MEKELLE, TIGRAY (WEGAHTA) — Thousands of students in Tigray region are preparing to sit for the national Grade 12 leaving examination this week, after a delay in the arrival of examination papers sparked a dispute between the regional authorities and the federal government.
Students taking the paper-based version of the 2018 E.C. national examination began arriving at campuses of Mekelle and Axum University on Monday and are expected to complete registration and orientation by Tuesday. The examination is scheduled to take place from July 29 to 31.
The paper-based test was originally scheduled to be administered earlier this month, but students in Tigray were unable to take it after the examination papers failed to arrive in the region as scheduled.
The delay drew strong criticism from Tigray authorities, who questioned why the region’s students had been left out of the original examination schedule.
“There is no tangible reason preventing the examination from being administered in Tigray,” Dr. Kiros Guesh, head of the Tigray Education Bureau, said during a press briefing.
Kiros said the regional administration had formally written to federal authorities seeking a resolution but had not received an official response. He also criticized the delay as politically motivated, according to reports of the briefing.
The regional authorities described the exclusion of the 15,349 students assigned to the paper-based examination as “unjustified” and called on the Federal Ministry of Education to implement the examination according to the original nationwide arrangements.
The Tigray Education Bureau announced that it would prepare and administer its own examination. Regional authorities said the alternative examination would allow students to move forward rather than remain in uncertainty over the federal test. They also said Tigray would establish its own university admission cut-off scores, potentially creating a separate pathway for students in the region to enter higher education.
The federal government rejected the proposal, saying the Grade 12 national examination is a federal responsibility. Federal authorities said an examination administered independently by the regional government would not be recognized for national university admission.
The federal government subsequently rescheduled the paper-based examination in Tigray for July 29-31, allowing the students to sit for the national test rather than a separate regional examination.
The delay has carried particular weight in Tigray, where an entire generation of students has already experienced major disruptions to their education because of the 2020-2022 war.
Schools across Tigray were closed for extended periods during the conflict, while many were damaged or destroyed. When education resumed, students faced the difficult task of returning to classrooms after years away and catching up on missed lessons.
For students now preparing for the Grade 12 examination, the latest disruption came at a critical point in their education. The prospect of another prolonged delay raised concerns among students and families that they could once again be forced to wait to advance to university, potentially losing another academic year after already losing years of schooling to war.
The Grade 12 examination is the main gateway to university education in Ethiopia, making the timing and recognition of the test particularly important for students hoping to continue their studies.
The dispute over the examination also reflects broader tensions between Tigray’s regional authorities and the federal government, nearly four years after the November 2022 peace agreement ended the war in the region.
For the students arriving at Mekelle University this week, however, the immediate uncertainty has eased. After years of disrupted schooling and weeks of waiting for the examination papers to arrive, they are now preparing to sit for the national examination and take the next step toward higher education.
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