Thisarticle originally was written in May to make awarness of the dismise

An Entire Generation Denied Higher Education? Are we going to stay silent?

Resoum Kidane

30/11/06

Since the 1940s, increasing number of Eritreans have sought to gain higher education. The British authorities had expanded the schooling system for their own reasons, mainly to counter Italian influence, but Eritreans seized the opportunity this offered. Many went on to universities abroad. With independence, the expectation was that higher education would be expanded, to offer the benefits of university training to a much broader stratum of the population. In fact, the very opposite has happened. The current government in order to prevent the possibility of students criticizing the lack of free speech democracy has set out to restrict higher education.

As Ravinder Rena ^[1] has argued, Eritrea’s level of creativity, its wealth and the future living standard of its people will be determined by the breadth and depth of its intellectual assets. Despite the evident truth of this observation, the sole higher educational institution in Eritrea , the University of Asmara, which could have a key role in future economic and social developments, was closed down in September 2006. The demise of this institution is further proof of Isays Afeworki’s intense fear of intellectuals and above all of freedom of speech and democratic debate.

He began eliminating the intellectual stratum during the liberation struggle of the 1970s and 1980s. Alem Tesfay ^[2] has documented some of the victims during those years, and Teklay Aden, an EPLF security chief who defected to the Ethiopian regime in 1981, estimated that three thousand fighters were physically liquidated by the EPLF’s security service between the beginning of the internal power struggle, 1973, and the time of his defection in 1980 ^[3]. The number of fighters physically eliminated by the Front, between 1973 and the liberation of Eritrea in 1991, could range between three to five thousand, if those fighters who disappeared under mysterious circumstances are included. However, Solomon Woldemariam who was part of the EPLF leadership from 1971-1977, has suggested that the number was much larger. Solomon estimated that around one thousand fighters who participated in the Menka movement were rehabilitated after undergoing serious political indoctrination and so-called self-criticism^[^4][p49].

Sherman ^[5][p64] has claimed that in 1976 alone perhaps as many as 200 young EPLF intellectuals were arrested. Many were executed for “radicalism” after following an alleged Maoist line. This was when Goitom Berhe, a prominent EPLF fighter and his group tried to form an underground organization called 'the Eritrean Revolutionary Party' During this period the party translated a number of Marxist works in to Tigrigna (eg Dialectical Materialism, Four Essays of Philosophy, About the Proletariat Party). All the publications were seized and burnt. The suspected ring-leaders of the anti-Isias movement of progressives were arrested and later executed.

In the independent Eritrea, staff and students of University of Asmara (UoA) became the next intended target of Afeworki. The authoritarian tendency of the president was evident on the (UoA) campus when Andebrhane Woldegeorgis was the president of UoA between 1991 and 1993. At that time, the academic staff proposed to reform the University’s faculty association which had been established during the Dergue period. The aim was to show the strength of Eritrean intellectuals in meeting the needs of the newly liberated Eritrea and to re-establish the autonomy of the University. Their proposal was rejected. They were informed that they were academically incompetent. The provisional government of Eritrea dismissed 40 lecturers (more than half of the faculty of the UoA). Many of the dismissed lecturers were dispersed into different ministries and became the executors of the EPLF’s political line.

The repression of academic staff continued even after Andebrhane was replaced by Woldab who served as president of the university from 1993 to 2005. Under President Woldeab, the University became a conveyor belt for the Afeworki dictatorial leadership. Among the accomplishments of the UoA, in earlier times, was that it had produced brilliant students who later went on to further education in different institutions, some in USA, Europe, Australia, South Africa, through various links) and assistantship programs^[6]. The President of the University was not strong enough to develop the University into an autonomous institution. During Woldeab’s period, the UoA came under still more intense pressure from the government particularly when the students opposed a summer work programme. This had involved recruiting 40,000 students to repair roads, plant trees and do construction work over the summer of 2000. Two years later, a work programme was introduced through the Warsai-Yeikali Campaign for Radical Development Change^[7]. Mr . Al-Amin, the political leader of PFDJ, stated that the new Warsai-Yikalo Development Campaign was meant to involve all citizens for the development of agriculture, infrastructure and human resources.

In order to reduce student enrolment at the University and thereby prevent further challenges to the Eritrean Government one more year was added to the high school curriculum. Under the previous policy, after finishing 11^th grade, students had to take the national examination and were sent to Sawa for military training. Those who passed the examination started their study at UoA and those who failed left to their military service. As if the high schools could not accommodate 12^th grade students, the government decided that the students across the nation should attend their final high school grade in a newly opened school, which was a military camp in Sawa All secondary schools have been closed down. All students are transferred to the Sawa high school as soon as they complete their 11^th grade class. More of their time is spent on forced labor than on studies. After completing this as their 12^th grade those who pass their examination are transferred to the new technical college in Mai Nefi. Those who fail are immediately transferred to the Army and spend the most productive years of their lives in the Warsai-Yikalo Campaign. The intention of the government is to brainwash the youth.

The consequences of this type of training is the same as occurred under the Chinese Cultural Revolution. During this period no new scientists and teachers were trained, CAS academician Youqi Tang points out that inorganic, organic, and physical chemistry were neglected during the Cultural Revolution. The institute's graduate study program ceased completely during the period from 1966 to 1978. Dawei Ma, assistant director of the Shanghai Institute of Organic Chemistry (SIOC), points out that many academics were sent to remote parts of China to work as manual labourers on farms ( planting rice and vegetables) or in factories. Professor Min-Bo Chen, who was a junior member of the CAS Institute of Atomic Energy in Peking, says: "I was sent to the countryside for labor in the rice and cotton fields in Hubei Province in central China for two years. The Cultural Revolution was like a nightmare and should not be allowed to return. Soldiers and workers, selected for political reasons, became leaders of the universities. CAS academician Youqi Tang notes: "The professors were led by the students."

Generally, the Cultural Revolution between 1967 and 1977 played a decisive role in running down the Chinese Education System and creating a gap that spanned a generation. When universities reopened in the early 1970s, enrolments were reduced to the below the pre-Cultural Revolution level. In 1984, only 15 people received Ph.D.s, mainly for theoretical research in subjects like mathematics. Since then . several thousand Chinese scientists receive Ph.D.s each year, which has greatly contributed to promoting China’s economy^[8]

Similarly to what happened during the Cultural Revolution in China, the Eritrean Education System has reached an all-time low through the introduction of Warsai-Yeikali Campaign and the transfer, in 2002, of the 12^th grade to Sawa. The Eritrean government has sent many educators and young students to remote areas for unlimited periods under the guise of Warsai-Yeikali Campaign.

As a consequence of the above, despite the African continent’s tertiary students increasing on average by 15% yearly^[9], the University of Asmara has failed to enroll any freshmen students since 2003, as table 1, below, shows.

Table1.: Student enrollment

Enrollment of students

Academic Year

Day

Evening

1991/92

1992/93

1993/94

1994/96

1996/97

1997/98

1998/99

1990/00

2000/01

2001/02

2002/03

1683

2141

2268

2611

2835

2948

3956

4135

4628

5506

5934

1259

1192

881

427

324

188

130

Source Leonida, Tekie Asehun(2004)Student Selection and Retention at the University of Asmara, Eritrea ^[10].

The intention of Isays Afeworki, as has been made clear through his Education Minister, Osman Saleh, during a visit to the university of Asmara in 2005. The University of Asmara should not expect to get any fresh students in the coming 4-5 years. The reason, he explained, is that “ we are in a transition period" and the University failed to produce human power to accomplish local development needs. This policy, promoted from the president office was in direct contradiction to the future Strategic Plan of Asmara University itself. The UoA expected^{[6] [p189]}, to grow to 8000 day students around the year 2005 to 2010 which was nearly 100% increase from 1999/2000. The UoA’s plan for 1995 – 2010 was to excel in higher education and form a multi-campus, university system (CAMPUS) with junior colleges in different part of the country.

Accordingly, Asmara University would have been the main campus ^{[6] [p190]}. Instead, the number of students in the UoA went into free fall to ZERO. And Eritrea is one of the very few countries now without a University. All higher education institutions have been reduced to high schools and to military camps. A president of the nation who has never shown any interest in the prestigious University of Asmara, a two to three minutes ride from his office has been shown celebrating a military graduation at the “College of Social Science” in Nakfa, two days ride from his office.

By contrast, other Sub-Saharian African countries which are in a transition period or recovering from conflict have not reduced their students enrollment in higher education. According to Materu Peter^[9] average annual enrollment growth is particularly strong in Rwand (55%), Nambia (46%), Uganda (37%), Tanzania (32%), Cote d’ Ivoire (28%) Kenya (27%) Chad ( 27 %) Botswana (22%), and Cameroon (22%).

Table 2. Average Annual Tertiary Enrollment Growth Rates in Africa (%)

Region	1985-90	1990-95	1995-98	1998-02
Francophone	8.2	6.2	7.9	11.0
Anglophone	12.3	4.4	1.8	18.2
Lusophone	6.2	2.9	13.4	37.6
Sub-Saharan Africa	11.1	4.7	3.5	17.2

Between 2003 and September 2006 most departments in the University of Asmara were closing down with no more students and very few staff. For example, the Marine sciences department had only a laboratory technician and a graduate assistant. The research facility of the Marine sciences department in Massawa was taken over by the security agents of the government. At a time when about 300 universities are operating in Sub-Saharan Africa, the minister of Education announced to the staff the closure of the only university in Eritrea, as from September 2006.

Following this announcement, the various departments of the university with their staff were moved: the Social Science and Arts to Adi Keyh, the Agriculture Department to Hamelmalo; the Business and Economics Department to Massawa; and the Natural Science Department to Mai Nefhi.

These colleges were established without proper planning and none of them have any international accreditation. As the Eritrean Ambassador in the USA explained at a public meeting on 29^th of October 2006, the government is indifferent as to whether these college have accreditation or not^[11]. The government’s sole concern is to establish colleges which will produce graduates loyal to the government. Hence, these colleges are administered by military personnel or members of PFDJ. An example of this is the Mai Nefi College, led by Colonel Ezira, The administration of the college is based on a military structure. Students are organized in military groups and guarded by military personnel. They are also not allowed to choose what subjects they can study.

It is sad to see the decline of education which had a reasonably good standard in the 1960s and 1970s. In those days education in Eritrea was far in advance of the Ethiopian system, which had been ranked bottom among African nations at the Conference of African States on the Development of Education, in May 1961^[12]. Eritreans, by their success in the Ethiopian School Leaving Certificate Examination (E.S.L.C.E) were among the main sources of students for the university in Ethiopia. Erlich ^[13], who was a lecturer at the University of Addis Ababa, in the early 1970s, observed that the proportion of Eritreans at this University was higher than for Ethiopians.

However, for three decades (from 1960 to 1990), Eritrea has experienced a brain drain due to Ethiopian political oppression. As can be seen from the fig 1 below 45 % of emigrants from Eritrea had university education.

Fig 1. The share of tertiary educated emigration flows for selected countries

The above chart shows the share of tertiary-educated emigrants within total migration flows for selected countries( Gambia, Somalia, Mauritius, Eritrea, Ghana, Mozambique, Sierra Leone and Liberia)^[9].

Today, the situation continues to deteriorate. With the increasing harassment of intellectuals, the brain-drain has doubled. As a result, Eritrea’s educated will in 10 years number below that in the 1960s and 1970s.

Despite the one time the ambition to make Eritrea a knowledge-based economy in 10 years, Eritrean society is now much more likely to have an acute shortage of professionals and para-professionals . These facts could be seen from Eritrea Profile headline of November 1^st 2006^[14][p4], which states that the Ministry of Health has produced 47 nurse assistants over an 18-month period, despite having one of the highest maternal mortality rates in the world of approximately 1,000 deaths/100,000 births^[15]. On the other hand, Eritrea is the country which has the highest prison population in the world. 500 members of the Eritrean Police Force were trained in three months^[16], yet the country produced fewer than 100 skilled people 10, 000 school leavers are sent every year to the army after failing to pass the examination at the Sawa School.

The younger generation is restricted to road construction, dam and house building, and to military service. In this way forced labour is dressed up as national rehabilitation and development. The government has opted for this instead of laying the foundation for developing labour skills and a knowledge-based economy.

Although the Eritrean government closed down the University of Asmara under the pretext that it was undergoing a transitional period, no one could deny the contribution of tertiary education to developing the nation’s intellectual and creative powers, especially in GDP terms. For example, in Australia tertiary education contributes more than 4 billion US dollars annually to GDP, surpassing the earning of the country’s main agricultural products, wool and wheat^[9].

The desperate situation calls on Eritreans abroad especially those who benefited from education at the University of Asmara graduates, to campaign against this government’s hostility to education which is an integral part of its effort to consolidate its dictatorship. The early beneficiaries of the UoA or Eritreans in academic institutions in Ethiopia in the 50’s to 90’s, the new graduates of UoA 90’s to 00’s and Eritrean intellectuals in general will be judged harshly by history if they do not speak up. Pre-independence Eritrean higher education graduates supported for Eritrean interests and educational rights in Addis Ababa University and in other colleges in Ethiopia, now it is time to reassert those principles.