments for learning.”
Yohannes Wogasso, who’s at the helm of educational programs at the Ethiopia Ministry of Education, contends that the U.N. figures might not line up with the Ministry’s statistics, possibly because of their varying definitions of what an “out-of-school student” entails.
He elaborated further: “The discrepancy likely stems from not collecting real-time data, as obtaining precise data invariably consumes a considerable amount of time.”
The chaos in Amhara and Oromia regions, where skirmishes occur against government forces, has led conflict to carry children off their usual seats in classrooms. On September 18, the Sinan district in East Gojam, Amhara, witnessed a tragic event; two educators lost their lives, sparking terror and unease among school staffers.
Though unnamed back then, local authorities pointed fingers at armed groups associating themselves with the Amhara people for the deadly act. The Amhara rebel group, Fano, denies directing any aggression towards educators or civilians but has vouched against allowing the reopening of certain schools, prioritizing student and community safety.
Meanwhile, a different struggle brews in Tigray’s historic Axum city. There, some public schools have banned Islamic headscarves, causing 159 Muslim schoolgirls to stay home. Various Muslim organizations within Ethiopia assert that prohibiting hijabs undermines the country’s long-standing religious harmony.
The Ethiopian Islamic Affairs Supreme Council of Tigray highlights the schools’ actions as an affront to the nation’s religious pluralism, an attribute Ethiopia prides itself on—where diverse religious communities coexist respectfully.
The Council alleges, “Muslim girl students are being threatened, arrested, or pressured by the police to remove their hijabs.” Astonishingly, while the Ministry of Education has regulations allowing Muslim girls to don headscarves at school, the actions of Axum schools say otherwise.
A 12th-grader from the Axum Secondary School, preferring to stay anonymous fearing backlash, lamented, “While my classmates are in school, I’m stuck at home.” She only wishes the authorities would opt for a change of heart.
Adding to the chorus, another discontent 10th-grader shared similar fears under anonymity: “The war in Tigray robbed three years of my schooling, and now my hijab is keeping me from school.” For others too, like those from Kindeya Elementary, the headscarf row marks their reason for absenteeism.
Nuruya Mohamed, a 55-year-old mom of four girls, with three children at Kindeya Elementary and another at Axum Secondary, expressed her heartache. “All of them are homebound, scared by the authorities,” she remarked, “Never in my life have I seen such bias against young Muslim girls wearing hijabs at school.”
Confronted by criticism, schools stand their ground. “We are not places of religious or political expression,” argues Gebremeskel Gebregziabher, vice director of Axum Secondary School. He elaborates that schools have long barred religious apparel—an age-old policy enforced for decades.
In a world where divides abound, surprisingly, some parents back the stance. Mulu Tamene, mother to a sixth-grader at Kindeya Elementary, thinks the prohibition justified. “Schools aren’t temples. Students can wear hijabs on their way here but should remove them inside,” she pronounced.
Recounting how things were during his school years, Natnael Fitsum, an Axum school attendee from 1999 to 2010, whispered, “Teachers used to remove headscarves from us. It’s ordinary here for schools to forbid the hijab.”
Government insiders from the Axum Education Bureau, speaking on condition of anonymity, shared with VOA that of Axum’s 15 schools; four now ban the hijab. Oddly, students reminisced about how they wore hijabs until recently, including last year, without issue.
When VOA reached out, Mesfin Bogale, head of the public relations department with Ethiopia’s Ministry of Education, succinctly stated, “This is a matter for the local education bureau.”
Attempts to contact the Town’s Mayor, the Education Office’s chief, and the leader of the Tigray Education Bureau went unanswered. As tension brews, the Ethiopian Islamic Affairs Supreme Council cries out, “This issue demands swift resolution.”
This narrative stemmed from VOA’s Horn of Africa Service.
Edited by: Ali Musa
alimusa@axadletimes.com
Axadle international–Monitoring
