Learn or Stagnate? Lesson from Ethiopia

With a decreasing agricultural land per holder, the potential of the agricultural sector to support the youth is not promising. If not proactively managed, the youth would not find employment opportunities, and jobless youth could be unused potential and a source of social unrest. With the right policy, however, the youthful population could be an asset. The Incheon Declaration has underpinned that spending on education is important, for implementing SDG4 and it is recommended to spend 4 to 6 percent of GDP or 15 to 20 percent of total government expenditure on education. Ethiopia improved its expenditure on education and reached 24 percent of total government expenditure in 2018 up from 14 percent in 1994 although decreased in recent years. Its been spending about 4 percent of GDP on Education since 2005. As a result, access to education has improved although anecdotal evidence suggests the impact on development has fallen short of expectation. Generally human capital is essential for economic growth and poverty reduction. However, Ethiopia has a shortage of skilled and semi-skilled labor. This is due to a number of factors, including low school enrollment rates and high dropout rates due to low education budget.