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/May
14, 2010/
Ethiopia has been prized Birr 1,326,000,000 (One
Billion and Three Hundred Twenty Six Million Birr) for its performance in
education and its drive to meet the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) set
for the sector.
This huge financial grant is allotted by the
Fast Track Initiative (FIT), a consortium of multi- lateral donor group
constituting of the World Bank, the United Kingdom, Finland, Italy and the
Netherlands.
According to Mr. Demeke Mekonnen, Minister of
Education, who held an extensive consultation with the Governing Board of
FIT in Washington DC, early this week, it was determined that Ethiopia has
anchored itself in a robust and an all- engulfing crescendo of achievements
both in the expansion of Education and in attaining a concomitant level of
performance in quality, capacity and skill as a standard bearer.
Mr. Demeke Mokonnen also reminisced that
Ethiopia had previously garnered a colossal sum of a kind, when it was
granted Birr 947,233,000 (Nine Hundred Forty Seven and Two Hundred Thirty
Three Million Birr) in 2007 from the same multi- lateral Pool Fund for
registering an upscale achievement in Education.
In a similar note Mr. Demeke Mokonen apprised
that his sojourn to the US has taken him to various universities, research
centers and hubs of educational excellence, which had opened varied vistas
for him to discuss in detail with members of the academia for the
enhancement and sustenance of a dynamic and vigorous mutual partnership in
the field of education.
Mr. Demeke Mekonnen has also met with
Ethiopians in the Diaspora in Connecticut, Upstate New York, New Jersey,
Maryland, Virginia and Washington D.C. wherein he held extensive
conversation delving on current issues in Ethiopia, the gigantic strides
made in the fair and expansive out-reach of education, the General Education
Quality Improvement Program, and the impressive results upheld in the
sector.
Mr. Demeke, impressed upon the Ethiopian
Diaspora the conducive climate obtaining in the country for engagement and
constructive effort on the part of the Diaspora professionals of all stripes
during the multi- faceted briefing sessions. Furthermore, the Minister
informed the members of the Ethiopian community of the commitment of the
Ethiopian people, the government and all contesting parties to make the May
23/2010 national and regional elections, fair, free, democratic, peaceful
and credible by all accounts. The Minister on his part entertained questions
from the audience by alluding to satisfactory explanations.
/Tsehaye Debalkew/ |
