Tabor Society
Heidelberg

Church-schools and school-types
of the Orthodox Church of Ethiopia.

The Orthodox Church of Ethiopia possess an unique system of church-schools. These church-schools are very often connected with monasteries and assure that the whole knowledge of this old oriental church is conserved and handed down to succeeding generations. Since the 4th century when Christianity became firmly established in Ethiopia the religion shaped to a high degree the culture of this country. The system of church-schools which one finds today dates back to about the 16th century.
The total time for education in church-schools amounts to about 30 years. The curriculum is communicated only orally to the students, the method of teaching is almost exclusively based by memorizing. The aim of this training is to preserve the tradition, which can only be achieved by memorizing the curriculum without the slightest change. Books are used very rarely, as in Nebab Bet to learn reading.
The subjects are taught in the languages Ge'ez and Amharic.
The teachers are not paid for their teaching; they either live from the crops of their fields, from writing for other persons or they are sustained by their parish. The students are known as Tamari - “ beggar students”. They leave their parents at a young age, move to the church-school and beg for their daily meals within the neighbourhood of the school. They live in self-built Tukuls, which are huts made out of straw. After finishing one school-type they obtain a certificate and move on to another higher school.

Types of Church-Schools

Photo 1: Beermann