Apartheid against Eritrean Professors in the Eritrean school system
By Fetsum Abraham In my last article, I discussed our sad and dangerous academic situation vis-à-vis all other Africans and specifically those in the East. You will find information about any university in the continent when you
By Fetsum Abraham
In my last article, I discussed our sad and dangerous academic situation vis-à-vis all other Africans and specifically those in the East.
You will find information about any university in the continent when you surf the Net but the following is what you will most probably see when you do it on Eritrea:
“Eritrea Universities and Colleges
There are no subcategories or links to display.
Experience: I grew up fascinated about the academic capacity of Eritreans that once dominated Addis Ababa University and used to wonder what the people academically can do after independence under the EPLF. Unfortunately, not only did the tortoise stop walking forward but it has been moon-walking backwards specially after 2003. As a Math teacher from Electrical Engineering background, I sometimes used to talk to new Eritrean refugees about school in restaurants and tend to test them on the most basic geometry called PYTHEAGORUS THEOREM, which is probably an 8th grade level Geometry in the US. To my resentment, I found the few kids that claim to have had high school education in Eritrea incapable of dealing with it: This was piece of cake for high school educated Eritreans back in the days.
Dr. Sara asks; ‘where would a college professor in the so called Eritrean colleges start to teach a student that comes there with extremely poor high school background? What do you do in English with one coming there without the knowledge of writing his/her name correctly and how much his GPA was?’
My question: Where do you start helping an Eritrean high school graduate in Math when the poor student cannot use PYTHEAGORUS THEOREM to tell the distance of a hypotenuse in a right angled triangle?
In so far as my grasp about the Eritrean education is concerned all the movements of UOA (University of Asmara) academic colleges out of Asmara were so disorganized to the point of disgust (Dr. Sara’s testimony). No one knew what should go where in the scattered colleges with extremely poor infrastructures to be considered schools. It was simply a chaos: the move was certainly not to promote higher education in Eritrea and teaching the kids to be constructive citizens of the societybut to accentuate a centralized government control for molding them towards unconditional obedience.
Dr. Sara said that the president is not the only cause of the problem but the system itself is. I fully agree: how can he do it without the opportunists who sold their individual freedom for personal advantages like Yemane Gebreab, Yemane Charlie (his advisor and, a person responsible for all the operations and all decision concerning all colleges) and the consecutive education ministers of the country immaterial who the current one may be?
Monkey indoctrinates Afwerkism, Charlie is a subtle worm that keeps on slaving unconditionally, and the minister/s of Education precisely knew what has been going on to the point.
The condition of women in the so called colleges (madabimada)
Dr. Sara testified that women are very few in number for seemingly symbolic image. She had a hard time expressing the condition of female students and employees in the so called colleges. She was emotional at times putting it as “very sad” when she tried to tell us that they don’t even have assistance (no offices to go for consultation): pregnant teachers work to the limit and transport back and forth from their homes till the last few days into giving birth. There is no leave of absence for them to secure their health and that of their babies. “You see them exhausted madabimada with sympathy from distance and helplessly live with it.”
I am not sure but I think I heard her say that there may be two or three Eritrean women professors left in the country where there is literally no higher education for students.
Apartheid against the native professors in UOA
It is crystal clear that Eritrea has been hell for us Eritreans and livable for foreigners because they have no obligation to meet the state requirements for citizenship (SAWA, etc). Ethiopians are more comfortable or in a better position there for example because they do not lose their kids for SAWA like the Eritreans. They conduct businesses normally while the remaining older Eritreans live in fear and extreme pressure from their government because of the networking nature of the 2% tax which now extends to abusing the rights of citizens with brothers, sisters or kids in the Diaspora.
Getting rid of the Diaspora through the 2% tax complications and enslaving the people through SAWA entrapment has made Eritrea the most difficult place for Eritreans to repatriate or live and one of the results is the staggering refugee crisis at hand. Can one conclude that Eritrea exercises apartheid against its people from this reality? Your answer is as good as mine would be.
The question is how the government treats educated Eritreans vis-à-vis foreigners for the same qualification and performance.
Discriminating educated Eritreans on the onset of liberation
EPLF was anti educated Eritreans in practice but had no capacity to avoid them during the struggle for independence. There are clear facts, however, that the creams of the society used to be bossed by unqualified and uneducated members of the struggle on purpose.
There were more than 25 overworked Medical Doctors directly serving the struggle as EPLF fighters but the president did not appreciate their outstanding collective effort after independence: he rather made it impossible for them to help the country like they did during the struggle.
Memory says that Sebhat Efrem was named the Minister of Health and the Chief of Stuff immediately after the Eritrean government was put to place after independence. Appointing the college dropout soldier for the Ministry of health position bypassing the qualified Doctors who equally served the struggle was nothing but an insult to the professionals and the society at large. Most of them left Eritrea at the end, Doctor Desbele, the head of the Eritrean Lens factory since the days of the struggle being the last to defect in Australia recently. Our country apparently has an inferior medical infrastructure today compared to the days of the struggle.
The government’s phobia against educated people is an all dimensional assault that expands to all fields of education.
Eritrea uses three methods of dehumanizing its intellectuals. The first is humiliation like what it did to the medical doctors in appointing Sebhat Erfrem for the health Minister of the country close to two decades ago. The second is intimidation like what Dr. Sara testified on the constant surveillance of the college communities through security personnel (sometimes referred to as Abalat) watching classes from outside through glass windows or through direct presence in the classes. The third is of course, by putting extraordinary economic pressure on them and openly discriminating them in relation to foreign teachers in the country.
On Quality of education in Eritrea (from the TESHAMO forum)
Q: How do you academically compare SAWA produced college students VS traditionally produced students from regular high school background?
A: There is no comparison between the two. The traditionally crafted college students used to be in hundreds in contrast to the SAWA produced morally hurt ones that number in single digits; yet incapable of handling the academic requirements of their cosmetic composure of education. She said the situation is still getting worse because “she had never seen a normal classroom arrangement for education” after UoA. The so called cream of society (best students) had a problem writing in English and neither could most of them individually answer similarly to the same question, meaning that they write something and give back the work load just to stay around.
Q: What are the students with degrees that we see in the media then?
A: The Professor answered this question realistically saying that the whole thing is confusing. The graduates with degrees have no educational substance of the claimed status. She said some students graduate faster than the ones who enroll in the so called colleges by passing the entrance exam. How can this be? She asked. In most cases kids with powerful relatives in the government graduate or pass their courses because of pressure from above on the teachers and arbitrary interference. She said that there are no legitimate graduates from those colleges in Eritrea and what we see in the media is targeted for nothing more than public consumption. Nevertheless, the students who fail the national exam go for some kinds of training in SAWA.
Eritrean style of recruiting foreign College Teachers
After a clue from Dr. Sara in TESHAMO, I went on researching and found few people who know a lot about the history of Eritrean higher education under this government. Here is the information:
“The recruitment of teachers is done this way.- staff from a ministry of education and the deans of colleges/ camps go to India and Pakistan and recruit teachers. A corrupt recruitment organization forwards the candidates to the staff and the deans recruit whoever they want. The candidates are not asked to pass IELTS (International English language test) as some countries like Ethiopian and Libya require it.”
Bribe in the management of this project (corruption)
“The Indians have said that they pay their recruiters. When they are in Eritrea they give gift to the deans. So if anyone complains about their work, it falls on deaf ears. Once they are in Eritrea there is no way their academic performance is evaluated or supervised. These foreigners go to an extent of hinting exam questions to their students, irresponsible invigilation during exams, to inflated grades”, says an internal source.
Discrimination between Eritrean and foreign college teachers
Professor Sara testified that; ‘During the “disorganized” movement of AU (UoA) departments/colleges out of Asmara, the foreign teachers were much better treated than the Eritrean professors. The buses had to serve them first at the expense of the native teachers that were served at secondary level of the arrangement. Until recently graduate assistants were not allowed to use the buses to and from Mai Nefhi at all. These young graduates are on national services salary and cannot afford bus fares. Doesn’t this remind you the Rosa Parks episode during the civil rights movement in segregated America that changed the face of the country once and for all the condition of native blacks in Apartheid South Africa?
On salary difference
The Professor said that, ““The salary of an Indian PhD (or one with a doggy credentials) rates between $1600-2400 and an Eritrean PhD, one who is not on national service rates 5300-5500 Nakfa gross and 4000 Nakfa net, meaning that the Eritrean salary becomes $100 at the rate of $1-40 Nakfa.
On top of this the [foreigners] have 5000 Nakfa housing allowance, meaning that a [foreigner’s] allowance is equivalent to the salary of an Eritrean professor.”
The rate of economic Apartheid here should then mathematically be 1600-2400% against the Eritreans.
Q: would you then conclude that Eritrea practices South African style Apartheid or American style racial discrimination against colored people against its people on the question of treating its domestic and foreign professors?
A: The Professor affirmatively responded to the question in my recollection, though I stand ready to be corrected.
Academic freedom and CONTROL
DR. Sara further said that social science oriented research is highly discouraged in the fake institutions that they call colleges. To worsen it, the government controls the movement of the native teachers at the presidential office level of the relationship; meaning that the office stays aware of their movements all the time. A professor that quits the job without an approved letter of resignation cannot work in other sectors (NGOs, etc) and can neither leave the country legally. This person looses the right of movement and employment in one’s country for just quitting a job without permission. One young man was pulled out of one of the UN offices because he did not have ‘the’ letter.
The Orota College of pharmacy employs “Cubans and Indians instead of Eritreans” who are meticulously conditioned to get lost out the academic scene. There were native teachers in Law department who left that college after getting tired of sitting idle for 3-4 years without students (no enrolment). The system demoralizes Eritrean scholars to stay away so that it can effectuate its policy of IGNORANCE without any challenge. In short, the colleges in Orota, Mai Nefhi and Adikeih teach junior high school level English to the very few students declared to have passed the entrance exam: One can expect the same to other departments.
The Professor’s assessment of the Diaspora in the resistance
Excuse the napping Eritrean intellectuals that are still indirectly helping the regime through fear or opportunism induced quietism (my conclusion), but the youth is energetic and willing to do something except that it has no direction and does not know how to navigate the direct call of our people for freedom. The youth “lacks the ability to communicate in a professional and strategically civilized manner”. It has the tendency to pollute common responsibilities by injecting personal grudges. The youth does not “tolerate each other” because it does not understand the concept of democracy. She said the Eritrean problem was “simple to solve through unity” but in vain because of the rigid and obstinate culture of the citizens in the resistance. She said that the youth has so far failed to initiate any practical motion towards unifying our forces scattered all over the world, says the Professor and affirmatively suggested that there is “help available from the very few intellectuals in the resistance including herself that can change the mentality of the youth democratically” but there is no drive to utilize this potential because of power struggle and lack of focus (my opinion included) needless to say that no one can twist the hands of the dormant intellectual brains into assisting the resistance except personal interest.
Facts-ain't-Pretenders! July 2, 2013
Analyzing, assessment, etc is all good but to even start plan, analyze, establish, institute an education, you gotta have the meadow to erect a school.
And that is the problem. You have neither a meadow nor time & space. What the reality dictates and telling us is that Tragedy & rescue me is what we only have.
what we don’t have a skull to get it!
From the get-go, if my people’s basis was Humanity instead of “Eritreanism”, the monster would not have toyed with one Eritrean after the other. I can never get that brave Eritrean lady off my mind the lady in 1993 who chllenged Isaias Afewerki. If every Eritrean was as rudley awakend as her even as late as June 2000, after PFDJ’s total crush and kneeling to sign peace, Eritrea and our people would have been guided out of this magnitude of tragedy.
But it never occured to me that we are the cruelest creatures on earth! never!
Mereb July 2, 2013
After Isaias freshman Xmas graduation (aka expulsion) from HaileSellasie University, his mantra was to dis-educate the whole country and produce zombies that will follow him to oblivion. Where else can you have a medical school dean where his highest accomplishment was a community college instructor of science. No pun intended but don’t we need a true physician who did both administrative,and academic work to lead a med school. THe Eritrean education system got worse under PFDJ but it was bad during Dergue era too. I use to meet people who had inferior education than during Haile Sellasie time. Not that Haile Sellasie was a saint but at least he was not the Dergue and the Dergue was much better than the mafia of Asmara.
MightyEmbasoyra July 2, 2013
Good article!
Since much said about the problems we have, how about someone else (means all) work on the solution. In the engineering world, there is this process called Failure Analysis. To identify the issue and its solution, you need to provide 8D report. For those of you who are not familiar with it, these are the standard steps and it may help us for our current problems.
1D: Team Formation
2D: Problem Description
3D: Interim Containment Actions
4D: Root Cause Analysis
5D: Corrective Actions
6D: Verification of Corrective Actions
7D: Preventive Actions
8D: Team and individual recognition
Just my two cents!
fetsum abraham July 3, 2013
Moghty;
we have written the solution out right that does not need any philosophy my dear.so many times and eritreans are still looking for a solution that they have at hand which is unity. Eritreans to me are very strange people who run away from solutions through different excuses. what u have to do is unite. how hard is this?
MightyEmbasoyra July 3, 2013
Ato Fetsum,
I might have missed those articles then.
Yes, Unity is the main item but you have to have also a plan, otherwise we may end up having one like Isayas, all over again.
I would say, the main gating item not to be united is ignorance. I hate saying that but the people I have mate that who grew up in Addis or Khartoum or in any other capital cities are more open mind than Eritreans who grew up in Eritrea – this is of just course my observation.
fetsum abraham July 3, 2013
Mighty,
the plan has been practiced in diffrent places of the world in our situation. a plan could have easily been put to practice has the Eritrean oposition forces agreed to do it together. But they are so selfish and backward in terms of democracy they could not do it yet. no Eritrean is so far in a group requesting unity, that is the problem with us. they are rather obsessed with demonstrations and candle lighting ceremonies instead of getting to the point
There is something wrong with the culture brother
MightyEmbasoyra July 3, 2013
+1 on that, Ato fetsum!
Genet July 3, 2013
Mighty
Your observation is correct. Most people become more open minded to ideas because of experience and exposure to different cultures and way of living. Eritrean people in Eritrea have been pushed around and abused by many occupations. Even, after our freedom from Ethiopia, They are in the worst situation than ever. TO be open minded to new ideas, you have to be comfortable and confident about yourself. If you are not exposed to other ideas, the chance to be overconfident, passive aggressive or down right hostile is high. Some Eritreans who grew up in Eritrea tend to be comfortable with only people who they can relate. For Example, if they are from Asmera city, they tend to be hostile toward Eritreans from small towns and the country sides. Other issues like the distance between once’s town and Asmara is a factor. Short proximity to Asmara is greatly valued. True, this kind of behavior is common in the world. But in Eritrea, it is extream and leads to communication breakdwon.
Genet
MightyEmbasoyra July 3, 2013
I hear you, Genet!
Unfortunately, it is true.
belay nega July 3, 2013
Fetsum
Whatever you mentioned may be is exaggerated but the problem is there.But what makes me wonder is that you always ignore the heat coming from DC and ADDIS to melt this poor nation.
A gov who is challenged between to be or not to be a country, deserve praise.
For your information Eritrea had a lot of intellectuals like :
-HAILE DURU
-PETROS SOLOMUN
-SEBHAT EFREM……..etc
but all what they did was to blame HAILESSELASSI and eventually MENGUSTU for ruining everything in Eritrea including our schools.I wish their outstanding brain saw the consequence of their intention.
With all due respect, is there anyway you can expose the cause of all this mess Ethiopia instead of blaming victims like you?
fetsum abraham July 3, 2013
Belay.
I don’t know about u but I as an Eritrean is a victim of the Eritrean government.
Kuiper Belt July 3, 2013
Dear Belay,
Please allow Fitsum to tell his people what is happening in Eritrea, specially to education in Eritrea, through a system of breaking down which is created by Issaias and his companions. Ethiopia has nothing to do with dismantlement of the education system which needed un upgrade not downgrade by the present regime called PFDJ.
belay nega July 4, 2013
Dear Kuiper Belt
“Please allow Fitsum to tell his people what is happening in Eritrea”
The problem of our country is crystal clear to everybody,even my late parents who passed away before independence are aware of it.But the problem with FITSUM is he is fond of telling the consequence without acknowledging the cause.
Born and brought up in Ethiopia either he doesn’t know the psychological make up of Ethiopians,or he is overlooking it to achieve his narrow objective.
Ethiopians knew once they made us touch MANO [the war of 1998]everything will go according their plan.Therefore we like it or not whatever is going on in our country is part and parcel of Ethiopian agenda
fetsum abraham July 3, 2013
belay;
ethiopia has nothing to do with the destruction of education in eritrea and its lawlessness, we created it ourselves. They inherited us UoA intact and we destroyed it. Brother, we have been going back and forth for so long for our interaction to get to a point. U can not defend the undefendable any more after so much mess in ur face man. Where are the intelligent people u mensioned and why don’t u defend the injustice against them instead of creating excuses for the beast who took them away without due trial?
belay nega July 3, 2013
Fetsum
” Where are the intelligent people u mensioned and why don’t u defend the injustice against them instead of creating excuses for the beast who took them away without due trial?”
They are victims of their own policy,they could have arranged an EXIT in case of emergency instead of taking themselves as divine leaders.
“ethiopia has nothing to do with the destruction of education in eritrea and its lawlessness,”
A person who is affected by HIV, if for the sake of pride tells that he/she is suffering from malaria, is only cheating him/herself.
ahmed saleh July 3, 2013
Poor belay
You never change after all these back and forth arguments with various commentators .
belay nega July 3, 2013
ahmed saleh
The democracy you fighting for should be based on convincing or being convinced.
fetsum abrahamt July 3, 2013
Belay;
I feel sorry for u. a typical die hard Eritrean who keeps going on and on with no solution and reason except the “victim”theory that exists in your hallucination. How can u make Ethiopia and the Us responsible for our own failure? Are u permanently damaged to remain afraid of the external forces believing that the Eritrean independence is reversible? Why do want to be Eritrean if u think the country won’t exist in the future? I would have chosen being Ethiopian had your paranoia been acceptable.I just hope you are on the pay role of the government at least to benefit from your absurd position on Eritrea. If not, I feel sorry for u
belay nega July 4, 2013
Fetsum
As far as you keep on talking about the consequence,it is natural for me to recognize the victim.Finding the cause of a problem is half way solution,and this can be done if we look at the issue from Eritrean point of view.For me Eritrea means including ASSAB and GASH BARKA.
I will never dream to be Ethiopian after effectively in 1975 and officially in 1993 choose to be Eritrean.And as for the pay role, Eritrean gov is too poor to pay, for an ordinary commentator like me.Because you are protected with high trench and you are the sole shooter do not feel too big.
seliho July 3, 2013
belay
the hired mouth piece with stinking ignorance. what do u want say ?
belay nega July 3, 2013
seliho
All what I am trying to tell you is,Ethiopians look at our identity from a FAKE IDENTITY point of view.So do not cheat and let cached by surprise our people as ever, by diverting the source of all this mess.
fetsum abrahamt July 3, 2013
Belay;
Who cares about Ethiopia? Why are u bringing this topic when u know that we have a representative of AU in Addis Ababa like any other African country? Why do u want to give the impression that Isaias is the only one that kept our sovereinity intact when in fact the international community is (UN, EU, AU, The Arab League, etc). We have African embassies in Eritrea but u are just fabricating illegitimate fear to stick with ur destructive boss in Asmara. Please try to get some money from them for ur impossible to understand political position that never changes for ever. I am sure u will continue sticking with your “victimization” theory for every failure in Eritrea because I think you are in love with the terminology and you think it makes you look like a man of wisdom. Get out of ur fixation to look at things independent of of your Gods in Asmara.
belay nega July 4, 2013
Fetsum
Unfortunetly for you Eritrea is one part of the nation,and Eritreans are those who come from that particular area.To this end you look at the president for where he comes from and you are ready to compromise with anybody who hates him.
After the Eritrean representative in EGAD was disgracefully pushed away from a meeting,after the Eritrean embassies were invaded no hosting nation reacted,after three Eritrean community were burned no action is being taking by the Sweden gov…etc you telling me the world recognize you? Shame on you.
If you are concerned about Eritrea why don’t you challenge those who are telling you that YOUR IDENTITY IS FAKE instead of giving name to the president who made you to be ERITRAWI?
“Get out of ur fixation to look at things independent of of your Gods in Asmara.”
In Asmera there is a president whom I recognize for being usefully challenged to keep Eritrea as a country.Do not expect me to call you FUNNY HUT like Asmera3 but I can sense that you are confused between GOD and ALLAH,BIBLE and CORAN.
samuel July 3, 2013
Belay!
you are suffering from delusion, as we say it in Tigrigna proverb. “Bzemen Wube ztsmeme …”
Peace
belay nega July 4, 2013
samuel
“you are suffering from delusion, as we say it in Tigrigna proverb. “Bzemen Wube ztsmeme …””
I am better than you “BZEMEN AWATE ZTSMEME”
fetsum abrahamt July 3, 2013
Belay;
Are u telling us that Eritrea will never exist after Isaias or what? What are u going to do then after he passes away..commit suicide or become Ethiopian? What are you saying???????
belay nega July 5, 2013
“Belay;
Are u telling us that Eritrea will never exist after Isaias or what? What are u going to do then after he passes away..commit suicide or become Ethiopian? What are you saying???????”
I will ask a VISA to go to BARENTU
belay nega July 5, 2013
“Belay;
Are u telling us that Eritrea will never exist after Isaias or what? What are u going to do then after he passes away..commit suicide or become Ethiopian? What are you saying???????”
I will ask a VISA to go to BARENTU
Zaul July 3, 2013
I have learned a lot from you Fetsum and one of the commenters here Kalighe, he is sitting on a lot of knowledge. I would advice you to ask him to contribute articles and enrich our debate from a different point of view.
I would like to leave those who comment on this site frequently, just because we hate PFDJ with intensity will not bring them down, and just because we talk about uniting will not bring us together. To avoid candid debate on the things that are keeping us apart (in the opposition), is the biggest reason why we are not able to move forward.
I have discussed with Kalighe, exactly the way I see things. And he has given me his perpective. After all the discussions, I learned that I share his views on future Eritrea, less so on the past and why we are in this situation today, but that’s fine. “Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel uncomfortable around you”. If you want to move the debate forwad, tell us what you truly think. So you can be challenged and we can learn something new in the process. Mighty, just let it out Ham….
fetsum abrahamt July 3, 2013
Zaul;
U are one of the most productive contributors but i do not know Kalighe personally to tell him to do some writing here. feel free to contact me at fetsumraham@yahoo.com brother for anything that helps. Can u tell him to do that?
Tnx
fetsum abrahamt July 3, 2013
Zaul;
I wish u can clear the following
“I have discussed with Kalighe, exactly the way I see things. And he has given me his perpective. After all the discussions, I learned that I share his views on future Eritrea, less so on the past and why we are in this situation today, but that’s fine. “Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel uncomfortable around you”. If you want to move the debate forwad, tell us what you truly think. So you can be challenged and we can learn something new in the process. Mighty, just let it out “
Zaul July 4, 2013
Hi Fetsum,
Don’t worry about that, I’ll give your e-mail address to Kalighe.
MightyEmbasoyra July 3, 2013
Ato Fetsum and all,
I had to go back to the “unity” problem. So, why aren’t we united? What is it that making us scattered all over? I know I have mentioned ignorance is the issue but there are a lot of ignorant people (one can argue that they not be ignorant after all) around the world but leave peacefully.
Let’s get it out the reasons anyone think why we are not united? Then, we can think of solutions. This keep taking me to the 8D process, again and again.
Zaul July 4, 2013
You know,
This is the kind of ignorant stuff I’m talking about. You don’t have to skirt around it. I can clearly see from your writings that you are very proud of your Akelle. That’t fine with me. There are some slight cultural differences between Akelle and Hamassien and Seraye. In Hamassien people didn’t care so much about Province before. People cared about their village and the immidiate vicinity. That’s unfortunately changing nowadays. Everybody sitting in their corner being suspicious and scratching their wounds.
Entay zteqm qale’alem’yu?
MightyEmbasoyra July 4, 2013
I am not sure what kind of response I should provide you. Go back and read what I have written. Is there any inclination to any provinces. You got be kidding me. If I were from Akele, I would be as proud as I were from any other provinces. By the way, you are concentrating too much about my nick name than the contents.
If someone uses a nickname Mereb, is he from Seraye or Akele?
I have nothing else to say to you.