Materials science buoyed by education policy in Ethiopia
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Materials science buoyed by education policy in Ethiopia www.mofed.gov.et
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he Ethnological Museum in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, has an old, tubestyle television in its lobby. A video runs on a loop that is effectively an audiovisual time capsule from the early 1990s full of Addis cityscapes from various neighborhoods and vantage points. To someone arriving in Addis today, these images would be virtually unrecognizable. In the last few decades, Ethiopia’s population has grown swiftly; more and more people have moved from rural to urban areas, and Addis Ababa has become one of the fastest growing cities in Africa. Ethiopia’s government has tried to harness this growth to maximize development. To this end, the Ministry of Finance and Economic Development (MOFED) authored a countrywide strategic document known as the Growth and Transformation Plan (GTP I) with the stated goal of “achieving broadbased, accelerated and sustained economic growth so as to alleviate poverty.” Initiated in November of 2010, GTP I builds on the accomplishments of the Plan for Accelerated and Sustained
Development to End Poverty, which was implemented from 2005–2010. While the term “materials science” doesn’t actually appear in GTP I, the field has significantly benefited from the government’s efforts, especially in the university setting. “In the course of GTP I, education was one of the main focus areas,” said Kalid Ahmed Seid, Assistant Professor and Department Head at Adama Science and Technology University (ASTU). In fact, during the course of implementing the plan, the government has not just supported materials science programs, it has also birthed them. In setting education as a priority, GTP I often refers to ensuring “relevance.” The plan spells out exactly what “relevance” means when, in its discussion of implementation strategies, it states, “The intake capacity of all universities, especially in science and technology and teacher development programs, will be increased.” GTP I also sets out the goal that all new universities “will be furnished with the equipment necessary and encouraged to give priority to science and technology and teacher development programs.” The government has backed its objectives with financial support. “When ASTU requested establishment of the Department of Materials Science Engineering, the government immediately approved. We w e r e a b l e to start the new department in the Adama Science and Technology University, Adama, Ethiopia. academic year
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MRS BULLETIN
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VOLUME 40 • APRIL 2015
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www.mrs.org/bulletin
of 2012/13,” said Jang Gyu (John) Lee, Professor and President at ASTU. For Ethiopia, this was uncharted territory. In 2015, Ethiopia’s first undergraduate class of materials science students are just a year away from receiving their degrees. Teketel Yohannes Anshebo, Professor and Department Chair at Addis Ababa University (AAU), had previously broken similar ground when he founded Ethiopia’s first graduate program in materials science. He agreed that “GTP I affected materials science and en
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