The airing of the TV documentary “Building Greater Ethiopia in East Africa” on Abay TV, just two days after the release of Ethiopia’s devastating Grade 12 national exam results, highlights a troubling disconnect between the government’s messaging and the stark realities facing the nation’s youth. The documentary, which showcased Grade 12 students engaged in military service, seems like a poorly timed propaganda effort to overshadow the fact that only 5.4% of the 684,205 students who took the national exam passed. The notion of “Building Greater Ethiopia” through military service is laughable when Ethiopia, the second-most populous country in Africa, is failing to provide its youth with even the most basic educational foundation. Instead of addressing this pressing crisis, the government appears intent on projecting an unrealistic image of regional greatness.
The documentary’s premise is fundamentally flawed. It presents a vision of Ethiopia as a leader in East Africa, focusing on military service as a solution, while sidestepping the urgent need to address the country’s deep-seated educational challenges. With 95% of Grade 12 students unable to pass their exams, how can Ethiopia realistically aspire to build a “Greater Ethiopia” in the region? The program’s grandiose aspirations, particularly when aired so soon after the announcement of the national exam results, feel like an out-of-touch attempt to shift public attention away from the ongoing educational failure.
On April 30, 2023, the government approved the National Military Service Proclamation, making it compulsory for 18-year-olds to undergo military training for two years after high school. In a nation where only 36,409 students out of nearly 700,000 passed the national exam, this decree raises critical questions about the government’s priorities. Is the focus on militarization, rather than educational advancement, truly in the best interest of Ethiopia’s youth and the country’s long-term future? For a country of Ethiopia’s size and potential, internal strength must be built through education, not simply military service.
The abysmal pass rate of 5.4% exposes systemic failures within the Ethiopian education system, which demand immediate attention. Instead of using military service as a smokescreen, the government should prioritize reforms that address the root causes of this crisis: lack of resources, unqualified teachers, and insufficient infrastructure. With more than 650,000 students failing to meet academic standards, pushing them into military service without offering them educational opportunities only diverts them from the paths that could contribute to long-term national growth.
While Dr. Dima Noah, the Chairman of the Standing Committee on Foreign Relations and Peace Affairs, assured that voluntary members of the National Defense Force or Reserve Force would have their rights and benefits protected, this does little to address the broader educational crisis. Ethiopia cannot build a “greater” nation if it continues to neglect its youth’s intellectual development. The propaganda-like effort seen in the Abay TV documentary fails to address the real problem: the lack of educational opportunities for the majority of the country’s students. It offers military service as a convenient distraction rather than a solution to the country’s deep-seated issues.
The timing of the program, aired right after the national exam results, further highlights the government’s misaligned priorities. Ethiopia’s population may be vast, but without a robust and well-educated workforce, the country will struggle to realize its potential, let alone lead East Africa. The idea of building a “Greater Ethiopia” through military service is not only laughably out of touch with the nation’s educational crisis, but it also undermines the country’s true strength—its people and their intellectual capacity.
Ultimately, national service might foster patriotism and unity, but it cannot replace the critical role that education plays in building a prosperous, competitive, and innovative nation. A government that prioritizes military service over educational reform risks not only its future prosperity but also its credibility. Ethiopia must rise to the challenge of educating its youth, ensuring that they have the tools and resources they need to build a stronger, more competitive country—one that is truly capable of leading East Africa, not just in name, but in reality.While national service might foster patriotism and unity, it cannot replace the critical role that education plays in building a prosperous, competitive, and innovative nation. In reality, Ethiopia’s future does not lie in military service alone but in the intellectual and creative capacities of its youth. The overwhelming failure of students in the national exam—paired with a government more focused on promoting military service than addressing the root causes of this failure—paints a bleak picture of national priorities.
A government that prioritizes militarization over educational reform risks not only its future prosperity but also its global competitiveness. The long-term success of Ethiopia will depend on whether it can cultivate a well-educated workforce that is equipped to drive innovation, economic growth, and development. Without a serious commitment to fixing its broken education system, the country risks losing an entire generation to underachievement, stifled potential, and unrealized dreams.
For Ethiopia to truly “build a greater nation,” it must invest in its youth by providing quality education, enhancing opportunities for higher learning, and addressing systemic challenges within the educational framework. Only then can Ethiopia rise as a leader—not just in East Africa, but on the global stage. Military service alone will not achieve that goal, but an empowered and educated population can. The choice for Ethiopia’s future is clear: educate and invest in its youth, or continue down a path that limits their potential and, ultimately, the nation’s progress.
This is an excellent constructive criticism and such opinions must be encouraged and commended. College entrance exams are said to be very taxing to pass and in many countries pose nightmares to those preparing for the exams. In well developed countries like those in Asia such exams bring a season of suicides by many who failed. But only 5.4% is too extreme. It is a failure by everyone. Parents, teachers, officials for the most part those bigots and connivers who successfully diverted the attention of the gullible youth from learning math and science to mastering how to handle deadly guns. These demons are leading the tender age youth away from schools to their joints in the bushes. That country has been going thru such nightmare since the 1960’s.
Weren’t truants made legends then and to this day? They were encouraged by those who go to schools outside the country. While those outside the country were amassing BA’s, Masters and PhD’s in Europe and America but they were commending their ‘comrades’ going to the only university inside the country to go AWOL making the junior year as their final year. I remember what one of those connivers in Europe once told me about one of those gullible college students. He told me in late 1960’s about how one of them was ‘a committed revolutionary that he has been a 3rd year student since 1965’. They died in the most gruesome ways still as 3rd year college students. There were thousands like them who shunned high school leaving exams who were sent to their gallows by the demon Mengistu. But those outside the country were piling up college degrees like sought after collectibles. It is the same deal now. You can see it. The leaders of those who preach violence from safe rabbit holes in the bushes both in Oromia and Amhara regions hold BA’s and MA’s. They know very well that an educated youth is a tough cookie to swindle. They target and ransack schools, the holy grail of enlightenment. The leaders of the government share the blame for their inability to maintain peace, security and stability that country has been denied since 1974.
Finally, I say this to those who may now be itching to go after the writers of this timely article and the editors of this esteemed website: Don’t you dare! Don’t even think about it! Go to Merkato and find a goat or a sheep to harass. Don’t even think about it! Enough said for me now!!! May The Almighty Our Creator Save That Country, That Gem of The Colored!!!