Tebeje Molla and Dawit Tibebu Tiruneh

In October 2023, Ethiopia’s minister of education, Berhanu Nega, disclosed several shocking figures on the outcomes of the 12th-grade national examination. Of the 3,106 schools that administered the 12th grade (secondary school leaving) examination for the 2022/23 academic year, 43% reported that none of their students had passed.

And, for the second consecutive year, more than 96% of students who participated in the national school leaving examination scored less than the mark (an average of 50%) required to pass. This means that hundreds of thousands of students could not qualify for university education.

For comparison, more than 1.6 million Nigerian secondary school students took the West African Senior School Certificate Examination in 2023. Approximately 80% (1.3 million) of them attained a passing grade or higher.

A robust education system is not merely about exam results. But these figures underscore the sad fact that Ethiopia’s secondary