More than nine million children in Ethiopia are out of school, locked in by armed conflicts, natural disasters, tribal tensions, and economic difficulties. While the country has 35,444,482 children of school age in 2023, only 22,949,597 were enrolled in school, meaning that more than 35% of them are without education. The situation has worsened in the past year due to the ongoing humanitarian crisis.
It started in 2020 between the federal government and the Tigray regional government; the war between the two sides has been the most significant reason for the current crisis. Besides, this is added to the problem of resistance by regional governments of Amhara and Oromia and conflict between pastoralist communities of the Afar and Somali regions, which completely destroyed the education system of the country. Destruction of infrastructure, especially schools, has seen over a million children displaced from education.
In 2024, the scale of the crisis became even more apparent, with about 10,000 schools damaged and more than 6,000 schools closed due to conflict, violence, and natural disasters. The worst affected regions—Amhara, Oromia, Tigray, Somali, and Afar—have left millions of children without access to education. For example, Amhara, with a school-aged population of 7 million, only enrolled 2.3 million students in the current academic year.
As an expert on policy in the educational sector in Ethiopia, I feel that it is children who bear the brunt with respect to challenges unaddressed within the nation concerning education. Avoiding schooling risks increasing opportunities for child labor and early marriages that may end in exploitation or further disadvantages lifelong such as few and fewer employability chances or increasing vulnerability towards being poor forever.
This denial of education not only inhibits personal growth-cognitive, social, and emotional-but also sabotages society: it feeds poverty, lowers productivity, destroys social cohesiveness, and limits innovation. A dimly educated people mean a lackluster citizenry: lower citizen participation, more inequality, and national stalling.
As education opportunities disappear, young Ethiopians are increasingly risking their lives on dangerous migration routes to the Middle East. The lack of education further contributes to conflict by limiting the country’s human capital, which is essential for development and stability.An uneducated population is more likely to be drawn into ongoing violence.
Elections in 2018 brought an eagerly awaited Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed into office, promising much change. Still, the education crisis remains unresolved, because the government stepped out and pushed this burden of finding resources onto regional state governments. In November 2024, the public universities of the Amhara region banded together to form an advocacy group to appeal for aid and in January 2025, the Amhara regional government appealed to stakeholders to help reopen closed schools.
This will only prolong the crisis. The Ethiopian government should now face the education crisis by negotiating to end the internal conflicts and pleading for international assistance. An integrated, comprehensive humanitarian response to this disruption in education is required.
Global development aid partners must recognize the urgency of Ethiopia’s education crisis and commit to long-term support. Immediate relief is necessary, but efforts should also focus on helping Ethiopia resolve its internal conflicts peacefully. Diplomacy and reconciliation must take precedence over violence and war.