Education Sector Development Project

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The first five-year phase of the Education Sector Development Project, an expenditure program to restructure and expand Ethiopia's educational system, improves overall educational attainment while achieving greater social equity. The project has six components. Basic education, the first, builds, upgrades, and renovates new primary schools, reforms curriculum, upgrades teachers, and increases textbooks in order to increase access and enrollment--especially in rural areas, improve teacher quality and school proximity. It uses non-formal education and radio programs. The second component expands secondary schools, revises curriculum, upgrades teachers, and increases instructional materials and equipment. The third component consists of technical and vocational education and training activities that encourage private sector participation in order to tie training to the job market, increase the availability of skilled labor, and raise the employment rate. The fourth component upgrades and expands teacher training institutes and colleges and uses distance learning. The fifth component expands higher education by encouraging private sector investment and designing cost-sharing schemes to meet the country's needs for educators, engineers, health workers, and public administrators. The sixth component, institutional development, improves planning, finance management, and implementation, monitoring, and evaluation capacities of the education ministries and agencies.