Debre Zeit School Attendance by Age and Sex:
(Source: fe1c6t0qy9y81.jpg (1000×1000) (redd.it))
While school attendance is not mandatory, in 2007 in Debre Zeit, significant proportion of children five year and older were either attending school or have attended school. What is worth noting is those children who are five years and older who have never attended school for different reasons. Debre Zeit, which is an urban town, has reported that 14.4 percent of the school age children (five years and older) have never attended school. The school non attendance is twice worse for female children than male. This could be primarily due to the heavy burden the females carry with the house work and as their role as bread winners for the family.
The School not attendance and the dire situation of female non attendance situation gets even worth when we look at the situation in East Shewa Zone and the Oromia region as a Whole. One factor is that both East Shewa Zone and Oromia region were predominantly rural and school non attendance is prevalent in the rural areas.
In fact the situation might have been really bad back in the 1950 and 1960 when the cohorts of the 1970 were going to school. The 1970 cohorts are probably the first in their family who went to school, completed elementary, high school and went to university.
Especially the school attendance looks better in 2007 as a result of the literacy campaign undertaken During the Military Regime, 1974-1991 ( See Germa Amare’s: An Appraisal of the Literacy Campaign in Ethiopia During the Military Regime, 1974-1991,An Appraisal of the Literacy Campaign in Ethiopia During the Military Regime, 1974-1991 on JSTOR ).
| % of Total Never Attended | |||
| Total | Male | Female | |
| BISHOFTU/TOWN/-WEREDA | 14.39% | 8.98% | 19.31% |
| BISHOFTU/TOWN/WEREDA-URBAN | 14.39% | 8.98% | 19.31% |
| EAST SHEWA ZONE | 51.63% | 46.22% | 57.35% |
| EAST SHWEA ZONE URBAN | 21.82% | 15.63% | 27.94% |
| EAST SHWEA ZONE-RURAL | 62.27% | 56.66% | 68.34% |
| OROMIA REGION | 61.83% | 54.28% | 69.46% |
| OROMIA REGION_URBAN | 24.88% | 17.76% | 32.16% |
| OROMIA REGION-RURAL | 67.40% | 59.83% | 75.05% |
To help further analysis, the table below provides more breakdown of school attendance. It is important to note that the key part is those who attended school in the past. These includes those who participated in literacy campaign. Unfortunately the number of school age children five years and older who are currently attending school is smaller than those who attended school in the past. This emphasizes that a significant portion of school attendance is happening in the informal or non regular arrangements.
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