Tension between Traditional and Modern Teaching-Learning Approaches in Ethiopian Primary Schools

Whether a particular education system is of high or low quality can be judged in terms of input, output and process. Until recently, however, much discussion of educational quality is centered on only system inputs in terms of the provision of teachers, teaching materials and other facilities, and on output in terms of students' achievement. However, due to financial constraints, the government has realized that improving the quality of education through improved input is more difficult. Thus, the government chose to improve quality of education by improving the teaching-learning process, which it assumed as cost-effective. This study thus, was aimed at finding out the extent to which the innovative approaches of teaching and learning are employed under the Ethiopian tradition of teaching at primary schools, to identify the factors that affect its implementation, and finally recommend better ways and means for further improvement. By employing a descriptive survey research method, the study found out that although the employment of innovative teaching and learning is emphasized in the policy, currently traditional lecture methods, in which teachers talk and students listen, dominate most classrooms. The common obstacles found are: the Ethiopian tradition of teaching and child upbringing, lack of institutional and learning resources, teachers' lack of expertise, inappropriate curricular materials for active learning and students' lack of prior experience to actively participate in the teaching and learning process.