National Conference on “Quality Education in Ethiopia: The Missing Link between Theory and Practice”

Conducting educational, research and community based conferences is becoming the culture of Ethiopian Universities in general and Wollega University in particular. With this regard, Wollega University organized a National Conference on “Quality Education in Ethiopia: The Missing Link between Theory and Practice” on 23-24 March 2017 at Wollega University Main campus. His Excellency Mr.Moges Ede’e, East Wollega Zone Administrator, made opening remarks emphasizing that currently the Ethiopian government recognizes the importance of quality education at all levels for national development. He further stated that so as to ensure this objective, our educational content must be harmonized with the countries economic in line with the vision of the nation. Prof.Abiy Yigzaw, Bahir Dar University, and Dr.Firdisa Jebesa, Addis Ababa University made keynote speech.

Different researchers and professionals of diverse field have participated on the conference through “Call for Papers” made by the office of university Research and Technology Transfer.  Thirty papers were selected out of seventy abstracts that were submitted during the call for papers. During the Conference, issues related to professional development programs, implementation of instructional supervision, efficiency of practical—based education, primary school absenteeism, effective student’s learning, accords and discords between English language teachers and students perception, new modular learning-teaching approach, behavioral intervention for pre-school children, EFL teacher’s productive skills errors, effect of cooperative learning on students’ and practices and challenges of counseling service and status and implementation of active learning were presented and discussed. They all are directly and/or indirectly addressed the current status of the quality of education in Ethiopian schools and institutes.

Earlier Dr.Eba Mijena, President, Wollega University welcomed the honorable guests, presenters and participants. He basically stressed the very importance of professional obligations in improving quality of education at all levels through sharing their research outputs, discussions and publications made out of rigorous research endeavors. 

Community service has become a culture and habit for some professionals and students in Wollega University. We are now proving that we can influence the community and bring practical changes. We want to share what the Public Administration instructor (Dr Kannan Ambalam) in Wollega University has done with his Master of Public Administration (MPA) students and the local community at Demeksa Kebele. The course taught by this instructor is named Development Administration. He related the course with the practical problem he observed in Demeksa Kebele. People have been suffering from the lack of bridge and pure drinking water for centuries. The instructor, mobilizing his students and the local community, constructed two bridges and one water spring as part of his course. What does this teach us? We could say many things for the programs we are running in the University. We have 97 programs at the moment. We learnt that if the 97 programs relate at least one course to the practical problem of the community, we can really bring dramatic change very soon. 

The inaugural ceremony of this water spring was organized at Damaksa Kebele of Digga woreda on 14 March 2017 (Tuesday) in the presence of the University administration, the local community, students and kebele leaders. The spring will benefit nearly 100 households, both from Damaksa Kebele and the nearby areas. Besides it will be useful for the School, Church, Farmers Training Centre and Health Post.