Beyond Paper-Based Affiliate Status: Policy Analysis on Non-Formal Education and the Graduates in Ethiopian Higher Education Institutions

Abstract

Non-formal education is a form of education that creates access to education for adults in remote rural areas, people living with disabilities, prison inmates etc. to acquire knowledge, skill and attitude that would make them to be independent of their own. This paper aims to critically analyze the applicability of non-formal education in higher education institutions in Ethiopia. In doing so, the researchers employed qualitative research approach to analyze the existing national documents regarding non-formal education program in higher education institutions. This paper, accordingly, reveals that Ethiopian higher education institutions/ universities use necessarily the same educational policy and curriculum, both for formal and non-formal education programs. Their academic vacancies, however, unequivocally excluded the non-formal education program graduates from university lectureship competition. In other words, though the formal and non-formal education students graduated from the same institution, and learn by the same curriculum (harmonized one), by the same academic staff and evaluated through the same mode of assessment and grading system and pass through the same certification procedure, the later ones are ineligible to be lecturers in higher education institutions. In conclusion, there is educational inconsistency between policy and practice in Ethiopian higher education institutions. Accordingly, the researchers recommend that job vacancies in higher education institutions for lectureship should bases on the competence of the applicants.

Keywords: Educational policy, Higher Education Institution, Lectureship, Non-formal Education, Quality education

DOI: 10.7176/JEP/10-10-08

Publication date: April 30^th 2019