Earlier on this is worded as ‘Increasing accessibility of quality education services in pastoral areas’ (p.32).

This sectoral strategy is justified on the basis of the following premises:

1. ‘educational services that take the lifestyle, livelihood and ecology of pastoral areas have not been accessible and therefore pastoralists could not gain access to education and generally the accessibility of the service is below the national standard and average’;
2. ‘it is … necessary to provide and develop education services that are compatible with national average and standard based on the ecology of the area and taking the mobile and settled pastoralists’ way of life into consideration’;
3. ‘the main purpose of building education institutions and provision of educational services is to enable the people to access … basic and sufficient services, develop their capacity sustainably, and improve their attitudes and lead lives assisted with modern technology’;
4. ‘regarding accessibility, the main problem being observed now is [parents] preventing boys and girls from going to school. The prevalent practice and attitude of communities in these areas is that boys should look after the animals and girls are considered as sources of wealth; and prevent them from going to school’.

The strategy is described as acting on these premises with the following measures:

1. ‘education services development and provision activity shall be based on the mobile and sedentary lifestyle of pastoral people in consistent [sic] with the policy pillars that we have stipulated for Commune and animal development activities’;
2. ‘educational facilities and educational services shall be built and provided around development centers where people have voluntarily settled; or are in the process of settling’;
3. establishing ‘mobile education services that takes people’s mobility, seasons of mobility, and ecology in to account … where the livelihood of the people depends on grazing and water in moisture stressed areas and mobile pastoralists live’;
4. ‘using community organizations to enable [pastoral communities] to learn from each other so that all boys and girls are sent to school; and no student shall withdraw’.

COMMENTARY

1. Educational services have been inaccessible to pastoralists. Poor accessibility to educational services in pastoral areas is found to be a consequence of the fact that the provision of educational services has not taken into consideration the livelihood and lifestyle of people in pastoral systems. Therefore, past choices about service provision have effectively prevented pastoralists from accessing education. As in the case of health services, the answer would seem to be finally reversing this trend, and establishing educational services that take people’s mobile condition, mobility season, and ecology into account.
2. Enabling access. One of the premises of this strategy is that ‘the main purpose of building education institutions and provision of educational services is to enable the people to access … basic and sufficient services’. As education itself is a basic service, it follows from this premise that the provision of educational services is supposed to be done in such a way as to enable people to access them, including people in pastoral systems. In other words, the burden of accessibility is on the side of provision.
3. Taking pastoralists into account. The description of this strategy promises to adapt the provision of educational services in pastoral areas so as to finally take into account ‘people’s mobility, seasons of mobility, and ecology’, as for example through mobile education services.
4. Mobile education. The description of this sectoral strategy mentions the intention of establishing ‘mobile education services’. However, none of the eight implementation activities under this strategy makes reference to mobile education. Thus, this seems a direction of policy intervention waiting for development at the level of regional states.
5. Reversing the argument about accessibility? The description of this strategy opens with acknowledging the responsibility of past policies for failing to make educational services effectively accessible by people in pastoral systems. Nevertheless, the concluding statement contradicts this opening by pinning responsibility for poor accessibility on the pastoralists themselves: ‘regarding accessibility, the main problem being observed now is [parents] preventing boys and girls from going to school’. But ‘schools’ are at the core of the system of provision that has so far failed to take into account people in pastoral systems and thus failed to secure sufficient accessibility – a situation that is not solely confined to Ethiopia.[1]

[1] S. Krätli and C. Dyer, Mobile Pastoralists and Education: Strategic Options (London: International Institute of Environment and Development, Education for Nomads Working Paper No. 1, 2009).

a. Strengthen institutions and organizational arrangements that would make the education services effective at all levels taking the mobile and settled lifestyle of the people into account (p.57) »