Education in Eritrea

Education in Eritrea is officially compulsory between 7 and 13 years of age. [http://lcweb2.loc.gov/frd/cs/profiles/Eritrea.pdf Eritrea country profile] . Library of Congress Federal Research Division (September 2005). "This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain."] The most important goals of Eritrea's educational policy are to provide basic education in each of Eritrea's mother tongues as well as to produce a society that is equipped with the necessary skills to function with a culture of self-reliance in the modern economy.Fact|date=March 2008 The education infrastructure is currently inadequate to meet these needs.

There are five levels of education in Eritrea, pre-primary, primary, middle, secondary and tertiary. There are nearly 238,000 students in the primary, middle, and secondary levels of education. There are approximately 824 schools [cite book
year = 2005
title = Baseline Study on Livelihood Systems in Eritrea
publisher = National Food Information System of Eritrea] in Eritrea and two universities, University of Asmara (UoA) and the Eritrea Institute of Technology (EIST), as well as several smaller colleges and technical schools. Current centers of tertiary education in Eritrea include, the College of Marine Biology, the College of Agriculture, the College of Arts and Social Sciences, the College of Business and Economics, the College of Nursing and Health Technology, as well as EIST and the UoA.cite web
last = Habtetsion
first = Efrem
title = On Developing Higher Level of Education
date = 2006-08-03
url = http://www.shaebia.org/artman/publish/article_4617.html
accessdate = 2006-08-03]

The education system in Eritrea is also designed to promote private sector schooling, equal access for all groups (i.e. prevent gender discrimination, prevent ethnic discrimination, prevent class discrimination, etc.) and promote continuing education through formal and informal systems.

Barriers to education in Eritrea include traditional taboos, school fees (for registration and materials), and the cost barriers of low-income households. [cite book
last = Kifle
first = Temesgen
year = 2002
title = Educational Gender Gap in Eritrea] Statistics suggest that between 39 and 57 percent of school-aged children attend primary school and 21 percent attend secondary school. Student-teacher ratios are high: 45 to 1 at the elementary level and 54 to 1 at the secondary level. There are an average 63 students per classroom at the elementary level and 97 per classroom at the secondary level. Learning hours at school are often less than four hours per day. Skill shortages are present at all levels of the education system, and funding for and access to education vary significantly by gender (with dropout rates much higher for girls) and location. Illiteracy estimates for Eritrea range from around 40 percent to as high as 70 percent. "The Ministry [of Education] plans to establish a university in every region of the future."

References

External links

* [http://education.nairobi-unesco.org/ UNESCO Nairobi office on education in Eritrea]
* [http://education.nairobi-unesco.org/PDFs/eritrea.pdf UNESCO Nairobi Office - Fact Book on Education For All, Eritrea 2006]