A BIT ON HIGHER EDUCATION IN ETHIOPIA

My first job, with the help of a colleague, Wondifraw, has been to develop and run a 2 week induction programme for new staff.

Some background to the university system in this country – as I understand it after 4 weeks is needed to set the scene.

Ethiopia has a handful of established, traditional universities first established by Haile Selaisse in the 1950’s. Addis Ababa was the first and another is the one close to us, about an hour away, Haramaya, where there are VSO colleagues along with quite a few expatriate teaching staff.

Akin to the UK’s experience, there has been a recent Government drive to develop higher education provision in the form of universities across the country. The Government sees education as the way out of poverty for its population and 24% of Government expenditure is on education. Twenty two additional universities are now in the process of development and operation, and it is one of these at which I am placed. Dire Dawa is enrolling 7000 students this academic year, starting at exactly the same time as the new UK academic year, (although interestingly the Freshers start a whole month later). They are building for a capacity of 10,000. All these new institutions need new staff resources and this year DDU is employing 80 new staff.

I gather that the education system is very centralised here and students are more or less assigned a university by the Ministry of Education; hence no UCAS system, no confirmation and clearing processes along with the annual nail biting challenges of meeting targets to avoid the penalties of over/under recruitment. However, this means there is also little or no choice for students, who presumably must go to where they are sent, and I believe in a lot of cases to study the subject they are assigned!

This also apparently applies to staff. There must be masses of job opportunities in the university teaching sector now and positions are offered to fresh graduates. Clearly, although these young people are qualified by subject, they have no experience of the outside world, and placements/work experience does not exist here, and also they have no pedagogical knowledge and skills.

The placement that I have here is as a Higher Diploma Programme Leader. The Higher Diploma has been designed and developed by VSO to meet the needs of teacher educators in Ethiopia, teaching at all school levels as well as at university level, to develop their teaching or pedagogical skills in order to improve the quality of teaching across the country, through developing the capacity of the teaching population.

Thus when the programme starts here this year, staff will be individually selected by their Deans to participate in this academic year long programme. They are likely to be staff that have been here for two years at least.

However, in the mean time there are 80 new staff arriving with no teaching experience. It makes sense to develop an induction programme for them to introduce them to basic teaching and learning concepts and techniques as well as inducting them in the policies, procedures, systems and expectations of the university.
So organising this as soon as I arrived has been a challenging undertaking, while at the same time trying to get used to living in very new and equally challenging conditions.

Wondifraw, my colleague has been fantastic and obviously he has had the main job of sorting out administrative requirements as well as contributing to the teaching input. He has a Masters in Pedagogical Studies from Addis Ababa University. Together we have muddled through to get this programme into shape.

The induction programme has now finished, so a few observations can be made.
Not only are nearly all of the staff straight out of university but they are almost exclusively male. This is interesting as there is no shortage of female students walking around the campus, indeed in some classes it appears that women are in the majority. They seem as at home on a university campus as do our UK female students and many of them dress in modern western dress as if they were in at a British university. Many of these are clearly Muslim students – which is pleasing to see and with their long black, often close fitting, gowns, slim bodies and perfect deportment, and frequently bright contrasting long head coverings, they look absolutely stunning.

The interesting contrast is that out of 80 joining staff, 6 are women! I haven’t got to the bottom of this, and there will be more on gender no doubt in a later epistle.

As the new staff come from all different parts of the country and climatic conditions vary enormously in Ethiopia, many if them are suffering as much as me, or more so, with the heat and dust. They clearly dislike the campus conditions and as Ethiopians are very conscious of cleanliness, they are very concerned about keeping fresh and will not sit on a chair or lean on a table until they have rubbed it assiduously to remove the inevitable layers of dust.

Despite the conditions and the long hours (all day, every day for 2 weeks), they worked incredibly hard. We were told to keep close records of attendance as the President believes, no attendance, no final certificate, so this may be a carrot to boost attendance!

The intensity challenged their ability to stick with English the whole time and as the teaching and learning sessions are all about active participation they are active learners in all the sessions – which is clearly new and quite uncomfortable to many.

I am starting to learn a bit about how this university works and the approaches and attitudes of its management, a little on the background politics and a lot already about how the culture impacts on the teaching and in the classroom, as well as the challenges it gives to me as a native English speaker as many staff are nervous and lack confidence to speak up in class in front of an English person. Difficult to deal with in active learning! Clearly many lack academic confidence also and given the impoverished resources here, I’m not surprised. Its is sad to think that many of these staff are without doubt incredibly bright and capable but may never be able to realise their full potential. We make the same observation about potential football stars here. All the kids, well the boys, play football around here (most with bare feet, otherwise flip-flops!) and clearly there is talent around, which is unlikely to ever be realised. Our staff coffee room sports a picture of Manchester United team 2009 on the wall, but Ethiopia is not noted for its football team talent – again probably just resources to make it happen. Thank goodness they have excelled in the sport of running at least – less resource intensive?

I will carry this learning forward into the preparation for starting the HDP in 2 weeks time.

As I gradually gain a better understanding of how things work here, I will be able to write more on this subject.

I think some of this learning is the same for new staff to this university in the desert! I think the Nike logo may serve me well – Just Do It!

A DAY IN THE LIFE OF

The nights are rarely silent. It is usually the sound of the packs of neighbourhood dogs that fill the nocturnal air and this can be quite frenzied at times with intense barking and howling reverberating around. One assumes all sorts of territorial battles going on. During the day they are as quiet as mice and sleeping off the maraudings of the night in a little shade.

Before dawn the first call to pray is heard. This is not a recording here and I marvel at the dedication of a handful of devout men who spend much of their day calling their Islamic faithful to pray. However, here it is very easy to confuse the tannoy calls from the mosque with those from the Orthodox church. Both compete for air space and between the 2 there are few times of the day when sermons or outpourings of some sort are not issuing forth through the hot and sultry air.

Dawn brings the first chorus from the birds. We watch as sparrow type birds land in the courtyard of the compound to compete for dead and dying nocturnal insect pickings. Sometimes a butterfly is caught and coloured wings are left lying on the ground as the juicy bodies are consumed. Black kites are plentiful overhead in this area and whistle evocatively as they sweep back and forth.

When we moved into the house I was delighted to see we had bunches of ripening grapes on our vine. However, despite watering, in time to our disappointment, they literally started withering on the vine. However the state of decay now appears to be just what the birds were waiting for and we now have flocks of mousebirds, sparrows and now glossy starlings diving into the thick vine for breakfast. The courtyard becomes increasingly covered with rotten, wet fruit.

Porridge for breakfast (tins of oats imported from Malaysia?), the first shower of the day and a twenty minute walk to the university campus at around 7.30am before the heat sets in. Gradually the nights are becoming cooler and thus the early mornings are relatively fresh. However by 8am the heat sets in and by 10am sitting in the office I feel the first flow of sweat issue from my pores.

On leaving we walk the small neighbourhood dirt road passing children everywhere all on their way to school. They are quite gorgeous and so polite. We are always the focus of attention and frequently a great deal of giggling, although I think the immediate neighbourhood is now used to these 2 ferengi older women living in their midst. The secondary school children mostly want to practice their few words of English and ‘how are you’ is a common greeting. The answer is ‘I am fine’ as this is the standard phrase they have obviously been taught. There is a range of uniforms and thus a number of different schools; white shirts and maroon bottoms, or lime green shirts and emerald green bottoms, pale blue shirts and dark blue bottoms. They so neat and clean and well turned out. Some are bold enough to come and shake our hand (hand shaking as a greeting at all times of the day is de rigeur in Ethiopia, which is lovely and so polite), and often you can tell that it is a dare!

We then hit the long straight ‘new’ road that leads to the university. This only opened 3 weeks ago as the new academic year started and it was a pleasure to walk along as it carried only people walking and it was common to see someone with his train of camels using the road.

Now it is open to traffic, it’s a nightmare. The scrub bushes and trees that grow besides the road have turned from green to white as the dust from the loose surface constantly spirals up from the multiple of taxis (bajajs) and other vehicles. So, it’s a long, hot dusty road to walk along and we were doing this morning, lunchtime, back from lunch and again in the evening.

In the heat of the day we hail a bajaj for the equivalent of 4p, but we are starting to learn (no-one tells us!) the times of the staff bus that take staff into town at lunch time and evenings, so this helps to cut down the amount of walking in hot and trying conditions.

We hit the campus and it is not pleasant. It is one enormous building site and remember that this is a university in the desert, so the sand, dirt, rocks that have to be negotiated mean that wearing normal shoes is quite impossible and tough sandals or trainers are a must. I wash my shoes and feet twice a day.
As the season changes and Ethiopia moves out of its wet season, in Dire Dawa the atmosphere changes from one of clarity and a relatively compact ground to a hot, dry dust filled haze which hangs heavily over the landscape. The dry wind whips up the dusty surface till your teeth are biting on particles of grit. Although this is the cool season we are entering, the lack of rain means the temperatures have increased, although the humidity has decreased which is easier.

It takes another 10 minutes to walk across the campus to our office and this is exactly like walking across a building site – enough said! As I was preparing for this induction programme, I was having to walk across the campus several times a day. This is very trying in the heat and the dirt and dust, with heavy vehicles and the noise of the contractors.

The lunchtime starts at 12noon and everyone disappears to the extent that the place is like a ghost town at this time. The exception is the student living area (most of the 7000 students live on campus in dormitories and are fed in a hangar like building with a sea of long tables filling the enormous space), where they are all washing from the outside banks of water troughs and then lining up patiently for their meal. Staff disappear home till 2.30pm when the afternoon session starts and work goes through till 5.30pm.

Jenny and I eat bread which we can buy around the corner fortunately with tomatoes, peanut butter and bananas as a regular diet, because its all accessible and available. We are able to rest a bit and I take another shower and feel MUCH better.

Leaving work at about 5.40pm is the most pleasant time of the day. The heat is now subsiding, as that electric heater in the sky is turned off. It is now dark by 6.15pm. Everything is quieter, calmer and the atmosphere is restful. The walk home (I will try to catch the staff bus at 5.30pm in future) is actually enjoyable. We have also discovered a ‘local’ where we can stop off for a beer on the way home, where the people are very friendly and pleasant and good beer costs 20p!

We have been living from hand to mouth as we still have not had our promised fridge delivered. Also, procuring the required items of food is quite challenging as choice is not great and the small market stalls and little shops (just the front of someone’s house) offer very limited and the identical range of items. Fresh vegetables are always available, but securing a source of protein requires trips further afield for us. We are not eating the local meat and so try to stock up with cans of tuna which can be found relatively easily, and pulses. Even beans and pulses – chick peas, lentils, pasta and rice have to be bought from bigger markets or shops. Eggs are also normally widely available and locally, but just when you want them, they may not be. So food needs to be planned and this is challenging with working long days and having no fridge, and not yet knowing where everything may be bought. Still we are getting there! We did a big shop this weekend, lets hope that we have what we need for a while. By the time we have cooked on our 2 electric rings, or our kerosene stove if there is a power cut, I am pretty exhausted and with the third shower of the day, I tend to collapse under my mosquito net to read something escapist, till sleep overtakes me by 9.30pm. We are warned by VSO not to be out at night, although DD is known to a very safe town, especially if we stay in the main areas and we have been out several times for meals and meeting up with people. We try to eat out once or twice a week to bring variety and a respite from our own meagre rations. The choice is limited as we are after ‘ferengi’ food of course. I love to try local food and usually love what the country has to offer, but I am not keen on Ethiopian food not least because its heavy on meat of dubious type and quality and because I have decided I do not like ‘injera’ the national staple ‘pancake’, described by some as foam carpet liner. Others may describe it thus, I could not possibly comment! The Bridge does good pizza and Paradiso does a passable lasagne of gargantuan proportion, which sits heavily on your stomach. Fish is often on the menu, but rarely available. The posh hotel The Samrat does an excellent range of Indian dishes, as it is owned by Indians. It also has air conditioning and international TV stations! I adore the freshly squeezed juices, currently its Payapa, avocado and ambershoh (a new and interesting fruit to me), with some guava coming in. What is popular is to layer each fruit in a long glass – divine! Roll on the mango season, and pineapple, and watermelon!!

Living here

It is early days, but Jenny and I, the VSO colleague assigned to the same institution, are sharing a compound which offers a very pleasant space. Each of us has our own bedroom and bathroom on either side of an open courtyard and we share a central kitchen. The courtyard has 2 small garden beds with shady trees and shrubs and creeping vine with grapes. It is located on a small residential dirt road where all the houses are protected by high walls and large gates (no not like the UK or SA!), some are very impressive and which open up to compounds with open courtyards in the centre.  It’s a very local suburb, full of regular inhabitants, and they are all starting to wonder about these ‘ferenjis’ that appear to have moved in with the local population !

As is the case throughout the facilities are quite basic and as this is accommodation which has been renovated and newly acquired by the university, we are starting from square one with furniture and fittings. In fact we had to stay in a hotel the first night as the accommodation was not ready.

Without a current volunteer here, we are having to learn the ropes by ourselves and this proving to be quite challenging. Firstly we have no idea where we live and we can not speak the language!  There are no maps, the roads here have no names or numbers and there don’t seem to be defined suburbs. As the town is very spread out its impossible to walk it also because of the heat, and little ‘bajajs’, or tuk-tuk taxis are the dominant form of transport. As the people are generally very poor here, there are few cars as such and the wide and impressive roads are mainly full of these little 3 wheeled, blue and white taxis. Other vehicles tend to be other forms of public transport such as cramped mini buses or contract taxis, lorries or the occasional impressive 4 wheel drive vehicle operated by the various NGOs working in the area. So the roads are quiet in comparison to other cities and mainly filled with scuttling blue an white ant like bajajs. Did someone say there were 40, 000 registered bajajs here? It wouldn’t surprise me.

There is no defined shopping area, or CBD and shopping is procured through a mix of road side stalls or just street traders, small shops  scattered along the different streets, the few small ‘supermarkets’ selling some western type produce, or the bigger markets. We really have not been able to suss all this out yet and are having some difficulty trying to buy everything we need from vegetables to buckets to fly spray to sheets. We have discovered a small trader who sells bread from  the house a few doors along and  few basic veggies are obtainable all over the place (fruit, apart from bananas, ‘muz’and oranges seem in short supply at the moment, but that will go with the season. I think Papaya is about to happen – joy!) We have now finished our supply of tuna fish and would love to find a source of fresh eggs. However, we are managing and learning as we go.

An insect expert would have a field day at our house. At dusk the army of nocturnal aerial firepower starts to appear. I must have counted 12 different types attracted to my desk light. So its difficult to work after dark with the light on as we do not have netting over the windows. There is very little that seems to bite, sting or pass disease, its simply a very active air space.

We will be meeting more colleagues from the university soon so, I will be able to update you on work matters soon.

Dire Dawa

As the plane descended from Addis Ababa on the morning of 22^nd September a very different scene unfolded before our eyes. The land was flat, dry and sandy with a savannah type vegetation carpeting the otherwise desert landscape with a sea of green flat topped acacia trees and associated species.  As we emerged from the small regional airport into a new heat, camels were evident amongst the landscape of low trees, many of which were on blossom. It had a distinctly exotic feel to it, including the temperature! 

The town is spread out and spacious with wide streets, mainly tree lined and many are dual carriageways. The scene is one of linked single storied settlements and communities and on the outskirts of town there was evidence of basic stone built dwellings with a mud coating and compound architecture so common in Africa and the Middle East. Architecturally attractive in many areas, with large ornate double doors hiding the dwellings inside the compounds. Nearer the centre there are more substantive colonial type architecture harking back to the early 20^th century when the French built the one and only national railway line from Addis Ababa to the sea at Djibouti through Dire Dawa. All this is in disrepair now and the line no longer runs from AA but starts at Dire Dawa and carries goods to Ethiopia’s one outlet to the Red Sea since Eritrian independence. Eriterian independence has been a growth stimulus to this town, now the second town of the country, because of the railway line. The old station in the centre of town is no longer used and like most of the buildings in the centre is in a state of disrepair. Along with the rest of the country, Dire Dawa does not support wealth to any extent and people are evident plying their basic wares on road sides or in small markets. The only higher rise buildings are the few more western style hotels and one or 2 Government buildings. Everything is very small scale and spread out, but there is a good network of roads and much of the town is pleasing to the eye. Economically the town is a trading point and is at a junction for several different tribes who come into town to try to make a living. It has a cement works and a Coca Cola bottling plant and with the airport is a gateway to the tourst attraction of Harar, an old Arab walled town an hour away up into the hills. One of the biggest employers in the town now must surely be the rapidly developing university. Dire Dawa is the location for one of the currently 22 regional universities being planned by the Ethiopian Government, and it is rapidly expanding. This year, in a week’s time 7000 students will enrol on what still looks like one enormous building site in the semi desert. The institution has been in existence for 3-4 years now, but its development is strengthening. The management is very stretched at the present time as in addition to the usual pressures of a new academic year and the arrival of a large number of students, they are also managing, or at least having to live with a massive building project, and their academic or administrative duties have to co-exist with and take account of, the inconvenience of unfinished buildings, no roads and few facilities. All this is taking place on a hot and dusty plain where the sun beats down relentlessly and goats wander around – some seen trying to get into one of the new lecture rooms yesterday. The odd camel train is also in evidence around the ‘campus’.

In Country Training (ICT)

20 of us arrived in Addis Ababa from Heathrow in the early hours of the 12th September to be met by 3 welcoming and cheerful volunteer representatives. We were taken to the Red Cross training institute which would be our home for the next 10 days of ICT. This is a delightful complex like a small college campus with several different sized training rooms, an accommodation block and a catering block, some offices and a smal IT room. The gardens are immaculate with manicured lawns and flower beds. The trees hosted a range of colourful birds which intrigued several of us. Over the next 24 hours or so were joined by further new volunteers arriving from different parts of the globe. In total in September 2010, 34 new ISO volunteers arrived in Ethiopia to work in the 2 country programme areas, Education and Health. We join the 65 currently here, which makes Ethiopia one of the top countries for VSO activity.

The training was fast paced and relentless and necessary. A lot was covered in a short space of time. We were bombarded with information, exercises and activity from early in the morning till sometimes quite late in the evening. Language learning was a major tenet of the ICT and that was very intensive. After a few days we were sent off to Addis on a 'scavenger hunt' with instructions to carry out a list of activitied and we had to negotiate local public transport in order to achieve this and negotiate a local language (well sort of!) to buy items as instructed. This was a lot of fun and a good learning experience.

We had most interesting talks from various incited experts on topics such as geopolitics, the Ethiopian development context, culture and customs. We were hosted by the British Embassy one evening where we were plied with generous selection of alcoholic drinks, and as the nationalities of the volunteers are various, other Embassies also extended a warm welcome to their nationals during the 10 days. Our nationalities include as well as British; a large Irish contingent, a Ugandian, Canadian, 3 from the Philipines, India and Australia.

However the time comes for us to move onto our placements and to scatter to the different and distant parts of the country to take up our various roles and responsibilities ant make a contribution as best we can as a member of the ever growing VSO family.