With the special focus the government gave to our country’s social sector, many works have been carried out for the past 26 years. Within these years, successes have been garnered by allocating huge budget to the sector. Especially the results that have been gained in the health and education sector should be mentioned and acknowledged.
These sectors have garnered huge growth during the first phase of the Growth and transformation plan GTP I. As the first phase of the plan is linked to the second phase of Growth and transformation plan GTP II, we will inevitably look into the first phase of the plan when we talk about the health and education sector.
As it is known, making our country’s health service accessible alone is not enough. It is possible to create competitive manpower by increasing its quality. Undertaking works around basic health prevention and control service that revolves on the public’s organized participation along with the support of health extension program will continue from the first plan. Especially making sure quality hospital service are provided for; improving the medicine supply service; ensuring the institutions that are strengthening themselves on the basis of the manpower and material standard will be worked upon during the duration of the plan years.
In addition to the effort that is being exerted to reduce the migration of health experts, works to train medical experts are being intensified in order to compensate for the migration. This act will help ameliorate the health sector from the current level it is at. In order to further strengthen and expand the role of the private sector in the health sector and make the service more quality and satisfying to everyone, works are being done by taking the lessons of other countries and by setting up the appropriate monitoring and control system.
The government is giving special support for specialized hospitals to be established. For this, we can mention the recently inaugurated Washington Hospital. As this kind of working involves the private sector to enable quality standard health service to the local people and citizens that come from overseas, it plays a huge role in strengthening our foreign currency reserve. In order to solve the problems the sector faces, the health insurance system will be fully implemented.
Side by side to the health, the national nutrition strategy that is prepared aiming to produce healthy and productive citizen is being given attention and implemented. As a result to this, works to ensure food security at household level, making maternal and infant care and health service accessible and creating healthy areas are being implemented.
Works are already underway to harmonize the post 2015 global and continental development goals with the country’s health sector goals. This will take quality basic health service access to 100%. As the GTP II information shows, we are working to reduce maternal mortality to 199/100000 by 2020, children under the age of five to 30/1000, and infant mortality rate to 19/1000. There is a plan to take family planning service to 55 % by 2020, there is a plan to take the birth control service coverage to 95% from 41% and works are already underway.
In general, by further maintaining the implementation of a health policy that is based on improving health service access and a nutrition strategy, there is a plan to take the health service coverage to 100% from 93%, and works are already underway. It is expected that this will take the country's age of expectancy from 64.6 years in 2015 to 69 years by 2020. Therefore, in order to achieve this mileage with the GTP II, the results gained during GTP I should be merged with this and strengthen it.
In the education sector as well, works are underway to facilitate the results and lessons achieved from GTP I with GTP II. In the second growth and transformation plan, works are underway to solve problems related to children and women participation in education. There is also effort being exerted to incorporate post 2015 international and continental goals that are in sync with our country's education goals.
In regards to education, the key issue is quality, but considering there are other issues related to access that needs focus, there are works being done to improve in that aspect. The first issue is expanding access to education. In this current year, there have been efforts to heavily increase this accessibility. In relation to this, attention is being given to pre-regular and elderly education. And works that aim to improve education quality and increase the quality of teachers and schools are continuing strongly.
Although it has been a year and half since the plan has started to be implemented, the government is working to improve education quality at every level by installing such program. As producing capable and well trained citizen is key for the economic growth and social development, the government is carrying out the work that would ensure quality higher education diligently. To this end, the government is encouraging the involvement of the private sector, while doing monitoring works – in public education institutions as well.
All in all, education quality cannot be ensured through government effort alone. Therefore, the public should be in the forefront in the effort to grow education quality. Up to now, the public is being allowed to put its own contribution in the effort to solve problems related to quality by involving the public in the teaching and learning process. If this continues in the remaining years of the plan, I think it is possible to bring meaningful change on education quality.
As put on the development plan, works are underway to increase pre-regular education participation from 43.2% in 2015 to 80% by 2020, primary education participation from 92% to 100%, difference in women and men participation to 1:1 in every level and special need primary education participation from 4.4 % to 15% within the same time frame. Similarly, work is underway to take up secondary education from 39.3% in 2015 to 74.2% by 2020, whilst various works are being done at the same time to reduce the difference that exists between rural and urban region when it comes to education participation, and to bring practice-oriented elder school participation rate to 95%.
Side by side to this, works to expand government, private sector and nongovernmental institutions in order to expand technical and vocational training is being implemented. To this end, works are being done to increase the number of such institutions from its current number 1,329 to 1,778 and with it have one such institution in every woredas of the country, with the trainee enrollment increasing from its current 408,838 to 598,729.
By adding eleven public universities, the regular undergraduate enrollment will be elevated to 600 thousand students, while works are continuing to hit the target of enrolling 63 thousand students in post graduated programs within the scheduled time frame. Basic works are being implemented to the participation of female students in undergraduate from 32% in 2015 to 45% by 2020, from 22% to 35% in postgraduate programs and from 11% to 20% in third degree programs within the same time frame. In general, the education and health goals of GTP II are being executed in this way. However, it is difficult to assess the situation in 18 month performance alone. Nevertheless, the things that have been done in this short period of time are indicator of what is to come. In this regard, I don't think it is in doubt that the goals that are put on the social sector of GTP II will be achieved. Thus, as any goal or plan will not be successful without the participation of the public, we should remind everyone that all of us should put our own contribution for the realization of the plan.