Trends of primary education wastage in Ethiopia: the challenges for sustainable development goals

Abstract

The objectives of the study was to delineate the status of primary education wastage in Ethiopia in line with the target set for education in the documents of sustainable development goals ( 2016-2030). The study was conducted in Gambella region, one of the Federal states of Ethiopia with exclusive primary education (1-8) data for five consecutive years (2013-2017). Moreover, serious discussion conducted with regional education experts to solicit the realities on ground that substantiate the quantitative data of primary education wastage. The study confirms that the cumulative primary wastage for (2013-2017) rated as 58 % and the trends of wastage exacerbated starting from grade 5 and the worst at grade 8 where wastage recorded as 80% at turning point of primary education. The study deduced that primary education wastage is still the bottle-neck in Ethiopia and difficulty to achieve the goal set at the end of sustainable development goal (2030). Strong intervention should be implemented to mitigate factors associated with primary education wastage in Gambella region of Ethiopia.

Keywords: Ethiopian Primary education; education wastage; sustainable development goals