Programme de bourses "Jeunes Chercheurs"

Practices and strategies of education among the Afar in Dubti and Awra, Ethiopia

During the last decade in Ethiopia, there has been an impressive rise in enrolment rates at all levels of the school system. Yet, this expansion hides wide disparities between and within regions and, in pastoral areas particularly, participation in primary schooling has remained very low. The Afar Regional State, mostly inhabited by Afar pastoralists, has the bottom score, with a primary gross enrolment rate of 21.9% in 2006, compared to a national average of 91.3%. As a consequence, Afar pastoralists constitute a major challenge for the Federal Government, which has set the objective of universal primary education by 2015. Over the last five years, school provision in pastoral areas has been fostered and diversified, notably through the development of 'Alternative Basic Education', i.e. non-formal primary school.

Besides the variety of school provision, there are other forms of education among the Afar, if education is taken in its broad definition, as not merely schooling, but as any process by which knowledge, skills, values and norms are passed from a generation to the next. First, there is the traditional apprenticeship for pastoralism. Livestock production and life in arid and semi-arid lands require specialized knowledge and skills that are transmitted to the younger generation (according to a gender and age based organization) by daily practice and observation. At the same time, the participation of the young generation is a necessity, given that the pastoral production system is labour intensive. Second, there is a long tradition of Islamic education. While it is possible to acquire basic Islamic education everywhere in the region, migration to other parts of the country or to other countries (e.g. Yemen, Egypt), for advanced education in reputed learning centres, is necessary.

Yet, very little is known about the ‘demand for education’ and the Afar practices with regard to the different forms education: who follows what education, and why? How do various forms of education articulate to each other at the individual level and at the family level? Despite the low participation of the Afar in school, the area has been under-researched. The purpose of this research is, therefore, to understand what drives the Afar differential involvement in formal school, non-formal school, Islamic education and indigenous learning for pastoralism. It also aims at contributing to theory on this elusive concept of "demand for education".

For an in-depth understanding of the Afar practices of education, the research draws on qualitative methods of data collection (participatory observation and semi-structured interviews during eight months). To have a wider vista and take into consideration both the continuity of pastoralism and processes of social change among the Afar, the researcher has taken a sample of two districts, chosen for their very different settings:

i) The district of Dubti (Zone 1) is located in the Middle Awash Valley and is one of the main areas in the region where irrigated agriculture has been developed since the 1960s. Over time, the district has become the political and economic centre of the region, with urban centres and an increasing number of non-Afar people working in farmlands or in town. Due to constrained access to this vital dry season grazing land and increased competition over natural resources, Afar pastoralists in this district tend to have more diversified activities, like petty trade and handicraft. In fact, there is currently a wide range of economic activity and settlement patterns among the Afar of Dubti: pastoralism, agro-pastoralism, agriculture, wage employment in town, urban and urban-rural business, etc.  The provision of education is well developed in comparison with other districts.

ii) The district of Awra (Zone 4) is an area with important grassland, where pastoralist and agro-pastoralist from the district of Dubti migrate during the wet season. There are almost no existing infrastructures and social services in this remote district. In 1994, urban residents represented only 0.85% of the total population, though statistics in pastoral areas are difficult to collect and not reliable. People rely predominantly on pastoralism and move to the highland escarpments or the Low and Middle Awash Valley during the dry season. The provision of educational opportunities for children and youth is very limited.

Supervision
Prof. Michel Carton, IHEID

Main references
CARR-HILL R. (ed), 2005, The Education of Nomadic Peoples in East Africa, Synthesis Report, UNESCO-IIEP, Paris
DYER C. (ed.), 2006, The Education of Nomadic Peoples, Current Issues, Future Prospects, Berghahn, Books, New York
KASSA N. G., 2001, Among the Pastoral Afar in Ethiopia – Tradition, Continuity and Socio-Economic Change, International Books & OSSREA, Utrecht
GAMALEDIN M., 1993, "The Decline of Afar Pastoralism", pp.45-62 in MARKAKIS John (ed.), Conflict and the Decline of Pastoralism in the Horn of Africa, Macmillan, London
PILON M. and YARO Y. (dir.), 2001, La demande d’éducation en Afrique. État des connaissances et perspectives de recherche, UEPA/UAPS, Dakar

Contact
Stéphanie Langstaff, PhD candidate
Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies (IHEID)
Address: 20, rue Rotschild - P.O.B 136 - 1211 Geneva 21 - Switzerland
Phone: (+41) (0) 22 908 43 00
E-mail: stephanie.langstaff@graduateinstitute.ch
Website: http://www.graduateinstitute.ch

Research partners in Ethiopia
* Ayalew Shibeshi, Associate Professor
College of Education, Addis Abeba University
Address: P.O. Box 1176, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
E-mail: ayalewshibeshi@yahoo.com
Website: http://www.aau.edu.et

* Centre Français des Études Éthiopiennes (CFEE)
Address: P.O. Box 5554, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
Phone: (+251) (0) 11 123 47 67/68
E-mail: secretariat-cfee@ethionet.et
Website: http://www.cfee.cnrs.fr/

* Afar Pastoralist Development Association (APDA)
Address: P.O. Box 592 Code 1110, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
Phone: (+251) (0) 11 515 97 87
E-mail: afarpda@yahoo.com
Website: http://www.apdaethiopia.org/