Students with no gov’t policy, strategy training to be denied College entry

ESAT News

 The Ethiopian Ministry of Education has issued a mandatory directive that compels over 350 thousand new and existing university students to be trained in government’s policy and strategy. The directive also states that students who do not hold the certificate of completion cannot continue their studies.

The Minister, Shiferaw Shigute said to journalists that the 116,000 new and 250,000 existing students will be given the training for 15 days receiving per dime. The first round of the training starts next week while the second one will be given in September next year.

He said the trainers will be senior government officials but refused to reveal the details and the cost of the training. Other sources however said some of the course modules include Developmental State, Religious Extremism and Terrorism. The ruling Front is doing this in order to get support in next year’s election and succeed its members with university students. The source also revealed that the finance comes from the government’s coffers.

Similarly, a training is being given to Federal judges, prosecutors, police and security officers about the ruling Front’s ideology, Revolutionary Democracy. Training participants have asked about the need for the training at this time and if judges can act freely when they are being trained by ruling party officials about its policies.

Questions were also raised about the potential of future unilinguality in Ethiopia, Emperor Menelik’s legacies and government’s growth rhetoric. Answering to the questions, Front’s official, Abadula Gemeda, said during Menelik’s reign there was “class subjugation in the Amhara region while there was ethnic subjugation in Oromia region”. He also said his Front follows Taiwan’s and India’s developmental state ideologies.

The ruling Front is holding discussions and training with top officials, civil servants and public representative cadres about current national issues.