Zachary's+Paper

An old Italian building in Asmera. [|http://www.asmera.nl/asmara116.jpg)]

=Education in Eritrea: A Case Study=

Zachary Sethna

Eritrea, located on the horn of Africa, is the one of the youngest nations in the world, having only gained its independence in 1993. This strip of coastline has historically been a part of a one empire or another, passed from hand to hand as the various powers changed. Axum, Muslim merchants, Abyssinia, Italian fascists, the British, and lastly Eritrea’s neighbor, Ethiopia, have all claimed the coastline and mountains that make up Eritrea. Each of these civilizations have interacted and treated the territory of Eritrea differently. The Italians were extremely oppressive, yet brought new opportunities to their new colony in order to lure settlers from Italy. The British removed the oppression of the fascists, yet limited economic growth, and finally the Ethiopians were the most oppressive of all, greedy for the coastline that Eritrea provided. The Eritrean mentality is defined by these regimes, and how the international community stood by and let their little country be tossed back and forth, instilling need for self-reliance. This troubled history left the Eritrean educational system in shambles, each empire imposing (or allowing) a different system. This, coupled with the thirty-year long guerilla war of independence, has left Eritrea lacking a sufficient system of education, a challenge that the fledgling state must tackle. Yet the state has taken distinct steps to try and create an educational system that is based on prior systems while still being tailored for the tribal aspect of Eritrea’s society. Eritrean education emphasizes language by first making a commitment to teach primary school in the mother language of the student, and secondly by requiring all students to learn Tigrinya, Arabic, and English, the first two being languages spoken across Eritrea, and English being the international language. This emphasis on language is a step that is both very innovative and will likely lead to a country where fractional differences between ethnic and religious groups is held to a minimum. By learning English as well, Eritreans will also be well prepared to participate in an increasingly global economy. Eritrea’s unique colonial history of the past century shows how such a unique focus in education came about. Italy entered the Age of Imperialism late, only uniting their own country in 1870, after much of the world had already been carved up by various European powers. Myths of “Prester John” and his Christian empire had fascinated Europeans for centuries. Pressured by a massive population boom, Italy turned its eyes to Abyssinia, the only African nation never to have been colonized. The Italians used much the same technique for acquiring colonies as other European powers, first buying ports, and then moving into the interior using their superior weaponry. Italy quickly gained a strip of the coast along the Red Sea, and then moved into the highlands of the Hamasien plateau and began to set up their colony of Eritrea (Wrong 30-35). The Italian colony followed a very different model than other colonial empires. Italy was faced with the problem of a population increasing exponentially in a country without the space to provide for them. Eritrea was viewed as a territory where Italian settlers could emigrate to, and release some of the strain on their society. The Italian method of running the colony was designed with this goal in mind, providing a confusing motley of changes that transformed Eritrea. First and foremost the industry and infrastructure needed to be built up in order to create a “modern” state where Italians would feel at home. Buildings and factories were built in Asmara (the capital) and Massawa (the main port) in the futuristic design of the era. Emblematic of this period is the construction of the “‘//serpente d’acciaio’// – ‘steel snake,’” a railroad that wove from the port city of Massawa up to the highland capital of Asmara (Wrong 53). This was an engineering marvel, twisting back and forth as it climbed the mountains. The Italians poured money into this colony in order to make it appeal to colonizers. This infrastructure pulled Eritrea ahead of the rest of Abyssinia (Ethiopia), which had successfully resisted Italian advance, economically and technologically. While this was a tangential benefit of Italian colonialism, the other aspects of the colonialism were extremely oppressive. The Italians were draconian in their tactics of keeping Eritrea under control and racist in their attitudes. The local Eritrean populace was a nuisance to be repressed so that they never created a threat, and it was assumed that Italians were also naturally better and more capable. The Italians made sure to make the Eritreans understand their position in society: at the bottom (Wrong 53-77). This was reflected most completely in the education that was provided. Italy wanted Eritrea to be for Italian settlers, and so did not want Eritreans running the local government. Thus an education was deemed unnecessary. Many new schools were built, yet the schools were segregated, with almost all of the schools exclusively for Italians. For instance there were twenty five secondary schools to service an Italian population of only a few thousand, while there were a mere five colonial schools for the whole of Eritrea. Not only this, but Eritreans were limited to a mere four years in school. At the end of his/her schooling an Eritrean would know addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, a bit of Italian history, and how to speak Italian (Ertzgaard 1). Due to this complete repression of local education, Eritrea, unlike in many African colonies, was never allowed to develop a western-educated elite. Thus the path that many African nations took to decolonization (western educated elite protesting European control) never materialized in Eritrea; Eritrean independence is unique.

DATA: Gross enrolment ratio. Pre-primary. Total (Taken from UNESCO)

During WWII Eritrea experienced a change in governments. The British invaded and ousted the fascists, taking control of Eritrea by default. Throwing out the Italians was certainly not done for the benefit of the Eritrean people, as was made abundantly clear to the Eritreans. A common myth is that a British captain responded to an elderly Eritrean woman’s ecstatic greeting with the curt dismissal: “‘I didn’t do it for you, nigger’” (Wrong 99). The British quickly set about removing much of the infrastructure that the Italians had paid through the nose to build in Eritrea and Ethiopia (they captured Ethiopia briefly before WWII), taking it as a sort of plunder (Wrong 131-137). The result was that much of the modernization that had been done in Eritrea was undone, and the economy suffered a huge hit. Yet, while the British destroyed Eritrean industry, the British were no fascists, and had a very different model for colonialism than the Italians. Various rights like the freedom of press were introduced, and many of the racist attitudes were alleviated. In particular, the education that the Italians had so forcefully repressed was opened up. The restriction of only four years of education was immediately lifted, and many new schools were built and flourished. Where there had been only five schools open to Eritreans when the Italians left in 1941, by 1951, a year before the British left, there were ninety-seven schools open and teaching more than thirteen thousand students. Also the British established a Department of Education which raised the level and quality of education in Eritrea. Instead of a mere modicum of education that the Italians were willing to teach, the British vastly expanded the curriculum to include: “English, arithmetic, geography, general knowledge, history, science language and song” (Ertzgaard 2). Also vocational training in several crafts was introduced into the schools. While the curriculum was increased drastically, perhaps more important was the mode of teaching. Primary education was taught in the local languages of Tigrinya, Arabic, or Kunama, while the Middle level education was taught in English. This established the idea of educating in the mother tongue for primary education, and then shifting to a European language for education at higher levels. While the British did expand opportunity of primary and middle school education drastically, there still was almost no higher education. Only one tiny teaching college was established during this period and that was the extent of higher education in Eritrea (Ertzgaard 2). The British however did not want control over Eritrea and Ethiopia, and turned the two territories over to the U.N. to deal with. The U.N. was left in a predicament about how to organize the Eritrean territory. Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie had his eyes set on Eritrea’s ports, and pushed for a union between the two countries, and the incorporation of Eritrea into a Greater Ethiopia. However, Eritrea had changed dramatically since it had been a part of Abyssinia. The Italian colonial legacy had modernized much of the economy. Also about half of Eritrea’s population is Muslim, and they feared persecution by the authoritarian and Christian Ethiopian government. Eritrea no longer fit with Ethiopia, and as such a large segment of the population pushed for Eritrean independence. The U.N. decided to compromise, and established a Federation with Haile Selassie as the nominal head of state and Eritrea given semi-autonomous status with its own legislature, the Baito. Naturally this arrangement was unstable. Eritrea was a liberal democracy, and Ethiopia a landlocked, absolute monarchy with an eye towards expansion. Haile Selassie had no intention of allowing the Federation to last, and every expectation of fully incorporating Eritrea as a providence of Ethiopia. Selassie slowly took power away from Eritrea, humiliating and crushing the Baito. The period of the Federation only lasted from 1952 to 1962 when Eritrea was fully absorbed into Ethiopia. Yet this period of nominal Eritrean autonomy allowed the school system to continue to expand and develop as it had under the British. The number of schools doubled during this period, and the commitment to teaching in local languages was preserved. The Federation with Ethiopia even allowed some opportunities for higher education at Ethiopian universities. Yet, like the autonomy, this education system could not survive Ethiopian domination and oppression. Eritrea responded to Ethiopian take over of their government by sending missive after missive to the U.N. to hold up the Federation that they had created and promised to protect. Yet, no answer, and certainly no action was taken by the U.N. The truth was that the U.S. had bartered for the rights for the most extensive listening post in the region, Kagnew Station, from Ethiopia with arms and military training. America wanted Haile Selassie to remain in power so that he could insure continued use of the Kagnew Station to listen in on the Russians. As Kagnew Station was located near Asmara, Eritrean independence would mean that the U.S. would need to negotiate a new rent for the station, with no guarantee of the deal going through with the new government. With Eritrean independence and American interests at odds, it is no surprise then that the U.N. did nothing in regard to Eritrea’s pleas that international law be upheld. The international community had spurned Eritrea in favor of the Cold War, and the truth began to dawn on them. No one was going to help Eritrea but Eritrea. This abandonment by the international community has heavily influenced Eritrean mentality. The Islamic ELF (Eritrean Liberation Front) and the Secular/Socialist EPLF (Eritrean People’s Liberation Front) were formed to throw the Ethiopians out. As a result of these rebel groups Ethiopia became even repressive. Draconian reprisals against the populace, killing and imprisoning innocents, turned the whole of Eritrea against Ethiopia, uniting both Muslims and Christians behind the EPLF. A thirty year civil war broke out, with the Ethiopian forces armed and trained by America (as “rent” for the Kagnew Station) battling Eritrean guerilla fighters. The effect of this civil war on education was disastrous. The schools under Ethiopian control were forced to use used Amharic (the language of Ethiopia) to teach the classes, and the schools under EPLF control were taught and trained to be revolutionaries. However, for the most part the school system fell apart entirely. Education was not the only area which was hard hit by this civil war, but the economy was reduced to ruins by the extended war (Wrong 197-329). After the EPLF achieved its independence in 1993, it had to decide how to set up its own government. The head of the EPLF Isias Afwerki became the President and the head of the Transitional government. The government that was set up was open and stable. People had freedom of speech, and the country was perfectly safe. The thirty years of rebellion had unified the country in a way that mere borders could never do. Everyone fully supported the government and everyone had the sense of solidarity, the unity of the country far surpassed anything that even propaganda could accomplish. Eritreans were to look out for Eritreans, and to ask for foreign aid was a weakness, “‘there’s a feeling that we fought for 30 years and no one helped us, so why should we thank anyone? We don’t owe thanks to anyone’” (qtd. Wrong 18). The ex-Fighters of the war were all heroes. Yet, this was not to last, “Far from learning for the continent’s mistakes, Eritrea had turned into the stalest, most predictable of African clichés” (Wrong 21). Using a second war with Ethiopia as an excuse, the Eritrean president, Isias Afwerki, seized control of the government and imprisoned his rivals. Eritrea had fallen into the trap that so many other African nations had, that of a single party’s control. Education in the newly independent Eritrea is closely modeled after the system under the British. The EPLF made a promise that all students would be taught in their mother language throughout the primary schooling. Also three languages are required to be taught to every student: Tigrinya, Arabic, and English. Tigrinya is the majority language in Eritrea, Arabic is a useful regional language and particularly applicable to the Muslim half of the population. This focus on language gives the Eritrean education a different feel to it. Half of the classes in current Eritrean education are language classes. While there are still the basic courses in math, science, etc. the real emphasis is in the languages (Woldemikael). Language will allow future Eritrean generations to maintain the unity that their parents had on the front fighting Ethiopia; people will be able to converse and argue in a common language, and cultural differences would be better understood. In a country where there are many different fractions and the population is slit in two religiously, understanding and talking to other groups is a necessity at preserving Eritrea as a state. Since independence higher education has started to become available after the establishment of Eritrea’s only university, the University of Asmara, and several vocational colleges. Despite the unfortunate takeover of the government by Isias Afwerki, Eritrea still has the potential to become extremely successful. The government is stable even if it is a one party regime (and will likely become the multi-party democracy that it was intended to be) and the economy is recovering. Eritrea has been very astute in designing its educational system, understanding that a common form of communication in addition to preserving the right to an individual culture is the key to providing an education that everyone will both accept and profit from. This education will also tie the close links that were forged on the battlefronts even closer as the children of those fighters learn how to talk with each other. Not only will the education provided by Eritrea prove successful locally, but the commitment to learning English, the international language, will allow Eritreans to participate on a global scale with the opportunities that the modern global economy provide. Yet, how can this system be improved? The real lacking is in funding, Eritrea has been wracked by war for countless years, and the economy has suffered. Also Eritreans remember how the international community abandoned them very clearly (even if almost all Americans have never even heard of Eritrea), no foreign aid would be accepted by Eritrea. The answer is time. Eritrea is a very young country and has only enjoyed 15 years of independence, and has fought a war with Ethiopia during those years. Eritrea needs time to rebuild its economy, and most especially needs times to build up its schools that were repressed under the Italians and to some extent under the Ethiopians. Eritrea needs time to grow and develop into the nation that it has the potential to be. As a former fighter of the ELF described Eritrea’s situation: “‘We are like a child, going for the first time to the… the… what do you call it?’ ‘The kindergarten?’ ‘Yes, a child going to the kindergarten. At the start, his mother has to stay with him. The West must stay with us now. It has to be patient, not beat us like a teacher in a Third World school. Instead of slapping our government and saying: “You did a stupid thing”, it should be saying: “He will learn”’” (Wrong 395). For Eritrea to fully incorporate its educational system, it needs time to develop as a country, economically as well as socially, as it begins to grasp what it means to be an independent nation. No outside assistance can help Eritrea do this; in fact it would only hinder Eritrea’s progress. The best and only thing that can be done is what Eritreans have wanted for over a century: to be left alone.

Works Consulted

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