Education in

Eritrea Eritrea, officially the State of Eritrea, is a country in the Horn of Africa region of East Africa, with its capital and largest city being Asmara. It is bordered by Ethiopia in the Eritrea–Ethiopia border, south, Sudan in the west, and Dj ...

is officially compulsory between 7 and 16 years of age.Eritrea country profile

Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is a research library in Washington, D.C., serving as the library and research service for the United States Congress and the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It also administers Copyright law o ...

Federal Research Division The Federal Research Division (FRD) is the research and analysis unit of the United States Library of Congress. The Federal Research Division provides directed research and analysis on domestic and international subjects to agencies of the Unite ...

(September 2005). ''This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the

public domain The public domain (PD) consists of all the creative work to which no Exclusive exclusive intellectual property rights apply. Those rights may have expired, been forfeited, expressly Waiver, waived, or may be inapplicable. Because no one holds ...

.'' Important goals of

'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. The education infrastructure is currently inadequate to meet these needs.

History

Initially there were only a few religious schools in

, but with the Italian governments were started the first school systems in Eritrea mainly during the late 1930s (when was established the Eritrea Governorate). In 1940 Dr. Vincenzo Di Meglio promoted the creation of the "School of Medicine" in Asmara (the first university institution in Eritrea, located initially in the Liceo Martini), under the direction of Prof. Ferro Luzzi. After

WW2 World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies and the Axis powers. Nearly all of the world's countries participated, with many nations mobilising ...

the first university in Asmara was created. This university was founded in 1958, albeit by a different name as the ''Collegio Cattolico della Santa Famiglia'' while ruled by the Italian religious organization called 'Piae Madres Nigritiae' ("Comboni Sisters"): successively, in 1964 the university had been renamed as "University of Asmara". In the 1990s the independent Eritrea started a program to bring literacy to all children in Eritrea. Since then the school system has reached nearly 90% of young

Eritreans Eritreans are the native inhabitants of Eritrea, as well as the global Eritrean diaspora, diaspora of Eritrea. Eritreans constitute #Component ethnicities, several component ethnic groups, some of which are related to ethnic groups that make up t ...

. A

Human Rights Watch Human Rights Watch (HRW) is an international non-governmental organization that conducts research and advocacy on human rights. Headquartered in New York City, the group investigates and reports on issues including War crime, war crimes, crim ...

report in August 2019 suggested that the final year secondary school students are forced into compulsory military training at the Sawa military camp, where they are subjected to systematic abuse, including torture, harsh working conditions and paid insufficiently. The military personnel control the students with physical punishment, military-style discipline, and forced labour.

Levels education

! scope="col" style="background:#77B5FE;" , Education system in Eritrea , - , Basic Education- 7 years , - , Middle - Junior High School (Years included in basic) , - , Secondary -Secondary School - 4 years , - , Post- secondary - Advanced Diploma - 3 years , - , Higher Education - Bachelor - 4/5 years , - , Higher Education - Master - 2 years 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 in Eritrea and two universities, University of Asmara (UoA) and the Eritrea Institute of Technology (EIT), 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 Eritrea Institute of Technology and the UoA.There are some big primary and middle schools like Mai-Tesfa, Awet and Model 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.

Statistics

Statistics suggest that between 39 and 90 percent of school-aged children attend

primary school A primary school (in Ireland, India, the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, South Africa, and Singapore), elementary school, or grade school (in North America and the Philippines) is a school for primary ...

and 85 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 42 students per classroom at the elementary level and 45 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. The overall

literacy rate Literacy is the ability to read and write, while illiteracy refers to an inability to read and write. Some researchers suggest that the study of "literacy" as a concept can be divided into two periods: the period before 1950, when literacy was ...

in Eritrea is estimated to be about 100 percent in 2020. In the age 15–24 the literacy rate is 100 percent.Eritrea
World Bank "The Ministry f Educationplans to establish a university in every region in the future."

References

External links

Colonial School system in Eritrea, by Silvia Nocchi (in Italian)
{{Education in Africa